This is scott's Typepad Profile.
Join Typepad and start following scott's activity
scott
the left coast
I'm the writer of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&keywords=uncivil%20war&linkCode=ur2&qid=1383787950&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Auncivil%20war%2Cp_lbr_one_browse-bin%3AScott%20Peterson&rnid=2272759011&tag=sdcm-20">Uncivil War</a> series of books. I used to edit <i>Detective Comics</i>, the flagship title of DC Comics, as well as <i>Batman: Black & White</i>, <i>Green Arrow</i>, <i>Nightwing</i>, and <i>The Batman Adventures</i>. I later went on to write <i>The Gotham Adventures</i>, and helped create not one, but two new Batgirls. I've also written children's books, animation, music reviews and novels. I live down San Diego way with my magnificent wife, children's author <a href="http://melissawiley.com/">Melissa Wiley</a>, and most of our six children. (One escaped, the little rat.) I write about music at <a href="http://bythehighwayinaditch.blogspot.com/">Reason to Believe</a> and about my work at <a href="http://www.theotherscottpeterson.com">The Other Scott Peterson</a>.
Recent Activity
My pleasure, Raychael—very glad (and amused) to have been of assistance! :)
Honesty in The Merchant of Venice
So. Here's a paper I wrote for my graduate class last semester, Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Basically, we'd read a play by a semi-obscure or even totally forgotten (as in Anonymous) renaissance playwright and one by Willy the Shake and compare and contrast. And what became immediately obv...
POSTSCRIPT:
The Brawn and I yelled in acknowledgment of our mutual defeat.
"Why do I even try to match wits with you?" I grumbled.
"What he said," the Brawn agreed.
the lady beats the tiger
It's a lazy Sunday morning. I'm out in the dining room, drinking coffee, while the Golden Weasel and the Brawn eat breakfast, and the Boy makes sure everything is just so: plants waters, silverware put away, the absolute necessities of proper living. I pour another cup of coffee and am about to...
And now for some reason it's popular in Hertford and...Glasgow? Aren't they kind of far away from each other?
Honesty in The Merchant of Venice
So. Here's a paper I wrote for my graduate class last semester, Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Basically, we'd read a play by a semi-obscure or even totally forgotten (as in Anonymous) renaissance playwright and one by Willy the Shake and compare and contrast. And what became immediately obv...
Aw, Ellie! Cheers, friend! I'm so glad to hear that—and you clearly have outstanding taste. :)
Lost in the Supermarket
Back in the early 90s, when I was living in New York City and Top Management was in grad school in North Carolina, my imaginary friend Chris came to live with me for a while. Chris was the only person I knew who had a cooler job’n me: he worked at MTV News. In fact, he was the main writer for Ku...
To the large number of people coming here from Facebook: welcome! Uh...where was this posted, if you don't mind saying?
Jungleland
Wherein Bruce Springsteen goes prog. That’s right, I said it. Bruce Springsteen, hero of meat and potatoes rock and roll, comes up with one of his most beloved songs, featuring multiple distinct sections, abrupt tempo shifts, long instrumental passages, unexpected modulations and an overtly mel...
Oh. I'm getting so many hits on this piece because there's an episode of "Once Upon a Time" titled "New York City Serenade." Thank you, tumblr, for the explanation!
New York City Serenade
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle's “New York City Serenade” is perhaps the oddest album closer in the first half of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog. The longest (although just barely), it eschews what had already by this point, still early in his career, become a fairly standard and...
Thank you, Trufflehoney! (A phrase people don't use nearly enough.) That would indeed explain it. My goodness, what a version.
New York City Serenade
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle's “New York City Serenade” is perhaps the oddest album closer in the first half of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog. The longest (although just barely), it eschews what had already by this point, still early in his career, become a fairly standard and...
Not that I'm displeased, not by a long shot, but if anyone could tell me why this is suddenly getting tons of hits, that'd be swell. Was this just linked to somewheres or something?
New York City Serenade
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle's “New York City Serenade” is perhaps the oddest album closer in the first half of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog. The longest (although just barely), it eschews what had already by this point, still early in his career, become a fairly standard and...
