Lauren Gaskill

Voices

Nothing but a pack of foma

Kurt Vonnegut was a writer engaged in the business of time. He was fascinated with humans’ harnessing of the natural world and their resulting alienation. He wrote stories entrenched in waves of political consciousness, telling tales of world destruction by an incidental afterthought as simple, at times, as the pushing of a button that could unleash the atom bomb.

By April 19, 2007

Leisure

Jasper Johns: not just flags, guys

Under every picture-perfect surface dwells a host of contradictions and realities. Bubbling under the facade of the happy, down-home, meatloaf-eating American Dream was the Civil Rights movement, McCarthyism and the Cold War. It was during this increasingly unsteady time that Jasper Johns grounded the theoretical rebellion of his art.

By February 1, 2007

Voices

The first snow of the rest of my life

When it is going to snow, you can smell it in the air. There is a cool bite, but not so cold that a deep breath stings going down. Just before the snow is the best time to walk outdoors, look up into an overcast sky and wait with anticipation.

By January 25, 2007

Leisure

A Presidential assassination of the future

On October 19, 2007, President George Walker Bush was assassinated on his way out of a conference in downtown Chicago.

By October 26, 2006

Voices

What happens down in Mexico …

On July 2nd, the people of Mexico voted for a new president for the first time in six years.

By September 14, 2006

Voices

Living on Zapatista time

Sitting in the Che Guevara Cooperative Store with my language-school teacher I ask him how long he plans to stay at the school and what he hopes to do afterward.

By April 27, 2006