• Home
  • Escapes and Pleasures
  • Family and Friends
  • Go Sox
  • The Outer Loop
  • Articles of Interest

MillersTime

MillersTime

Tag Archives: Robert Caro

Recent Articles of Interest

13 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

"In MY MInd's Eye", "My Father's Body at Rest and in Motion", "The Machine Stops", "White Darkness", Alexander McCall Smith, Ann Morgan, Cal Newport, David Grann, Jan Morris, Kate Kelley, New York Times, Oliver Sacks, Robert Caro, Sidhartha Mukerjee, TED Talk, The New Yorker

Here are links to a few articles that I’ve seen recently that I found of interest and suspect various readers of MillersTime might enjoy also.

You’re Using Your iPhone Wrong, by Cal Newport, NYT, 1/27/19 – wherein columnist writes that Steve Jobs never wanted smartphones to be our constant companions.

‘In the Feb. 11, 2019 issue of The New Yorker, there is an Oliver Sacks’ piece that he must have written shortly before his death as I have not seen it anywhere else: The Machine Stops, wherein he writes, among other things, about smart phones and fearing the future. I can’t link to it, but see if you can find it. I liked it (but then I like everything he has written).

The Secrets of Lyndon Johnson’s Archives: On a Presidential Paper Trail by Robert Caro, New Yorker, 1/28/19. Caro takes some time out while working on his final LBJ book to give some insights into how he works. Caro is a national treasure imho.

Two Book Reviews of In My Mind’s Eye: A Thought Diary by Jan Morris – wherein she writes about being 91 and looks back on her earlier years:

In My Mind’s Eye, reviewed by Kate Kelleway, The Guardian, 9/9/18

In My Mind’s Eye, reviewed by Alexander McCall Smith, NYTimes, 1/24/19

And a couple from last year that struck me:

My Father’s Body, At Rest and in Motion by Siddhartha Mukherjee, New Yorker, 1/8/18. An author, doctor and son writes about his dealings and thoughts about end of life issues relating to his father.

The White Darkness: A Solitary Journey Across Antarctica by David Grann, New Yorker, Feb. 12 & 19, 2018. Another favorite writer of mine, this engaging story is now out in book form, but you can read it here.

Plus, one TED talk about how changing her reading focus opened up the world to her, a suggestion by a MillersTime reader Tiffany Lopez.:

My Year Reading a Book from Every Country in the World (https://www.ted.com/talks/ann_morgan_my_year_reading_a_book_from_every_country_in_the_world?language=en by Ann Morgan.

Share

Robert Caro, The Art of Biography

03 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

"The Master of the Senate", "The Power Broker", biography, James Santel, Lyndon Johnson, Pulitzer Prize for Biography, Robert Caro, Robert Moses, the Paris Review, The Years of Lyndon Johnson

1899385_10151928902786951_1979755562_o

Long time MillersTime readers may remember that author Robert Caro is one of my favorite biographers. His first book, The Power Broker — about Robert Moses but really about NY and about how power really works — won a Pulitzer Prize for biography. He won a second Pulitzer for his Master of the Senate, the third volume in his five volume The Years of Lyndon Johnson. And he’s won virtually every other prize available to historians and biographers.

If you know of Robert Caro and his work, or even if you don’t, treat yourself to this recent interview with him in the Paris Review. It captures how he approaches his subject(s), and you will understand why his work is so powerful and so mesmerizing.

Robert Caro, The Art of Biography, No. 5, the Paris Review, by James Santel, Issue 216, Spring 2016

Share

Good Theater in DC

28 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"All the Way", "Disgraced", "The Great Society", Arena Stage, Ayad Akhtar, Jack Willis, Kyle Donnelly, LBJ, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Robert Caro, Robert Schenkhan, Tony Award Winner

Those of you who read MillersTime with some regularity may have noticed that I have not reviewed many movies of late. Because of extended grandparenting joys and duties, lots of travel, and the wonderful return of the baseball season, we have missed most of our 2016 Sunday morning Cinema Club films, the Miami Film Fest, the Jewish Film Fest, and the DC Film Fest. Plus, we haven’t even made it to a regular movie theater in what seems to be forever.

However, we have somehow seen a number of theater productions and want to draw to your attention two plays — both at Arena Stage — that might be of interest to those living in or coming to the DC metro area. The first is closing soon (May 8th), the second has just opened and will be here until May 29th.

All the Way ****

All the Way

Whether you see this play as a history lesson or because you were in someway ‘around’ during this time in our country’s history, you will not be disappointed. While I have some reservations about the play (see below), none of those have to do with the accuracy of this one year in the life of LBJ.

