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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

From a Diary #2

April 18, 2020 by Jan Herman

Heavy snow took down the internet, which came back up just now . . . will the power lines go down ? . . . the snow is still falling . . . fingers crossed . . . beautiful to look at though, and the two grandkids will go sledding . . .

From the kitchen window (April 18, 2020)

I hear from a friend in Berlin that the sun is out there . . . and so are the sun worshippers . . . plenty of ambulance sirens too . . . no sun here, much less worshippers . . . as to sirens, I haven’t heard one in four weeks . . . glad of that . . . even in normal times they were a regular sound track back in the city . . .

Wife and I are doing fine . . . putting in daily walks that come to three or so miles on the iPhone pedometer . . . up and down hills at a brisk pace . . . as brisk as I can make it . . . the countryside changes from steep woods to rolling hayfields . . . nice to see all that . . . and smell it . . . damn cold out . . . so no lyme’s disease ticks yet . . . and I’m down to my college weight . . . have taken off 10 pounds since getting here . . .

Just started reading The Lost Girl by D.H. Lawrence . . . never really went for him . . . but this thing swings . . . zipped thru the first chapter of 25 pp like I was surfing . . . now 50 pages in . . . apparently he wrote it to be commercial . . . maybe that’s why it zips . . . takes a sociological view of the setting (Nottinghamshire and environs) and portrays the characters in a tone that’s both ironic— he has a scathing eye—and detail-rich, fleshed out so you feel he knows inside out what he’s talking about . . . hope the thing keeps up its promise . . . so far am v. impressed. 

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Filed Under: books, Literature, main, News, political culture

Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
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Several books of poems have been published in recent years by Moloko Print, Statdlichter Presse, Phantom Outlaw Editions, and Cold Turkey … [Read More...]

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The agenda is just what it says: news of arts, media & culture delivered with attitude. Or as Rock Hudson once said in a movie: "Man is the only … [Read More...]

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