The problem of the beautiful youth

March 15, 2017

A new exhibit at the Japan Society considers a moment in Edo culture (17th through early-19th century Japan) when the wakashū, or beautiful youth, held sway as companions for men and even women.

The New York Times has written about this from the viewpoint of our current transgender controversies, which makes sense since the show, through June 11, is titled “A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Prints.” But I’m more interested in the parallels to ancient Greece and what such practices say about morality seen through the scrim of history. ...

Obamacare 0.5 – prescription for cruelty

March 12, 2017

The new/revised/gutted/take your pick health care plan that will probably always be known as Obamacare has been criticized by lots of folks for lots of different reasons, but it all boils down to this: It will wind up hurting the people who are key to President Donald J. Trump’s base, the working poor, along with the disabled, the garden-variety poor and older citizens.

It’s yet another example of the cruelty that is the order of the day in the United States and extends even to the powerful. Where does the president get off accusing former President Barack Obama – as honorable a man as there is – of “tapping” him without any proof? ...

The few and the proud

March 8, 2017

There is such an abysmal spectrum of disrespect and insensitivity these days – from Housing Secretary Ben Carson ignorantly calling slaves “immigrants” to the vicious attacks on Jewish cemeteries – that it’s hard to know what to write about first. Certainly, there’s no shortage of blog material screaming for fresh outrage. But today’s ire must be reserved for Marines United sharing nude photos of women and lewd, derogatory comments on Facebook.

As someone who writes homoerotic novels, I appreciate a nude – especially a male nude – as much as the next person. And I have little interest in what consenting adults do in private. ...

The fall guy at The Met

March 7, 2017

The resignation – some would say, forced resignation – of Thomas P. Campbell as director and CEO of the debt-ridden Metropolitan Museum of Art can only sadden those of us who favor this beloved institution and know its scholarly leader even casually.

Sadden but not surprised. When Campbell became director in 2008, I thought he was an exhilarating choice, because he was a curator and not a manager. And I thought he was an odd choice, because, well, he was a curator and not a manager. Those mixed feelings turned out to be prescient. ...

The Trump Administration’s ‘Red Dawn’

March 5, 2017

Is there anyone who hasn’t talked to the Russians? I’m beginning to think I had a conversation with the Ruskies without realizing it. I love red, the Russian color of beauty, and, of course, the ballet, which the Russians perfected. The greatest American choreographer was the Russian-born, Communist-fleeing George Balanchine, who used to say it was a pleasure to pay taxes to the United States. He must be pirouetting in his grave at the twisted choreography coming out of Washington D.C. these days.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has recused himself from investigating the Trump Administration’s ties to the Russians, because he himself talked with Russian envoy Sergey Kislyak. Or maybe not. Or maybe he did but he can’t remember what he said. Who remembers conversations? Anyway, it was before he joined Team Trump. Or maybe it happened when the dog ate his homework. ...

Is our mean streak getting wider?

February 28, 2017

Is it me or have people become less civil, nastier even?

I think of the lines from Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska,” inspired by the mass murderer Charles Starkweather:

“They wanted to know why I did what I did.

“Well, sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.”

But is there? As far as institutions and laws are concerned, the world has gotten more just and compassionate. Today, most of us would agree that slavery is unjust, for instance. That wasn’t true 150 years ago.

But these past two weeks I have either experienced or heard about three instances of ego-besotted, bizarro, apoplectic rudeness. ...

‘Come back, Little Sheba’: The myth of lost opportunity in Trump’s America

February 27, 2017

The horrific violence visited on Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani – two Indian immigrant engineers whose death and assault respectively are now being investigated as a hate crime – places the American workforce and immigration, particularly the notion of the immigrant as demonized other, at the intersection of crisis in the America of President Donald J. Trump.

To recap, the two engineers – who worked for Garmin, a GPS navigation and communications device company – were enjoying a workday-ending whiskey at Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kan., as was their wont, when Adam W. Purinton began hurling ethnic slurs at them. After patrons complained, he was thrown out but returned in a rage and shot the two, killing Kuchibhotla and wounding Madasani and Ian Grillot, who intervened. Purinton, formerly with the U.S. Navy and Federal Aviation Administration, fled to Missouri but has since been extradited to Kansas, charged with premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder as the FBI investigates the crimes as a violation of the victims’ civil rights. (Ya think?) ...