A splash of public art has recently appeared in unexpected places in downtown West Palm Beach’s Clematis Street District. Thanks to support from the Downtown Development Authority and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, six formerly graffiti-laden metal electric utility boxes have received an art makeover as part of the city’s Art in Public Places initiative. The six … [Read more...]
Sundays: The United States of Snoop
By Myles Ludwig Your life is just a click away, just a click away: “Every breath you take/Every move you make/Every bond you break/Every step you take/I'll be watching you/Every word you say/Every single day … I’ll be watching you.” Sting was prophetic. Even Paul McCartney knew what was going on: “She came in through the bathroom window … Didn’t anybody tell her? / Didn’t … [Read more...]
Sundays: The tyranny of opinion
By Myles Ludwig The another night at a casual and lively dinner party with friends and family, hot dogs and hamburgers, amid the conversations about the relative merits of TV shows, streaming or live, cable or satellite, cord or no cord, a friend turned to me and asked: What is your opinion of Bashar Assad? I was surprised to hear myself say: “I have no opinion.” It’s not … [Read more...]
Sundays: The only thing we can save
By Myles Ludwig Watching the Oklahoma tornado victims sifting through the debris of their lives night after night, newscast after newscast, is heartbreaking, of course. Each stick and splinter, each broken toy, each chair leg or slice of dining table, each refrigerator is a signifier of a piece of a once-treasured past now lost, a piece of heart torn away by the present. … [Read more...]
Sundays: Standing in the corner with Kafka
By Myles Ludwig I’m not surprised that Franz Kafka woke up one morning and imagined he was some kind of giant beetle. He needed someone to talk to. A writer’s life is a lonely life, particularly a writer who makes fiction or poetry. There you are with a world in your head, struggling with near impossibility of describing it perfectly, not only to yourself, but to someone … [Read more...]
Sundays: Big Media and the Case of the Missing W
By Myles Ludwig Since mid-April to today, Big Media has submerged us in a swamp of the sensational and salacious, holding our heads down in one hot mess after another. We can barely come up for a breath before another epic wave knocks us over again: Boston bombers; Jodi Arias; the Cleveland 3.1; the Bangladeshi building collapse (bad news for WalMart Nation); military rape; … [Read more...]
Sundays: Entering the Age of Age
By Myles Ludwig Need a new set of knees, a barely used stent to widen that two-lane blacktop to your heart into a six-lane turnpike complete with HOV lane, a turbo-charger for your conservative Golden Companion, or hot Pride Pursuit XL4 ATR scooter? How about a front wheel for your’99 Chevy Walker? Handgrips with neon plastic steamers for your high-speed Rollator or a new … [Read more...]
TED phenomenon comes to Delray Beach on Friday
In the spirit of the original TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading,” TEDx comes to Delray Beach this Friday, organized by local resident Becky Woodbridge, a flight attendant, speaker and coach. Originating in California 29 years ago, with two major TED events each year, the organization (originally focusing on Technology, Entertainment and Design) … [Read more...]
Sundays: The few, the proud, the Brooklynized
By Myles Ludwig A couple of weeks ago, T, the special magazine-like issue of The New York Times published an article about a growing trend they called the “globalization of Brooklyn” or “Brooklynization.” Theoretically, there could be a Brooklynized neighborhood in Beijing. The word, “Brooklynization,” reminds me of the corruption of the word “factoid,” invented by Norman … [Read more...]
Sundays: Sidelining the old narrators
By Myles Ludwig The Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath is a McLuhanesque moment: the medium has indeed finally become the message. This is in no way meant to trivialize the events and the horror and the victims and the PTSD that the citizens of Boston and perhaps all of America will need to find a way to recover from. This story had many of the characteristics of … [Read more...]