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Claes Oldenburg’s Torn Notebook

Another example of “Pretentious City Pretend Art” is Claes Oldenburg’s Torn Notebook currently found marring the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Claes Oldenburg created some magnificent and provocative pieces of art over his career but Torn Notebook is not one of them. I have felt that way from the moment the monstrosity was first described in the local Lincoln newspaper many years ago.

Here’s why: The good people of Nebraska have an identity crises.

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The CP/M Kaypro 2x

I am reading the great Andy Rathbone’s Windows XP for Dummies book and on the “About the Author” page Andy reveals his first computer was a “26-pound portable CP/M Kaypro 2x” that he bought in 1985.

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A Monument for Hugh Luke

[Note: This article was written for the 75th Anniversary celebration of Prairie Schooner held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln October 11-13, 2001.]

Hugh Luke, former Editor of Prairie Schooner, was teaching an undergraduate course in Poetry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln when I first met him. I remember being astonished by Hugh’s passion for the written word and his influence and inspiration have steeped deep within me for 15 odd years or so.

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