psychology dector

In times past, people like Joseph Mitchell and Alfred Kazin , young men in an exciting city, could walk the streets and probe the neighborhoods of their fair metropolis discovering the characters, the disparate worlds of 20 th century New York and not get mugged, stabbed or beaten, but return with stories to beguile readers even in this new century in this very different world.   Those were the days. Kazin was a critic, an intellectual American force.   His forays were side trips, alternate excursions between essays about literature and writers and art in America.   He walked because he had to think; one act precipitated another.   His feet kept moving because he had somewhere to be (the public library, where he wrote some of his early work), all the while pondering the words and texts he wrote about inside out and back again. Joseph Mitchell came to writing and walking from the direction of journalism on a beeline into Manhattan.   A product of the farming l...

From The Morning A day once dawned And it was beautiful A day once dawned from the ground Then the night she fell And the air was beautiful The night she fell all around So look see the days The endless colored ways And go play the game that you learnt From the morning And now we rise And we are everywhere And now we rise from the ground And see she flies And she is everywhere See she flies all around So look see the sights The endless summer nights And go play the game that you learnt From the morning                               Nick Drake (1948-1974) Nick Drake was a singer-songwriter from the late 60s and early 70s.   He was brilliant and transcendent as a poet balladeer, yet also deeply troubled.   His problem was depression, and neither marijuana or anti-depressants helped.   He recorded three albums in his brief career before he ...

Photo credit:  Matt Mendelsohn Lately, I’ve been reading Daniel Mendelsohn, a cultural and literary critic.   His books have ample essayistic criticism, but also personal history and metaphor.   He brings sharp, intelligent, and often witty writing that is always insightful and interesting to read. Two particularly interesting pieces I found recently, one written by Mendelsohn himself , and the other, an interview with him posted December 25 th , 2012 at Lambda Literary:   Celebrating Excellence in LGBT Literature Since 1989 , demand careful examination. “A Critic’s Manifesto” posted August 28 th , 2012 on The New Yorker website, gives us both some personal history and Mendelsohn’s view of the role of the critic.   He learned his craft, he tells us, through reading.   Mendelsohn dreamed of being not a novelist or poet, but a critic, and he began his journey on the pages of publications like The New Yorker reading not just literary critiques, but those w...

This week, I stumbled upon a remarkable artist:   Sister Corita Kent .   She was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, but grew up here in Los Angeles.   At the tender age of 18, she entered the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary , a group of Catholic women who, among other things, ran the Immaculate Heart College in Hollywood (now the campus of the American Film Institute).   In the heady days following the Second Vatican Council , the sisters had the temerity to re-evaluate the way they prayed, ministered, and lived, which upset Cardinal James Francis McIntyre , the archbishop of Los Angeles.   Given an ultimatum to conform or disband, the women voted to become a lay community and a nonprofit organization.   Facing declining revenues and financial hardship, the college closed its doors in 1981, but Sister Corita had already made a name for herself in the art world.   Corita ran the college art department, and specialized in creating serigraphs, or silk sc...