Critics Corner
Belle and Sebastian, 30th Anniversary of If You’re Feeling Sinister
Four years ago I saw my first Belle and Sebastian show. It was a surprise from my mom, who knew I wasn’t happy on our 110-degree summer vacation in Austin, Texas. The band had been an obsession of mine for a while, ever since my dad put in a CD with the words “Belle + Seb” written in sharpie into our old-school car stereo. The mix included familiar tracks like “Piazza, New York Catcher,” “Me and The Major,” and “Seeing Other People.” It also had more esoteric picks such as “The Loneliness Of A Middle Distance Runner” off the band’s compilation album Push Barman to Open Old Wounds. I must have been 10 or 11 hearing these songs for the first time. Another song, “Fox in the Snow” became a household anthem that my little brother …
Bouquets & Brickbats
Bouquet
On June 12, 2026, Elon Musk officially launched Space X on NASDAQ in a stock offering that raised $75 billion for the company and made him — on paper, at least — the world’s first trillionaire. Condemnations of Musk’s inter-planetary wealth were not long in coming. “No human being should ever be allowed to have a trillion dollars,” proclaimed Mother Jones, eliding the question of who should be empowered to decide how much money Elon Musk (or anyone else) should be allowed to have. The New York Times, The Guardian, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, Congressman Ro Khanna, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and various other worthies all eagerly piled on. Elon Musk has too much …
Listen to the Flowers
It is generally agreed that between 2 to 5 essences is the ideal number for a blend.
Tansy is the essence for ‘lethargy, procrastination, inability to take straightforward action’ — to quote the Repertory.
Hundreds of tiny beings? Where did they come from?
To teach the flower essence workshop, my first, I needed two-dozen one-ounce glass dropper bottles for tinctures. I planned to cart them with me to Brooklyn, where the retreat I was teaching at would be held. Thinking I’d have to haul home a flat of tiny glass bottles, I asked my husband to accompany me to Herbally Grounded, our local herb store in Las Vegas, a place reached by driving on a potholed thoroughfare that’s already given me three flat tires and is perpetually under construction. At this charming little shop — located in an innocuous strip mall next to Walmart and Michael’s — they sell such witchy paraphernalia, along with every conceivable loose herb in bulk and gnarled pink Himalayan salt lamps in a variety of shapes and sizes. The bottles, which my students would use to hold their own blends of flower essences, come in deep, dark tapestry colors — royal blue, hunter green, tortoiseshell …
