BANGKOK. Normally when I come to Bangkok I stay in Sukhumvit. I’ve been doing that since my Busan days, starting around 2009 I guess. This time I’m in the Khaosan Road area. I decided to be a nostalgic tourist. And nostalgic...
CHIANG MAI. There are, to me, two great eras of popular music. 1967-1977: The first era begins with Sgt. Pepper. This isn’t to claim that it’s The Beatles’ best album, but it set the tone for what was possible in popular...
CHIANG MAI. Over the past month I've been revisiting philosopher David Hume. I first read him as an undergrad and then for my Ph.D. research. But this third go round I'm starting his lengthy Treatise on Human Understanding from the...
VIRGINIA BEACH. It is a beautiful thing when one’s impression of a film changes—from the lingering thoughts of the hours that follow to the days that continue, and alter, the thinking. This happened to me with Jordan Peele’s new film...
VIRGINIA BEACH. I've seen many films based on novels that I've read. But I decided I'd take a shot at the reverse by reading Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's not only for fun, it's research of sorts...
CHIANG MAI. As much as I try to fight it, because it seems such a simplistic, convenient and contained worldview, I do subscribe to the aquarium theory of existence. This suggests that the limitations of reality (from consciousness to the...
VIRGINIA BEACH. A little over a year ago, my friend in Chiang Mai, Zachary Stockill, invited me to be a guest on a new podcast he was developing. His previous podcast, "Travels in Music," is excellent and he is such...
GALWAY. I’m sitting in a pub called Brogan’s. Or “Brogan’s Music Bar,” or, by the name out front, “Ol’55.” It was recommended to me as a place for music by a friend I trust. Ireland has a pub on every corner....
KILLARNEY. I came to Europe for the Film Philosophy conference in Gothenburg, but the trip is being bookended on either side by Berlin (to reconnect with dear friends and colleagues) and Ireland (for holiday, a place that has called to me...
ZHUHAI. I'm very pleased to announce the release of my book Terrence Malick's Unseeing Cinema: Memory, Time and Audibility for Palgrave-Macmillan. This has been such an incredibly long project that sustained me though an amazing six years, beginning with my...