Kevin Ryan
TheBlaze
Denton, TX, United States
Contact Kevin
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Past articles by Kevin:
Review: ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’
In the age of acceleration, art has become tiny and ghostlike — miniaturized, smooth, lonely. Where did the bombasts and maniacs go? Who excommunicated the dreamers and radicals? More important, why do maximalism and playfulness suddenly make the critics yawn? “There is room enough for everythi... → Read More
Ryan: The humans who came before us
Lewis Mumford’s love for architecture began when he was a boy, before he got tuberculosis, before he was drafted into the First World War, before he won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, before he became friends with Frank Lloyd Wright. He used to go on walks with his grandfather through New York C... → Read More
The Jordan Peterson war continues
Once again, Canada's rudest man squares off with the Heckling Class. Once again, the rest of us are stuck in the middle. → Read More
Ryan: Becoming a father during the COVID-19 pandemic
Driftwood It's perfectly fine to be confused by the strangeness of life, Margo — sometimes it's even admirable. In about a month, you will be born. Margo, my daughter, my first child. Tiny, barefooted little girl, brave inside your watery shelter for now. Protected from an ocean-wide disease, a constituency of fever. Someday, you will ask me ab → Read More
Christina Hoff Sommers and the Maltese poodle
"Round the city, round the clock; Everybody needs you." — Frank OceanThe chaos can wear on her, but American author and philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers handles it like she handles the rest of life: with patience, with a sense of humor, with a mind for cornering truth. Still, the past few months h... → Read More
Ryan: Bernie at the airport Holiday Inn
(Part One) . (Part Two). (Part Three). Some poor guy booked a hotel room on Feb. 3 at the Holiday Inn Airport Conference Center in Des Moines, Iowa, assuming it would be a harmless Monday night. Only to find himself in the middle of an overflowing Bernie rally on the night of the caucuses.Fo... → Read More
Ryan: Mayhem in Iowa, featuring Amy Klobuchar
(Part One) (Part Two)Down the street, MSNBC had taken over an entire Java Joe's Coffee House with live broadcasts of "Morning Joe."The world was watching all month, but especially that day. Any time you turned on the radio or scrolled through social media, the subject was Iowa. And, every moment, yo... → Read More
Ryan: Who will save our shopping malls now?
A woman in a black-and-white sweater vacuumed Gardner-Collier jewelry store. No customers. No reason to vacuum. Penn Central Mall in Oskaloosa, Iowa, a town of roughly 11,000 people. The building looks like hell, attached to a Hy-Vee and a Goodwill. The same cheesy song blared out of a boombox around the corner as a color-guard team → Read More
Ryan: Mayor Pete's last night in town
Pete Buttigieg deadpanned the stage, barely out of view on the eve of disaster. For nearly a year, he had practically lived in Iowa, as he competed with a veritable boatload of Democratic presidential candidates. Despite the outlandishly crowded field, he had risen from what the Washington Post described as "the most interesting mayor you've never → Read More
Ryan: Trump versus Pelosi in the game of politics
Bullfighting is a gruesome art. A hateful, stomach-churning game. In Spain, bullfighters are called "toreros," and they lead a cuadrilla, or entourage, of assistants and other fighters. Picadors are the men on horses with lances jabbing at the bull strategically, forcing it to keep its head lowered. Banderilleros pace around on foot, and jab decora → Read More
Ryan: Iowa, Iowa, Iowa
Iowa, Iowa, Iowa.This was Iowa, the true America. If there is such a thing. There isn't. There is. There has to be. There cannot be. There absolutely is. Friendly people, in general. Patient, courteous. At one point, at one of the many train-track intersections in the state, the crossing gate lowers and the bell rung and a train chugged by, and sev → Read More
Ryan: Buddy Holly, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of us
Buddy Holly played his last show at Surf Ballroom, site of the Democratic Wing Ding. Right there in Clear Lake, Iowa, as part of the disastrous and possibly illegal "Winter Dance Party" tour. Tickets cost $1.25. The show didn't sell out, partly because it was an unplanned gig. And partly because the tour itself was a nightmare, a series of disaster → Read More
Ryan: Joe Biden, born to Wing Ding
Along the walkway off the dance floor of the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, men in funny little black hats waved signs that said, "QUIET PLEASE." An order that nobody even tried to follow. You know that feeling? Like when you're at a football game on a Friday night and the entire county is dark except the stadium, because everyone for miles is → Read More
Ryan: Bernie at the disco
On an August afternoon at El Malecón Events Center, we waited for the democratic socialist. He had the wild white hair like a monk and the thick glasses and the booming voice full of hacks and no niceties. The Des Moines, Iowa, venue had been redecorated since we visited a few nights before when we chatted with Julian Castro. It didn't even feel li → Read More
Ryan: Trump in the Funhouse Finale
Part One. Part Two. Part Three. At the end of President Trump rallies, I would throw on my Carhartt jacket, sneak out of the press area, then blend in with everyone as they left, filing out through swinging doors. Often, someone held the door open for me. Just 30 minutes earlier, the same person had most likely hissed at me for being a journali → Read More
Ryan: God is
In De Animus, Aristotle argues that there are three levels of Being. Level One contains plants, which are only capable of the nutritive faculty. Level Two contains non-human animals, who as well as the nutritive faculty have perception and motivation. Level Three is occupied solely by Man, who is, o... → Read More
Ryan: Kamala Harris and the wheels on the bus
This fall, I saw Kamala Harris some 15-odd times, and wrote five stories about her, because she was on fire. By the time I finished the stories, she had begun a nosedive that finally made contact a few days ago with the suspension of her 2020 Democratic presidential bid. I've released one of the stories already, an account of what was one of the → Read More
Ryan: Elizabeth Warren does the Wing Ding
Are we kind enough to the people we disagree with? → Read More
Ryan: The Ascent of Kanye West
Apollo, god of poetry, light, prophecy, dance. Star of Greek mythology, rivaled only by Zeus, his father. God of justice. God of purification, knowledge, healing. God of the Sun. But most of all, god of music. So they called him the Leader of the Muses. And on a bright Sunday morning midway through November, at the tail end of a decade, Christi → Read More
Ryan: Suction energy, pt. 1
After his speech at the Boone County fairgrounds, Joe Biden nodded and people engulfed him like he was their oxygen. Journalists shouted questions, photographers shoved people aside. Biden's bodyguards even drew closer. I found a good oak tree and hid out in the shade, 100 yards from the chaotic hud... → Read More