‘Essays’ Archives
Sarajevo Film Festival
James Nesbitt from Five Minutes of Heaven The 15th Sarajevo Film Festival this year featured visits of such important guests as Mickey Rourke, Gillian Anderson, James Nesbitt, Kerry Fox, Tamar Novas and more. This important regional festival once again created a place to promote film, regional and international cinematography, to affirm young [...]
Looking Down from a Ski Chair
The world looks different from a ski chair, and everyone feels different moving through the air. This ride up Todd Mountain at the Sun Peaks Ski Resort in British Columbia, Canada, will take approximately eight minutes. I will rise 780 meters, according to the trail guide in my zipped pocket. Loading and unloading from a chairlift are always [...]
Narrow Escapes
Sixty years ago, I narrowly escaped a tortured death. Time, the great healer, has failed to eradicate its memory from my heart. Many times during the night, while I'm sleeping, my dreams flash back to the visions of that horrible scene, and I feel the scorching heat from the tongues of the flames which dance around me. The yells and screams of the [...]
Courage
Transcribed from the recently discovered memoir of the late Alonzo Cushing Introduction and transcription by Donna Marie Miller and Adam David Miller Sifting through information on a subject completely different, the 1825 visit of General Lafayette to the little country village of Fredonia, New York, I came upon an interesting entry in the [...]
Jane Eyre and Alice
When my mom died, one of the things that nobody else wanted was a copy of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, that had been given to my grandmother when she was twelve. I had always been fascinated by my maternal grandmother, Alice, because my mom didn’t remember her much, and she looked so pretty in her wedding [...]
Innocence and Esperance
Mark Twain may have written about Innocents Abroad, but when many people write or talk about their times abroad, they often discuss losing their innocence, their sense of naiveté that often accompanies an American citizenship. For example, when I was preparing to go abroad, a good friend of mine, Richard, told me of his own travels in Europe. He [...]
How I Broke Into New York Fashion
There was no point to sticking around Montreal any longer. It was 1982 and the economy was in the tank. I put all my things in storage, packed up my best clothes and my design portfolio, and caught the Montrealer express train to New York. I remember gazing wistfully over the hardscrabble Pointe St. Charles neighborhood as the train roared [...]
