Your tax dollars at work

by | May 27, 2010 | Ten Gallon Liberal

Intelligence reporter Jeff Stein delivers a collection of tidbits that makes you wonder just what’s in the water at the CIA. Exhibit 1 is a scrapped 2003 plan to make a gay sex video with a fake Saddam Hussein, for distribution in Iraq (I’m sure there...

Beautiful Boys

by | May 27, 2010 | Standing In The Shadows

Beautiful Boy was the overly ambitious second book I took on vacation last year (the book itself wasn’t overly ambitious, the notion that I might read two books during one vacation with four kids was). During the post-school, pre-nap bottle with the toddler, I...

Going, Going …

by | May 27, 2010 | On Springfield

One more promising, if long overdue, sign that Mason Square will, indeed, get back a full-fledged library this fall: a report in this morning’s Springfield Republican that the Urban League of Springfield, which has occupied the former library site at 765 State...
StageStruck: Ch-ch-ch-changes at PVPA

StageStruck: Ch-ch-ch-changes at PVPA

by | May 27, 2010 | Stage

When the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter School moved from temporary digs in Hadley—a funky, improvised assortment of rented accommodations—into a shiny new purpose-built facility in South Hadley, the students had a saying: “I used to go to...
StageStruck: Tasty Pasties

StageStruck: Tasty Pasties

by | May 27, 2010 | Stage

Most of the stage shows I attend are comparatively restrained affairs, with actors sticking to their scripts and the audience sitting attentively. But last Saturday was an altogether different theatrical experience. It was casual, noisy, cheeky, unpredictable and...