Tim Barrus: Year of the Hyena

Tim Barrus: Year of the Hyena

A Division Laid Bare

Take notes. The graphic implies a civil war. It’s in your face. The image works, but not alongside the writing of this particular article. Soltis-Anderson is kinda perky, and very informed. The juxtaposition of the flag, with its message that we are undone, is a whole world away from the…

Anita Hill, Dignified

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/28/opinion/kamala-harris-dignity.html#permid=137174224 Take notes. Dignity in the face of screaming rage. By someone who has been burned before. This was very well written. I could never get into the whole nonviolent affect that speaks to us of calm. Calm is a problem. Anita Hill is pointing to a bigger issue. Her…

ALL BETS ARE OFF

Take notes. The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as “the embodiment of modern political evil”. Under Hitler’s leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans)…

DEMENTIA

Take notes. Many of the Boomers with HIV are now elderly. HIV/AIDS affects many of the body’s organ systems, including the brain and nervous system. HIV infection actually makes its way to the brain early in the disease process. HIV encephalopathy is an infection spread throughout the brain. The greater…

North Korea

Take notes. I would like to know what was said in those phone calls to the Kremlin. Is contacting the leader of a country we are at war with even legal. I forgot. There is nothing treasonous about calling up a really close, close friend. I forgot. Illegal is a…

Your Mouth

the last time I touched your soft lips with my fingers/ you put those fingers in your mouth/ tasting dreams/ but by the wind grieved, ghost/ we wrote that book together/ the ice machine was just outside the room/ it sounded like the USS Enterprise/ smoking ass/ but you cannot…

Ross Douthat’s Catholicism is Subordination

Take notes. There is no god. There is no Jesus. There is no heaven. There are no wing rentals for Victoria’s Secret Angels. There are no angels. There are no gates. There is no sane theology. There never was a virgin Mary. Jesus did not walk on water. When Ross…

Tim Barrus, New York Times

Take notes. Great piece. I knew we were in trouble when the Hurricane blew the front door off. I live at the top of a mountain in the Appalachian Blue Ridge. I have survived 22 hurricanes. But nothing like this one. The water was coming at us sideways. There was…

Tim Barrus: New York Times

Take notes. “But voters still trust his positions more than his opponent’s.” Don’t tell me. Show me. I do not believe it. There’s a different standard for showing, and clinging to a narrative that is dubious at best. How do we know that Americans trust Trump more. Where are the…

Tim Barrus: New York Times

Take notes. Thank you for one very well-written piece. I did think that the issue of violent rhetoric was glossed over. This happens in journalism when one is trying to sound somewhat objective in relationship to how political considerations enter into the focus of how big is this dragon. That…

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ART – TIM BARRUS

Mister Potato Head

I do not look back much. It has saved my ass. I wish book publishing would  stop what with the reader has to meet the writer thing. I just don’t get it. Why can’t the reader identify that thing they have for delving into what happened during your divorce. I…

Tim Barrus: Let’s Get Rid of SCOTUS

Take notes. There are two  Americas. The rich tribe. And the poor tribe. Nothing of significance in between. The senate is the rich guys. They never go down without a blood feud. The House of Representatives is also with the rich guys. They do go down regularly. The bottom is…

Hurricane Helene

Take notes. It was Armageddon. I am still clawing out of it. Even as my neighbors are just beginning to deal with the trauma of losing everything. The tourists are pouring in. A steady stream of tourism – disaster porn – didn’t even flinch at another opportunity to see us…

Tim Barrus: NC and the Pollsters

Take notes. I lie to polls. This is Appalachia. From this perspective, this piece nails North Carolina. The new NC, and the old NC. It’s difficult to get folks around here to slide into politics. It begins with a shrug. Then, we tiptoe around: I thought Trump was gonna… You’all…

Tim Barrus: New York Times

Take notes. I have no faith. Things are worsening fast. I got my kids to another country. I am hopeful we will have a civil war. Repeat: I am hopeful we will have a civil war. The problem is that – allow me to call them the Normals – it…

Tim Barrus: Book Art

Americans Are Apathetic

I was working in my office in the Hotel across the street from the Capitol building in Michigan. Our guests were legislators.The Secret Service wanted to speak to me. George Wallace was coming town and he was staying with us. I lived at the hotel, too. “There will be a…

Tim Barrus: The Great American Novel

Tim Barrus: The Great American Novel A Novel In A Novel

Today Is More Important Than The Past

I do this stuff for the suits. On a personal level, I’m just this anonymous guy – nothing special – on a dirt bike passing by shooting images on a GoPro. Of you. And you. And you. Kids want to know why “You’all don’t wear a helmet is the law…

Tim Barrus: Blind Obedience

How do we deal with so much cultural Blind Obedience, that we are not creating people who know about the world.

Chichchen Itza

Chichen Itza Take Notes. The starlings have arrived from the moon. All they drink is Scotch. They go barefoot on the boat, and they take photographs of everything they see. They will be sitting in your backyard’s solitary oak. Starlings vote. But it’s the whisky that makes them so articulate.…

Books Banned In the South

Books Banned in the American South – Peter Rabbit – Tom Sawyer – Huckleberry Finn – The Blood Runs Like a River Through My Dreams – Winnie The Poo – Les Miserables – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Frankenstein – Treasure Island – Lolita – The Story of…

One Ugly Little Man

There is an emptiness in this man that cannot believe he even has to run for the position he desires. What about what we want. I failed as a writer, but not as a photographer. This photograph is tiresome. It’s overly pixilated. The photograph is juxtaposed against all the other…