The question is no doubt as old as artistic expression. Imagine a viewer of the first paleolithic paintings in the Great Hall of the Bulls in the Cave of Lascaux: Well, of course Zog is brilliant, but have you seen how he drags his mate around by her hair? It's hard to see how such a rotten guy can make those beautiful pictures. Can you hate Wagner's Teutonic superman beliefs and love "Siegfried Idyll," abhor Ezra Pound's fascist propaganda and admire The Cantos, be appalled by Stan Getz's … [Read more...]

Back home after a warm, sunny nine-day Christmas visit with our son at his house on a Southern California beach, I cleared a path through the snow to reach the house. We rested a day, then piled into the car. Today, we drove south, crossed the mighty Columbia River, rendezvoused for lunch in Oregon with a cousin I hadn't seen in twenty years, then drove the hundred miles back. It was all terrific, but that's enough travel for a while, thank you. I am making my way through the accumlated … [Read more...]