Sam Stephenson

Pamlico River near Bath, N.C. looking west this evening. Been seeing variations of this regularly since Day 1. Never gets old.

Me at work. With writer Allan Gurganus. Durham Bulls Athletic Park 2013. I was directing a doc project called Bull City Summer, documenting a season at AAA baseball stadium.

Athletes the world over, in all sports, as far as I can tell, use the words "obviously" and/or "honestly" in every sentence when talking to media.

Four benches by Jenny Holzer in light rain. Also saw a large late Turner inside and, of course, it was stormy. Not a bad day here. The Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA.

Tennessee Williams by Sam Stephenson March 30, 2011 – March 26, marked the centennial of Tennessee Williams’s birth. The Paris Review celebrates with an appreciation by Sam Stephenson, through the eyes of W.

"Camino Real" (1953) by Tennessee Williams is getting new attention Williamstown Theater Fest now. I'm en route there to see Camino in person for first time. W. Eugene Smith thought it was a masterpiece. I wrote about his take in Gene Smith's Sink and here:
www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/03...

Indeed.

A brood of barn swallow fledglings above our front stoop. Them and their parents poop everywhere but we don’t care. An absolute privilege to have them. It’s the 3rd brood of the parents this year, and their most successful. Kudos to them. Extraordinary how hard the parents work to feed them.

THANK YOU, Joanna. You are kind and generous.

Sonny Clark by Sam Stephenson January 13, 2011 – Forty-eight years ago today, the pianist Conrad Yeatis “Sonny” Clark died of a heroin overdose in a shooting gallery somewhere in New York City. He was

94 years ago today the pianist Sonny Clark was born in the coal mining "patch," Herminie No. 2, Pennsylvania. A long chapter in my book, Gene Smith's Sink, is about Clark. Two pieces that presaged parts of that chapter were originally published here:

www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/01...

Ultimately Unbounded: A conversation with Alina Ștefănescu - The Rumpus Mystic-heretic-philosopher-poet Alina Ștefănescu’s newest collection of poetry, My Heresies (Sarabande 2025) is a radiant skirmish of families and

Grateful to Gabriela Denise Frank and @therumpus.net for this chance to speak about my new poetry collection published by @sarabandebooks.bsky.social. 🫶

therumpus.net/2025/07/17/u...

Researching 1960-70s heroin scene in NYC, watched The French Connection for first time in decades. Brilliant visual sequencing. Very little dialogue. Need more movies like that.

Imagine. If. Biden. Had. Done. This.

Thunder GM Sam Presti's Jazz-Rap Album, Unearthed: PTFO Behind the Music | PTFO YouTube video by PABLO TORRE FINDS OUT

@moye.bsky.social hipped me to this brilliant video connecting jazz and basketball, Branford Marsalis to Sam Presti and Rick Carlisle, by way of an obscure OKC Thunder fan who is also a crate diver at record stores. Remarkable. @pablo.show

www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

I was drawn in. But. The next 20 only available to paid subscribers? Need a new way. This isn’t it. I would be more likely to contribute if there wasn’t the firewall.

Dan Weiss on drums, Peter Evans on trumpet, Patricia Brennan on vibes, and Miles Okazaki on guitar.

I've been cranking this new CD in the car this week. Sounds absolutely great. Unusual blend of instruments in a band led by the drummer - guitar, vibes, and trumpet. Highly recommended.

Well, +1 on your general point. But we have the most diverse sports referees and coaches, by far. In Euro fútbol, the most global of sports, which prints money, 100% of refs are white, 99% of coaches. Some NBA or NFL or NCAA games, all refs and both coaches are black. FWIW.

A bunch of us who study this kind of thing tried to warn people that a second Trump regime wouldn't be anything like the first, but eggs and Biden was old and Kamala had a funny laugh or something.

Boy, the Yankees TV booth has turned into cobwebs and mothballs. Kay sounds like a tired radio talk show guy doing play-by-play as a second job. He briefly describes what you just saw.

Yeah, I don't know. My father turns 95 in less than 2 months. Hot dogs every Saturday lunch for my entire aware life. My mother, same thing, until she passed for a reason unrelated to diet at 89. I will say they both exercised daily and my father still goes to the gym every morning.

Not everything living in TX I love. But my loft office downtown Bryan makes me feel lucky.That’s my maternal grandfather’s (Galax, VA) fiddle case on wall, my paternal grandmother’s (Smithfield, NC) loveseat foreground and W. Eugene Smith’s (821 6th Ave. NYC) darkroom sink (my high desk) on right.

“I did not write this book for those traditional leftists who have traded in their dreams for orthodoxy and sectarianism. Most of those folks are hopeless, I’m sad to say.” - Robin D.G. Kelley from his brilliant 2002 book.

Went to farmer’s market this morning for tomatoes, peaches, plums and blackberries. For the millionth time I’m awakened to how poor is the produce at the chain grocery. This stuff is so good - so alive, spiritual really - it makes me melancholy to think about the desultory nature of convenience.

Thanks for the tip

And now this.

Cool clouds and some blue sky while in line to pick up son from half day camp.

Makes sense

I follow the NBA pretty closely but these are two of the teams I know the least about. So please elaborate.

Yes, not great distances geographically but in just about every other way.

I used to make a mixed tape/cd every December to mark my year. Each track connects directly, in one way or another, with something going on in some facet of my life at the time. Recently I came across this one from 2012 while unpacking some boxes long in storage. For the archives.