“Hate's goin' 'round/Breaking many hearts/Stop it please/
Before it's gone too far.” —Stevie Wonder

America/Stevie Wonder at Fiserv/The Moors/Cesaria Evora/”Try to Praise the Mutilated World”

“After a considered, self-reflective pause, I stared down at that new shiny screen, darkly reflecting my suspicious gaze. ‘Thanks a lot, Mr. Jobs. That’s why I never became a best-selling, critically acclaimed novelist! Curse you and all your Silicon Valley minions!’”

iPhone Therefore I Am, Roy Wood, Jr., Book It, Sense and Sensibility, Metheny’s Meditations.

"I'll instead give Megalopolis a thumbs up on blind faith. Not that I believe it will be a great movie, but because the work of an artist like Coppola deserves to be seen and talked about."

Choice Critics' Choices, The Coast Starlight, Megalopolis, His Three Daughters, RIP Maggie Smith.

"We once watched Julia Child explain how to perfectly roast a chicken. Today we thrill to cutthroat competitions to be the Top Chef or to Beat Bobby Flay. If we’re feeling particularly sadistic, we might turn on Hell’s Kitchen and watch an upstart try to get a rare smile of approval out of Gordon Ramsay."

The Only Thing? Spring Green Moments, Alex Edelman, Edgar Steed, Angelique Kidjo.

"Transplant any one of these trees a city park or suburban yard and it will become a different creature, a man-spreading, elbow-throwing space-hog that provides enough shade to host a summer picnic. But here, crowded like commuters on a New York City subway, there is nowhere to go but up."

Into the Woods, HBO's Industry, Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones, The Change, Autumn Leaves.