Steel Wagstaff

Trying to do good things for good reasons

Author: Steel Wagstaff

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #9]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #9]

    Here’s the ninth disc in a series of mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a couple years gone.

  • Three versions of an Objectivist Poetics

    Three versions of an Objectivist Poetics

    “Grandmother, have you ever looked a donkey in the eyes?” “I may have done, my dear boy, I don’t remember.” “In that case you haven’t, because otherwise you’d certainly remember. Grandmother, if donkeys could speak …” “Believe me, my dear boy, they wouldn’t and couldn’t say anything superhuman. They’d ask for good straw and clean…

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #8]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #8]

    Here’s #8 in a series of mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years ago.

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #7]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #7]

    Back in the day, I made some mixtapes for Laurel’s birthday. Here’s #7 in that series.

  • Joyce Maynard on her mother and adult love

    Joyce Maynard on her mother and adult love

    A few months after meeting Sydney Bacon, Joyce Maynard’s mother, Fredelle wrote this, in a letter to a friend: You ask if ‘I’m in love again.’ No, it’s not that. ‘In love’ was the experience with Max, so many years ago and for so long. ‘In love’ was feeling one would go anywhere, do anything,…

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #6]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #6]

    Here’s the sixth of several mix tapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a couple of years yon.

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #5]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #5]

    Here’s the fifth of the mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years back.

  • Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine

    Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine

    I just finished Bread and Wine, the second book in Ignazio Silone’s The Abruzzio Trilogy (translated by Eric Mosbacher). The book is a moving, funny, and sometimes unbelievable look into provincial life in Italy under Mussolini. Set near the start of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the novel largely focuses on a character named Pietro Spina, an exiled Communist…

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #4]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #4]

    Here’s the fourth of several mix tapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years ago.

  • Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

    Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

    At the recommendation of my friend Spencer, I recently began reading the Italian novelist Ignazio Silone’s The Abruzzio Trilogy, beginning with his 1933 novel Fontamara. It is an extraordinary bit of social-realist inflected anti-fascist satire, and I found myself quickly devouring it and eager to begin the next book in the series. It’s a very short book,…

  • Eef Barzelay makes a yogurt song sound like something else

    Eef Barzelay makes a yogurt song sound like something else

    This song is part of yogurt maker Chobani’s most recent ad campaign. And yet, Eef makes it something worth listening to.

  • On the Anniversary of George Oppen’s Death

    On the Anniversary of George Oppen’s Death

    31 years ago today, the poet George Oppen died in the Idylwood Convalescent Home (now the Idylwood Care Center) in Sunnyvale, California. He was 76 years old, and had been suffering from dementia (Alzheimer’s disease) for several years before his death. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about George or his wife…

  • From the Preface to Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

    From the Preface to Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

    The art of storytelling — the art of putting one word after another, one line after another, one sentence after another, explaining one thing at a time, without allusions or reservations, calling bread bread and wine wine — is just like the ancient art of weaving, the ancient art of putting one thread after another,…

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #3]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #3]

    Here’s the third of several discs I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years back:

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #2]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #2]

    For Laurel’s birthday a few years ago, I decided to make her a set of mixtapes, one for each year of her life, 30-something in all. The discs didn’t have any inherent connection, just a collection of interesting music on each one. Here’s the second in the series. Enjoy!

  • Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #1]

    Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #1]

    For Laurel’s birthday a few years ago, I decided to make her a set of mixtapes, one for each year of her life, 30-something in all. The discs didn’t have any inherent connection, just a collection of interesting music on each one. Here’s the first in the series. Enjoy!

  • Shake That Thang [Disc #2]

    Shake That Thang [Disc #2]

    This is the second of two ‘Shake That Thang’ danceable mixtapes I made for Laurel a few years back. A couple of songs are missing from the original mix, but it’s still pretty fun. Enjoy!

  • #8: Choosing an Officiant & Getting a Marriage License

    #8: Choosing an Officiant & Getting a Marriage License

    It’s been a long time since I started these posts, but now’s as good a time as any to finish them off. The details won’t be as fresh, certainly, but those that remain will have survived three plus years’ worth of memory-winnowing. Choosing an Officiant When it came to selecting an officiant for our wedding,…

  • John Mark Nelson, “Oh, Light Within Us!”

    ‘I’ll be waiting when you call my name / I’ll be waiting at the door’

  • Handwritten note on Lorine Niedecker

    Lorine Niedecker Visited her in March (1970)—rumors: total recluse — something wrong with her? Mental breakdown?—ordinary cleaning woman in mental hospital—so, trepidation—fears groundless / “moment I walked in her door, she was opposite of recluse: outgoing, of good cheer, very lively. Time flew. Delightful afternoon—much in common with Al. —House only a few steps from…