Wow, great thoughts. I think, though, that I'd quibble with this:
A junk man bein dressed in "satin" and the day of this writing... Seems to me to indicate a pimp or dealer, or both.
I can't see that, sartorial choices aside, Springsteen would refer to a pimp as a junk man, given how extremely derogatory a comment upon working girls that would be—it would be the absolute height of dehumanizing them, and that doesn't seem to fit any phase of his writings.
A dealer, on the other hand, would make sense, colloquially, given that "junk," obviously, was slang for heroin. Except that Springsteen has always been famously anti-drug, and I'm again having trouble seeing how that corresponds with what would seem to be the narrator's admiration for the junk man and, above all, the extreme beauty of the accompanying music.
Given the physical description and the admiration and transcendent music—music which had for decades been described as "junk"—is it possible the junk man was the impressive gent all the way to the left in this photo?
http://blog.gettyimages.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Bruce-Springsteen-1975-London-Hammersmith-Odeon-Chalkie-Davies-Getty-Images-170331901.jpg
New York City Serenade
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle's “New York City Serenade” is perhaps the oddest album closer in the first half of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog. The longest (although just barely), it eschews what had already by this point, still early in his career, become a fairly standard and...
I'm still not sure you've officially said yes yet. All I recall is a lot of tears. (You might have been crying too, I couldn't tell.)
Proposal
A little clunky, a little awkward, a little clichéd. And still the best piece of writing I've ever done. Happy anniversary, love of my life. You remain, now and forever, the cat's meow.
That was absolutely beautiful, Laura. Thank you for agreeing to share it.
Christmas Rats
ObWi regular Laura Koerber mentioned that she had a story about rats in response to my last open thread and I asked her to send it so I could frontpage it. She then had second thoughts, but after reading it, I really twisted her arm. It's a lovely piece and I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I...
Yeah, we fast-forwarded past that scene. :)
Victory Is Mine
So we've got a New Year's Eve tradition in this here household. Since we've lived in SoCal, we've not only let the girls stay up (if they can) until midnight, but the past several years we've picked a classic film to enjoy as we await the countdown. We take stories pretty serious around here; we...
I'm sorry you were disappointed by my response. For what it's worth, the feeling is very mutual. Rather than addressing the arguments put forth, you dismiss them out of hand because you don't like the newspaper and have such little respect for the priest that you can't even bring yourself to use his honorific.
As Albert Einstein is reported to have said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The pro-life movement has been trying to eradicate abortion using the same tactics for 30 years and is no closer to achieving its goals. So by all means, continue doing exactly the same thing and vilify anyone who would dare suggest that the evidence indicates the pro-life leaders don't really have the interests of the pro-life movement at heart, and that the desired end might actually be accomplished some other way. You're doing ever so much good.
Hope for No Change
So tomorrow's Election Day. Much of the country has already been voting for weeks now, but here in California, there's little early voting, which is no big deal, since lines haven't been long for any of the elections since we've been round these parts. Of course, a lot of the regular Left of th...
Lynn—
A good question. I'm going to outsource my answer to Father Peter Daly, who wrote recently:
Bishops said that never before had people been required to violate their religious conscience to comply with the law. But every day, we tax Quakers and other religious pacifists to support wars. Jehovah’s Witnesses pay Medicare taxes for blood transfusions. Seventh-day Adventists in the military must report to duty on Saturdays. Mormons had to give up their cherished practice of polygamy as the price for bringing Utah into the Union. The fact is that religious liberty has never been absolute.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/parish-diary/why-fortnight-freedom-was-failure-among-average-catholics
I can't possibly say it better than Father Daly, although I would add that in the Supreme Court case Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), Justice Antonin Scalia ruled that even though the use of peyote was part of a Native American religious ceremony, the state still had the right to take punitive action against peyote users using peyote in a religious ceremony. Blood transfusions contradict the teachings of Christian Scientists, and yet the courts and legislatures have dictated that Christian Scientists must allow medical personnel to give their children transfusions if doctors deem it medially necessary. Pope John Paul II said the Iraq War was unjust and illegal, and yet as a practicing Catholic my tax dollars went to support this unjust and illegal war.
