David Rompf

Art is necessary for democracy. “The artist forges himself to resist his time’s tyrannies. True artists refuse to serve injustice and lies.” - Albert Camus @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
#Art

When your flight is delayed at SFO, you go to a drag show, of course. #sanfrancisco #pride

Opinion | Really, Secretary Rubio? I’m Lying About the Kids Dying Under Trump?

Trump and Marco Rubio have children's blood on their hands from the dismantling of medical aid for HIV treatment. Gift article with details about children's deaths below:
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/opinion/rubio-usaid-africa.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LU8.1nWH.0hOXle7x7f25&smid=url-share

Hands Off - Day of Action in New York City. The power of a peaceful protest!

“I’m going to ask you again. Where were you when you joined the Signal chat and why were you there?”

Costco is pushing back — hard — against the anti-DEI movement. It’s getting noticed | CNN Business Walmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply and other companies are changing or walking away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in response to right-wing pressure. But Costco believes DEI imp...

Bravo to Costco for standing up to anti-DEI efforts! I used to be critical of Costco for silly reasons but not any longer. More companies need to show this resolve…

www.cnn.com/2024/12/27/b...

Opinion | The Surprising Allure of Ignorance We want to know, but we also want not to know, sometimes fiercely so.

Recommended reading: A timely (and timeless!) analysis of the dangerous allure of ignorance.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/o...

a cornucopia full of fruits and vegetables with the words happy written on the bottom ALT: a cornucopia full of fruits and vegetables with the words happy written on the bottom

Grateful for the world’s farmworkers, who are often forgotten and invisible amid the abundances.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The best nonfiction book FOR 2024 was published in 1960: “The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich,” by William Shirer. The political and character parallels are spine-chilling. Santayana’s prophetic admonition about forgetting the past sounds a new alarm on every page. #books

Samantha Harvey | The Booker Prizes Winner of the Booker Prize 2024 for Orbital. Samantha Harvey lives in the UK and is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University

Samantha Harvey’s novel, “Orbital,” which won the 2024 Booker Prize, is possibly the most beautifully written book of the last 10 years. It’s a love letter to earth, to the cosmos, and to humanity. #books thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-l...

Also recommended: The classic and comprehensive “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” by William Shirer. The historical and character parallels are spine-chilling. Crucial foundational reading. (And can be borrowed for any length of time for free on a Kindle.)

YouTube video by Guardian News Māori MPs perform haka and disrupt NZ parliament debate on treaty rights changes

A peaceful, moving protest: Maori members of New Zealand's parliament perform a "haka" to protest a bill that would reinterpret a treaty between Britain and the indigenous people.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=N__O...

"The Saturday Shift": a piece about my brief, bewildering life as a waiter in England. (I set the dining room on fire, and then this happened....)
www.pangyrus.com/zest/the-sat...

"King of Pawns," my short story about a pawn broker, a mysterious mountain man, and two wolves: readwildness.com/33/rompf-king

The Plan to Make Michigan the Next Space State Residents are up in arms about a proposed spaceport project, the first of its kind in the Midwest, which would involve launching rockets near the shoreline of Lake Superior.

A controversial plan to build a spaceport on the shores of Lake Superior: www.newyorker.com/news/us-jour...

When Tarzan Met Leonardo In the midst of the Great Depression, the ten-year-old son of an Express Railway agent hunkered down in his modest family abode in Anderson, South Carolina, to read the Tarzan novels. Edgar Rice Burro...

"When Tarzan Met Leonardo," an essay about Guy Davenport, in Harvard Review:
www.harvardreview.org/content/a-le...

Once More to the Pond In college I had an English professor who revealed her habit of reading Paradise Lost at least once every year. “I’ve now read it fifty times,” she said with manifest pride and amazement in marking he...

"Once More To The Pond," my essay about reading Thoreau's "Walden" four times in different places.
www.harvardreview.org/content/once...

Ancient Greek on the Grass Armed with a Cyclops eye and a watermelon, Joseph Medeiros performed a one-man Odyssey at dawn in East River Park.

"Ancient Greek On The Grass," in The New Yorker: A brilliant actor performs a one-man Odyssey in Ancient Greek. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...