The First and the Last of Everything The First and the Last of Everything
The first fine dawn of life on earth The first cry of Man in the first light The first firefly flickering at night The first Noble Savage with the first erection The first song of love and forty cries of despair The first voyage of Vikings westward The first sighting of the New World from the crow’s nest of a Spanish galleon The first Pale Face meeting the first Native American The first Dutch trader in Mannahatta The first settler on the first frontier The first Home Sweet Home so dear The first wagon train westward The first sighting of the Pacific by Lewis & Clark The first cry of “Mark, twain!” on the Mississippi The first desegregation by Huck & Jim on a raft at night The first buffalo-head nickel and the last buffalo The first barbed-wire fence and the last of the open range The last cowboy on the last frontier The first skyscraper in America The first home run hit at Yankee Stadium The first ballpark hot dog with mustard The last War to End All Wars The last Wobbly and the last Catholic Anarchist The last living member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade The last bohemian in a beret The last homespun politician and the first stolen election The first plane to hit the first Twin Tower The birth of a vast national paranoia The first president to become an international criminal for crimes against humanity making America a terrorist state The dark dawn of American corporate fascism The next-to-last free speech radio The next-to-last independent newspaper raising hell The next-to-last independent bookstore with a mind of its own The next-to-last Lefty looking for Obama Nirvana The first fine day of the Wall Street Occupation to set forth upon this continent a new nation! Click here to listen to Ferlinghetti read this poem.
Nov 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Secret Paragraphs: On Alan Hollinghurst Secret Paragraphs: On Alan Hollinghurst
The Stranger's Child traces the vanishing of same-sex love through suppression and then, paradoxically, acceptance and openness.
Nov 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Maria Margaronis
Baseness: On Guantánamo Baseness: On Guantánamo
Gitmo in the present millennium is no departure at all from the American tradition in Guantánamo Bay.
Nov 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter C. Baker
False Comforts: On Randall Kennedy False Comforts: On Randall Kennedy
Randall Kennedy is fascinated by a paradox: the color line's persistence and its seeming implosion.
Nov 30, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jim Sleeper
Miley Cyrus Comes Out for OWS Miley Cyrus Comes Out for OWS
&ldquotLiberty Walk,” the one percenter teen sensation’s catchy, if repetitive, remixed single sets her music to laudatory images from OWS encampments throughout th...
Nov 29, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg
Warring Impulses: Photography’s Documentary and Artistic Strains Warring Impulses: Photography’s Documentary and Artistic Strains
Can a beautiful image also accurately capture a moment in time? Can a documentary photograph also be an object of thoughtful reflection?
Nov 23, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Francis Reynolds
The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street The Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street
Will it last? Skeptics are entitled to their doubts, but I'm confident that, as with the Populist movement of a century ago, OWS will bring lasting change
Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / William Greider
Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie Beattitudes: On Ann Beattie
Ann Beattie is an artist of the things we don’t say, or can’t, and that find expression anyway.
Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / William Deresiewicz
Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald Mac the Knife: On Dwight Macdonald
Dwight Macdonald’s panic about Midcult now seems less prescient than misplaced.
Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jennifer Szalai
Erosion: On Errol Morris Erosion: On Errol Morris
Why does Errol Morris cling to a model of documentary photography eighty years out of date?
Nov 22, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl