It was the Jazz funeral opening scene in Live and Let Die that so captivated me, a kid living a world away — the dirge, the sashay, the exuberance — a love affair that has never dimmed. Thus I’m very pleased to learn about this crowd-funded work-in-progress City of a Million Dreams (H/T OffBeat). I’d imagine…
For Walker Percy, philosophy and fiction were both tools for diagnosing the human condition, just as his medical training had taught him about tools for diagnosing the human body. His aim was nothing less than trying to understand how we fit into the cosmos. This collection of essays is a fascinating and worthy exploration of…
Here are details of the programme that accompanies the book of the same title with a foreword by none other than the very excellent Lawrence Powell whose masterful history was reviewed here. Historyirma thomasjohn goodmanlawrence PowellMichael Whitenew orleansWalter Isaacson
I want to bring your attention to this Kickstarter project. Watch the 6 minute project pitch and donate what you can to this important work and check out the donor incentives. As you will see this project is on the verge of fruition and will be published to commemorate the centenary of Percy’s birth. The project is…
Walter Isaacson in today’s NYT But Percy’s theory about the redemptive power of hurricanes goes beyond the fact that dangerous situations allow us to become action heroes or saints. “True, people help each other in catastrophes,” he wrote in “Lancelot.” “But they don’t feel good because they help each other. They help each other because…
At last Win Riley’s superb one hour documentary is now available for viewing at your convenience and at a reasonable price. Sign up is free and the proceeds go directly to Win — enabling him to make more great content. Tip: best to use Chrome as your browser. If you have any queries check out the…
Here is Walter Isaacson’s review of Gary Krist’s Empire of Sin. Storyville’s sporting houses became cribs for jazz. Like most of the creative culture of New Orleans, this new style of music was spawned by the town’s diversity. Flowing together on the street corners were the sounds of marching brass bands, church spirituals, plantation blues, Creole…
2014 JEFFERSON LECTURER It is particularly meaningful for me to be giving this lecture on the 25th anniversary of the one by Walker Percy. I took the train from New York for that occasion, looking out of the window and thinking of his eerie essay about the malaise, “The Man on the Train.” If memory…
A nice little piece from Marsha Mercer. appleMARSHA MERCERsteve jobsWalker PercyWalter Isaacson
manwithoutqualities 