Bob Levin's Blog
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Apr.20.2010
So I just had two pieces pop up on-line. The first is a review of a collection of feuilletons, "Sitting Shiva for Myself," by Berkeley author Renee Blitz:
http://troublewithcomics.tumblr.com/post/535229980/guest-reviewer-month-...
The other is a semi-memoir/semi-essay:
http://www....
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Feb.28.2010
“The Art of the Steal,” a recently released, deliciously well-made,if wobbly one-sided, documentary, recounts the City and County of Philadelphia’s take over of the Barnes Museum. For those unfamiliar with the story, Albert Barnes was a self-made millionaire – and gold medal caliber...
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Feb.17.2010
My latest piece is up at the Broad Street Review. Here's its opening paragraph, pre-editing:
The White House concert honoring the music of the civil rights movement made some curious choices in the performers it presented, and their artistry did not always stir my soul, but I did not regret that...
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Jan.30.2010
I was doing it twice a week. Then once. Now if I can manage one good one a month, I consider myself a success. And I peer in on my neighbors daily, keeping an eye on how they go about it. Oh, did I mention I am discussing blogging? Most of you, I must confess, I don’t read. (And from...
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10 comments
Jan.24.2010
My latest piece -- edited more than most (usually to its betterment)-- is up at The Broad Street Review:
http://www.broadstreetreview.com/index.php/main/article/bar_mitzvah_boy_a_memoir
Here is how it begins: "In 1953, when I was in fourth grade at Lea School in West Philadelphia, my...
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6 comments
Jan.22.2010
Keith Olberman on yesterday's Supreme Court decision.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72ZwG5vQ_04&feature=ytn%3Amptnews
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3 comments
Jan.16.2010
For some reason, I keep reading Sasha Frere-Jones’s “Pop Music” pages in THE NEW YORKER. Like I keep expecting to meet Johnny Ace or Bob Dylan or Neil Young there. Take the last issue, where Mr. (or Ms. – another thing I’m not up on) Frere-Jones carries on about Anne Lilia Berge Strand,...
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Jan.09.2010
For all the time I have been writing regularly and seriously, I have been a practicing attorney. At first, I handled all manner of cases – p.i., domestic, estates, criminal, even a trade name dispute and some debt collection – but for twenty-five years I have done nothing but represent workers...
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2 comments
Jan.05.2010
On The Family Blog, Sammy Harkham, of "Kramer's Ergot" fame, has listed my book "Most Outrageous" as one of his "Favorites of 2009." True, "Outrageous" was published in 2008, but Harkham also cited Bruce's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (1978),...
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2 comments
Jan.02.2010
My latest effort is up at The Broad Street Review. (A small portion may be familiar to faithful readers.) It opens like this:
Following my freshman year at Brandeis, I worked one week on the Franks’ Beverages production line. The factory was hot, the tasks monotonous, and the foreman...
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Jan.01.2010
For those interested in the reform legislation currently wending its way through congress, I again recommend my friend Budd Shenkin's blog. Budd is a pediatrician in the East Bay, with a background in public health. I thought his most recent post interesting and easy to follow.
http://...
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Dec.19.2009
My interview with J.T. Dockery and review of his “In Tongues Illustrated” is available at: http://www.tcj.com/?p=337: Here is how it begins:
“(IT)... comes at one wielding its illusive classification – art object? comic? album? book? – like a Kali-armed assassin her swords. Its aim is...
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Dec.06.2009
The other night, in the midst of a period of discussions of L’Affaire Polanski, where I am of the leave-the-old-scoundrel-alone persuasion, we caught, via On-Demand, the semi-charming 1987 release, “In the Mood” (Patrick Dempsey, Talia Balsam, Beverly D’Angelo), based on true events. It...
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Nov.28.2009
I recently re-watched most of HBO’s documentary on Roman Polanski. Since he’s been a frequent topic of discussion here, I thought some of the facts it recounts might be of interest. 1. Polanski pled guilty to unlawful sexual misconduct with a minor, a crime which connotes participation in...
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Nov.07.2009
The in-house techno-wizard, Adele, has solved my computer problems and I am now able to read others' blogs here, as well as post my own without going through the always-reliable Huntington Sharpe, allowing him to direct his talents and energies elsewhere. Anyway, here's the link to my latest...
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4 comments
Lurid and fascinating... loathsome (and)... compelling. ”
—UTNE Reader
About Bob
Bob Levin was born in Philadelphia March 14, 1942. Since 1968, he has lived in Berkeley with his wife Adele, a writer and retired psychotherapist. A retired attorney, he represented the injured in workers' compensation cases for more than 40 years.
Levin is...
Connections
Causes Bob Levin Supports
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, ACLU, PEN, Berkeley Emergency Food & Housing Project.
Bob’s Favorite Books
A Man With a Maid (vol 1-3); Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees; Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, The Recognitions.