Correspondence Through Poetry. A Mind-Numbing Week.

Father Verses Sons: A Correspondence in Poems by Herbert Gold and Ari Gold, with Ethan Gold

Imagine this, your father is in his 90s, he lives alone in a small rent-controlled apartment that has been his home for over 60 years. Covid is raging and you want to help your father not to feel so terribly isolated. Your dad is a well-known author while you and your twin brother are involved in all manner of creative enterprises, including filmmaking, music and writing, so, you suggest an ongoing correspondence with your father. Ari Gold mailed his father a poem, asking for one in return. Later, Ari’s twin brother, Ethan, also got into the game. Thus was launched a lifesaving literary correspondence, and a testament to the bonds of family. The resulting poems are playful, honest, funny, and moving. Secrets are invoked alongside personal and often painful history. Ari and Ethan’s mother, Herbert Gold’s second wife, died in a helicopter crash alongside the famous rock promoter and impresario Phil Graham in 1991. Her ghost roams through the poems and the wonderful archival photos included in the book. The father and his sons write tenderly of their hunger for connection, about the woman that all three men have lost (a mother, a wife), and about the passion that all three seek. Ultimately, these poems tell a singular story of men bumbling their way towards love. Filmmaker, Ari Gold joins Life Elsewhere to share deep insights into this often intimate book. The conversation is touching, memorable  and not to be missed.

Since the harrowing so-called debate between president Biden and the GOP contender the 24-hour news cycles have been aghast with pundits analyzing every single blink, mumble and hoarse whisper of the aging incumbent. To add much more unneeded fuel to an already scolding hot firestorm, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled the following:

Trump v. United States (23-939)

The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority; he is also entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts; there is no immunity for unofficial acts.

Before there was sufficient time to digest that mind-boggling decision, news came in that sentencing in the Trump hush money conviction is postponed until September. To obtain a much-needed astute perspective on these mind-numbing decisions we called on frequent Life Elsewhere contributor, Dr. Binoy Kampmark. He dissects the possible outcomes and issues a warning to be cautious before rushing to conclusions, if not judgement. Plus, Kampmark, being one the foremost authorities on the Julian Assange story share the latest update of the recently freed Wikileaks founder.