The Dabbler series ran from January to December, 2001. It has now been incorporated as the 'Jay's Head' column in Zeek Magazine, an online journal of thought and culture. New material is available there each month.
The Departments:
ESSAYS (monthly) on life well lived.
REVIEWS of music, movies, etc.
POLITICAL NOTES from a biased
perspective.
ESSAYS
December 01
Changes
Change is the nature of the Tao -- but why does it scare us so much?
The Last Dabbler Essay.
November 01
Whoo-hoo!
A guy at a concert shouts Whoo-hoo!
at the wrong time. What can he tell us about how self-expression and community
values collide in a life well lived?
October 01
McDonalds:
A Better Opiate for the Masses?
People like me have long hated American consumerism.
It's materialistic, vulgar, shallow, and destructive. But in a world where
that consumerism is now under attack, should we worry about any values
that can't be addressed in the market?
September 01
Diagnosing
and Responding to Evil: An Argument
In place of September's Dabbler essay, an
argument based on the terrorist attacks of September 11.
August 01
Learning
about the meaning of life at Kinko's
At Kinko's, all the sound and fury of our
words is reduced to toner and paper. Are the Buddhas at Kinko right that
all of it signifies nothing, or would we be right to think it Matters?
Or both?
July 01
On
the non-persistence of Memory
Six months ago, a taxi I was riding in was
hit by a truck. I lost much of my short-term memory. But I gained a certain
amount of humanity as well.
June 01
The
Trouble with Business
Advice to the young: business is not what
you do to make money. It's what you do to make yourself into a certain
kind of person. And this happens regardless of what your goals are when
you start.
May 01
The
Seasons of the Piers
Now is a beautiful time for the Far West Side
of New York: crumbling ruins of the industrial past are turning into temporary,
wonderful art. And I'm turning thirty.
Apr. 01
In
Defense of Charlie Ward
Charlie Ward said some stuff about Jews and
Jesus. People got really upset. But did the chorus of critics miss an opportunity
by accusing Ward of antisemitism, instead of engaging with his very-widely-held
beliefs?
Mar. 01
The
Storm and Us
The snowstorm of March 2001 was a non-event
except in media hype. Why are winter storms predicted with such sturm und
drang? Is it because of fear of nature's wrath -- or nostalgia for it?
Feb. 01
They
Still Don't Get It
It's ten years after the Year that Punk Broke,
but mainstream culture still doesn't get what made Nirvana great.
No surprise there: Kurt Cobain was an underground hero, and mainstream
culture never understands when it's being critiqued. Because it doesn't
even know it's a culture.
Jan. 01
The
Problem with Cleanliness
On the New York subways, our ever-lowering
threshold for taking offense, and the simultaneous rise in offensiveness.
Why do we expect the future to be cleaner than the present?
Elephant Memory
Five Groups to be
Angry at After September 11
POLITICS
A continuously-updated register of the Republican party's bias toward
big business and extractive industry, in particular its unfair financial
policies and assault on the environment. Intended to remind us three
years from now that, yes Virginia, there is a difference between the to
major parties.
There's a lot of frustration in the air. Channel your rage at
particular groups responsible for particular evils since September 11 -
and we don't mean those cavemen if Afghanistan.