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Having collaborated with photographer and graphic designer Nancy Cantwell as part of her Times Quotidian project, I've always been struck by how central issues of relationship have been to her work. Like many creative people, Nancy is focused on a single inexpressible quality that lies…

Re-screening early Godard films after his recent passing I am wonderstruck that we live in a world in which it is possible, at any time of day, and on any number of digital devices, to watch his 1965 sci-fi masterpiece Alphaville. Shot in black and…

Nancy Cantwell, formerly the editor of Times Quotidian, an arts and culture blog I worked with for the better part of a decade, sent me some recent work and I instantly wanted to present it on Dharma Noir. In Cloud Theory, Nancy uses manipulated skyscapes to…

Meeting In Neo Noir is a photograph by Pablo Abreu.

I am haunted by a cave in the Transvaal. In 2013, a pair of accomplished spelunkers (such a remarkable word!) exploring the Rising Star cave system in South Africa found their way through a long channel so narrow only those with very slender physiques make…

I have a longstanding debate going on with an accomplished Zen teacher and author about the ubiquity of trauma. All human infants, I maintain, experience trauma, and samsara is the inevitable result. In the best of cases, with secure loving attachments maintained continuously, the infant…

As anyone who has ever tried to name a band or a theatre company or a novel will confirm, naming can be a tricky process. While the phrase dharma noir has a nice ring to it, sounds that appeal to the ear often convey meanings…