The play opens as Lyndon Johnson becomes an “accidental president” in Nov. of 1963 with the assassination of John Kennedy. It ends one year later with the landslide election of LBJ as president in his own right.

In between, we see all aspects of this 36th president, and playwright Robert Schenkkan, director Kyle Donnelly, and actor Jack Willis get LBJ just right. For those of you who were in Washington, I suspect the LBJ you see on stage will be the one you ‘knew.’ For those of you who know some of our country’s (recent) history (especially if you have read Robert Caro’s wonderful LBJ bios), you too will recognize this LBJ. For those of you who know the name LBJ as largely an historical figure, you’ll be treated to an engaging history lesson. For all of those who see All the Way, you will leave the theater with a better understanding of the man, how our government works, of the presidency, of politics, and of a particular time in our history.

The one year in the life of LBJ captured here portrays this president at the height of his power, at the most successful time in his life. In the process, it also explores the other players of the time – Martin Luther King, Hubert Humphrey, J. Edgar Hoover, Lady Byrd Johnson, Walter Jenkins, Richard Russesll, Robert McNamara, and others – and how LBJ used them both to hold the country together and to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (There is a second play, The Great Society, by the same playwright that portrays LBJ as he ends his presidency and returns to Texas, a time and a result very different from the successful portrayal here.)

This 2014 Tony Award (Best Drama) is both history and biography at its best.

I did have difficulty (physically) seeing Jack Willis as LBJ. So too with most of the other actors playing their roles as historical figures. (Others have told me they had no problems with that at all.)  Also, even though the Arena Stage production goes to great lengths to deal with the round stage (as opposed to a proscenium one), I found myself struggling to see and hear well when a particular actor had his or her back to me. And for me, not all of the actors were as effective or as skilled as Jack Willis in their depictions of the roles they were playing.

Nevertheless, if you can get to Arena Stage before May 8 (it will not be extended), consider doing so. The play is long (2 3/4 hours), but it nails that time in our history.

Disgraced ****1/2

Disgraced

When I first read Disgraced was coming to the Arena Stage, I read about it being a Pulitzer Prize winning play (2013) and about it being the most produced play in 2015 (30 theaters around the country and the world with another 20 theaters planning to produce it also).

Then I read on Arena’s Stage website the play was “about the clash between modern culture and ancient faiths. The son of south Asian immigrants, Amir has worked hard to achieve the American Dream — complete with a successful career, a beautiful wife and $600 custom-tailored shirts. But has he removed himself too far from his roots? And when a friendly dinner party conversation rockets out of control, will the internal battle between his culture and his identity raze all that he’s worked so hard to achieve? Hailed as “terrific, turbulent, with fresh currents of dramatic electricity” (New York Times), this incendiary examination of one’s self and one’s beliefs will leave you breathless.”

So it caught my attention, but somehow I did not realize that it was about being Muslim in America. I’m glad I didn’t realize that, as I might have chosen not to see it. And that would have been a pity. I would have missed so much.

Briefly, there are five characters (two couples and a younger man) who for 90 minutes (no intermission) on one set explore who they are below and beyond what they have already become. One, Amir, is the son of a Pakistani Muslim immigrant and has passed himself off as a Indian-American who has become an extremely successful lawyer in a Jewish law firm in New York City. His wife, a White-Protestant-American is an artist who is exploring Islamic imagery in her emerging, successful work. The second couple is an African-American woman, also a lawyer in the same law firm as Amir, and her husband who is a Jewish curator from the Whitney Museum. The fifth character is the young Muslim-American nephew of Amir.

As is often the case in stories set around a dinner table, there is much below the surface, and with that as a setting, the audience usually is witness to an unraveling in varying degrees. In this case, the playwright, Ayad Akhtar*, says Disgraced is “actually a melodrama-slash thriller-slash-agitprop-slash-tragedy.”

It’s all that and much more. While it’s primary focus is on Amir and who he really is, it is also about the other characters and who they are. It is about assimilation, about ethnic and identity confusion, and about losing your religion and your community. Additionally, it is about unintended consequences and about where our discourse and rhetoric can lead us.

It’s an intriguing play that grabs you both emotionally and intellectually and deserves discussion.

If you see Disgraced and want to spend an evening over dinner discussing it with us and others who have also seen it, let me know.

(*There is an excellent interview with the playwright that perhaps is best read once you’ve seen the play.)