It's the price we pay for living in this great nation in which we live. It's not perfect, it never has been and it never will be, but we can and will keep striving to make it a more perfect union.
Hope for No Change
So tomorrow's Election Day. Much of the country has already been voting for weeks now, but here in California, there's little early voting, which is no big deal, since lines haven't been long for any of the elections since we've been round these parts. Of course, a lot of the regular Left of th...
...hokey smokes, you're absolutely right. Great catch!
Wreck on the Highway
Death, as a topic, was no stranger to Bruce Springsteen by the time he recorded his fifth album, 1980's The River. Already on his first album, 1973's Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, death features prominently on at least two tracks. But "Wreck on the Highway," The River's final song, dispenses ...
By far the highest praise I've ever received. You have set a high bar indeed for all future comments.
New York City Serenade
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle's “New York City Serenade” is perhaps the oddest album closer in the first half of Bruce Springsteen’s catalog. The longest (although just barely), it eschews what had already by this point, still early in his career, become a fairly standard and...
That is really and for true the Bean in that photo. And, yeah, for some reason, her transition from impossibly sweet and adorable little kid into really sharp yet still sweet and adorable kid has been even more striking than with her siblings. She's got a shiv she keeps hidden most of the time but every once in a great while she'll beam delightedly as she silently and invisibly slips it between your ribs. Inherited it from her mother, obviously.
The Great Crayon-Pencil War of 1953
So I step on something hard in the middle of the hall and emphatically do not curse (at least for the purposes of this story). I look down and see half a crayon. I kick it out of the way and notice another half crayon near—but not in—the trash can. I walk out towards the living room, limping sl...
Yes! And now I have material!
Radio Silence
Things have been a bit quiet here on Left of the Dial. One reason is because I've been blogging over at a new blog, Reason to Believe, with old friend and regular Left o' the Dialian DT. The new blog is pretty much entirely devoted to music, at least for now, so I might post less music-related s...
...a very, very valid point.
A Good Question
The toddler walks in with his new acquisition. ME: You have a battleaxe? He nods grimly with a small satisfied smile. His little fists loosen slightly before tightening up again on the axe handle. I play along. ME: Don't chop anybody's head off with it. He looks down at it, then slowly back up a...
I'm not sure why, but after nearly four years, this piece has suddenly become very popular in Asia and Australia over the past few months, now getting dozens of hits per week. If any of you who've found this page could drop me a line and let me know why, I'd surely be grateful.
Honesty in The Merchant of Venice
So. Here's a paper I wrote for my graduate class last semester, Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Basically, we'd read a play by a semi-obscure or even totally forgotten (as in Anonymous) renaissance playwright and one by Willy the Shake and compare and contrast. And what became immediately obv...
The demographics demand it. The fewer people that are able to vote, the longer the GOP can stay in power. Elementary, my dear.
Next stop: the poll tax. Oh, wait, that's essentially what many of the voter ID laws are. Well, I'm sure the current Supreme Court will...oh...
Why Do You Suppose...
...that after Americans voted for Barack Obama in record numbers, the Republican governors and legislators controlling states across the country have passed or are pushing legislation that solves a "problem" that doesn't exist, and in the process, just happens to have the potential to disenfranc...
Admitted upsides: Clarence's nephew sounds fantastic, Nils rips his solo and I don't think I've ever heard false crescendos (crescendi?) quite like that.
American Skin (1 Shot)
12 years after originally written and performed, now with the ghost of Trayvon Martin as well as Amadou Diallo hanging over it, still just as sadly applicable as ever.
In the mid-90s, when Springsteen seemed to be sort of at a loss, I had a dream of him recording and touring using Sonic Youth as his backing band, the way Warren Zevon did with REM and Neil Young did with Pearl Jam. Still think that would have been magical. Or maybe a disaster. But I'd have been okay with that, too.
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen ruined me. For a while, at least, I had a had time listening to other artists, even ones I loved, such as David Bowie, because no one else seemed to have the passion Springsteen had. Where other musicians sang their songs, Springsteen screamed his lyrics like they were poison ...
More...
Subscribe to scott’s Recent Activity