Reading a newspaper in January 2006, one feels a tragic sense of deja vu. Stories of violent insurgencies, military operations and ceaselessly rising body counts are reported with such regularity that a person can often find it difficult to distinguish one day’s news from the last. Read more...

When I was flipping through the February issue of Vogue, something caught my attention ““ a headline heralding Wisconsin senator Russell Feingold as “the most blogged-about Democrat since Howard Dean.” This was big. Read more...

In December, it’s almost impossible to go to the movies and spend less than two hours in the theater. The better the movie, it seems, the longer the necessary running time. Read more...

Freedom is a subjective concept. Just ask the stars of “After Innocence.” The documentary film, which screens at the James Bridges Theater tonight courtesy of Melnitz Movies, tells the stories of seven men who were wrongfully imprisoned for years, sometimes even decades, before their innocence was proven. Read more...

While I usually complain about the ridiculous rent I pay to share a room in a small apartment in Westwood, there’s nothing like a trip home over the holidays to make me appreciate it. Read more...

As I sat in Brenna Youngblood’s studio among thousands of photo clippings, observing what has emerged from the chaos, she apologized for the mess. “Write that it was pristine,” she said with a short laugh. Read more...

One interesting part of winter break is poking around one’s old room and finding things from the past. Typically, I find old books and pictures, along with Post-it notes on which I used to write down things that struck me as clever (like trying to phonetically transcribe “awesome guitar riffs,” most of which turn out to have been bass lines). Read more...