Share

LBJ vs RFK: “America’s Nastiest Blood Feud”

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

LBJ vs RFK, Robert Caro, The Passage of Power

wills_1-052412_jpg_630x320_crop_q85                              Francis Miller/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

It is like watching two very powerful railroad trains racing at top speed toward each other along a single set of tracks.

Readers of this blog know that I have long been fascinated by Robert Caro’s seemingly endless biography of Lyndon Johnson. I’ve posted about this previously.

One of the many fascinating parts of the most recent volume, The Passage of Power, had to do with the relationship, the hatred, between LBJ and RFK. But, there were so many spellbinding events in this volume of the LBJ narrative, I think this aspect of Caro’s latest did not get much focus.

In his May 2101 NY Review of Books article, Gary Wills, author of the quote above, chose to emphasize this feud, how it came about, how it played out, and the effect it had on both men.

Even if you’ve read The Passage of Power, I suspect you will find new information in this article, America’s Nastiest Blood Feud. It makes the Obama/Boehner struggle look like a preschool tiff by comparison.

 

Share

Summer Reading Ideas

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Caleb's Crossing, Geraldine Brooks, Kyung-sook Shin, Please Look After Mom, Robert Caro, Susan Stamberg, The Passage of Power

I’m not sure what percentage of books folks read are read over the summer, on vacations, etc., but I suspect it’s significant.

So if you’re wondering what to take with you the next few months, here are a few possibilities:

Continue reading »

Share

LBJ: Political Genius or Ruthless Manipulator?

13 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, The Outer Loop

≈ Leave a Comment

Tags

Lyndon Baines Johnson, Robert Caro, The Passage of Power, The Years of Lyndon Johnson

Over the last week I have read Robert Caro’s fourth book on Lyndon Johnson and attended a Politics & Prose bookstore “conversation’ between Caro and Politico’s Chief White House correspondent Mike Allen. I thought the book (606 pages) truly worthy of my week’s devotion to it. I enjoyed listening to Caro and getting a sense of the man, his humility, his solidity, and his insights, though I think Allen missed an opportunity to draw out Caro on many aspects of the book that deserved discussion.

If you definitely plan to tackle The Passage of Power, you need not read further than the end of this paragraph. Mark this site, and come back to it after you have read the book. Then read what is written below, and let me others know what you think.**

If you’re not sure if you want to read the book, or if you just want to get a bit of a summary and one person’s reactions, read the “Summary” and “10 Takeaways” below.

(If your time is limited, check out The New Yorker’s excerpt of the day LBJ went from believing his political life was over to attaining the most power he ever had — Nov. 22, 1963.)

Continue reading »

Share

Join Me & Robert Caro

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Free Conversation, Politics & Prose, Robert Caro, The Passage of Power

Having purchased two copies of Robert Caro’s new The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Vol.4), I was given four free tickets to a Politics & Prose bookstore event with the author.

Robert Caro will be “in conversation with Mike Allen, chief correspondent of Politico,” the newspaper/Internet/radio/TV outlet that focuses on what’s happening in Washington.

The event is Wednesday evening, May 9 at 7 PM at the Sidwell Friends School, 3825 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC.

I have at least two free tickets (and perhaps three) available for folks to join me.

First to ask…by email, Comment below, or phone.

Share

♣ Search



♣ Featured Posts

  • Cappadocia: Thru Ellen’s Lens
  • Thru Ellen’s Lens: Petra & Wadi Rum
  • I Changed My Mind
  • By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea…
  • So Many Books…So Little Time? Here Are 34 Recent Favorite Reads
  • One Favorite Read
  • Yes, It’s True…I Biked from Bruges to Amsterdam!
  • Carrie Trauth Made the World a Better Place
  • “I Used to Be a Human Being” – Andrew Sullivan
  • MillersTime Contributors Favorite Reads from 2021
  • Thru Ellen’s Lens: Alaskan Landscapes & Skyscapes
  • Thru Ellen’s Lens: The Brown Bears of Katmai, Alaska
  • When I Was 22…
  • The Country ‘Spoke’ Again
  • Thru Ellen’s Lens: The Slot Canyons of Arizona

♣ Recent Comments

  • Sean on Telling Esty’s Story
  • Ping on Telling Esty’s Story
  • Mike Weinroth on Telling Esty’s Story
  • Bill plitt on Telling Esty’s Story
  • Ed Scholl on Call for 2023 Mid-Year Favorite Reads

♣ Archives

  • June 2023
  • April 2023
  • February 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011

♣ Sections

  • Articles & Books of Interest
  • Escapes and Pleasures
  • Family and Friends
  • Go Sox
  • The Outer Loop

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.