Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a complex city that contains a multiplicity of cultural realities. Wealth, prestige and the idealized American historical backdrop butts up against the most abject poverty, I have ever seen. I have recently moved here, for a while at least, to work for a...
Read MoreUntil recently, Dallas has not been known as a cultural city. Yes, it has its share of cultural institutions, the opera, the symphony, and museum, but these do not define the culture of Dallas. Its evolution has been long coming. I live here, I travel...
Read MoreWhen one thinks of time lines, we tend to think in terms of an all encompassing history book. Looking back, we omnisciently view the concurrency of events in Britain, China, France and Peru. We forget that until the last century, our ability to know what...
Read MoreSince “Culture” reflects our beliefs, values and identities, events have a way of jarring our reality – instantly creating a collective cultural marker. Each generation has these markers; some, like December 7, 1941, are so strong that its “memory” is handed down to those not...
Read MoreIn Central Oregon, ancient and dormant volcanoes dominate the horizon, and the churning rivers created in the troughs are the arteries of this dry climate. Another set of great hikes lie in the mountainous namesake of the town of Sisters. The Three Sisters Wilderness boasts dozens...
Read MoreCentral Oregon is know for its rugged beauty, lush forests, teeming rivers and recreational activities. For a hiker like me, a trip to central Oregon is as awe inspiring as a child’s first glimpse of Cinderella’s castle. This area is only about three hours drive...
Read MoreIn 1846, Jesse Applegate began leading emigrants through Ashland via a southern route of the Oregon Trail. For the group of farmers, Oregon represented the land of idyllic, pastoral opportunity. A lush valley lies along the Rouge River, just west of Ashland. Some stayed never...
Read MoreIn my discussions of how land shapes culture and how culture in America reflects the landscape, I can’t help but start with Lewis and Clark. Their diaries, stories and illustrations, were fueled by the artists who traveled with them and, afterward, sealed the 19th century...
Read MoreThe images of Big Sur are so iconic that one expects no surprises – like attending a performance of Beethoven’s ninth. The joy of actually BEING there is discovering that the reality of its landscape is so much more expansive that the few pictures one...
Read MoreIn the argument of how land shapes culture, one only has to look at the areas of extremes, such as the arctic or the desert. Personally, I love the desert. That’s not to say I’d prefer death by frying than freezing, but that the desert...
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