Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock Reflections on the Paul Simon concert at Kansas City’s Midland Theater on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011 KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When a conversation turns to popular music, sometimes one is lectured on who has the definitive voice of the generation. Most of the time one learns it’s Bob Dylan. A [...]
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Monday, September 12, 2011
And I feel like a beetle on its back And there’s no way for me to get up Love’ll get you like a case of anthrax And that’s something I don’t want to catch – Gang of Four, “(Love Like) Anthrax,” 1978 Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock JUST AFTER ELEVEN — Two hundred eighty-something million [...]
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The following is my president’s column for the May 2011 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Had a bizarre dream the other night, that World War III had started. I saw Dianne Feinstein, she having moved up from senator to secretary of state or vice president, holding a news [...]
Before The Chieftains review — which it’s not, because I lost my Lamy Al-Star pen following a disaster of a restaurant meal so I couldn’t take notes — a roundabout. I try to be a jack of all journalism tricks. I even covered a lecture and poetry reading by ex-NBA star Tom Meschery in about [...]
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Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The following is my president’s column for the February 2011 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Columnists get labeled as opinionated. This was brought home again after the Tucson shooting. Americans saw on the air and online — come on, paper? — as many pundits as politicians (and rarely [...]
Saturday, November 13, 2010
On my most recent big trip, I was struck by lightening. Right, not lightning. I walked hours through a city I did not know with my trusty laptop carrier. It was after a daylong conference. Compared to most briefcases, day packs or messenger bags, the canvas Domke Reporter’s Satchel is lightweight. After years of refining, [...]
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Friday, November 12, 2010
The defenders of our country — Thank you for your service — must be made of tough stuff. That’s what military service means. Yet elements of the media worry, presume service personnel and veterans have thin skins. “Garfield” on Veterans Day ran a routine cat comic strip. Many comics just did their daily gag, though [...]
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Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock Now that the Republicans have done so well in the 2010 elections, they should use their momentum to enact the next sweeping measure for our time: Universal conscription for all American youth. A measure of Democrats would support this as well. Reviving — and broadening and updating — the draft [...]
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Monday, September 20, 2010
The performance in Fayetteville of Blue Man Group filled my mind too full to write about immediately. A deadline would’ve been wonderful. So now it’s time to free up to brain cavity. Past time. We saw the third of its eight shows at the Walton Arts Center, during the first week of September. The company [...]
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I watch Mad Men religiously. Of all the plot points, the least should be the main one, the secret identity of its lead, Don Draper. Most of the other characters don’t know, but the audience got the gist from the get-go. It became a non-issue for me after reflecting on the opening scene of the [...]
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