Thanks to the magic of interweb research, I can pinpoint my discovery of Michael Chabon down to the exact date. When I started worked in commercial radio in the mid-nineteen-nineties, one of the little oddities I discovered was the presence … Continue reading My Writers: Michael Chabon
Throughout my high school years, I was a member of the Quality Paperback Book Club, an outfit that offered big, thick trade paperbacks, often exclusively, under the same rough model as the more famous Book of the Month Club. Part … Continue reading My Writers: Margaret Atwood
My friend Steve recently tagged me on Facebook, challenging me to come up with a list of “fifteen authors who have been an influence and you’re confident will always stick with you.” It was intended to be a brisk, modest exercise. The instructions even insisted that as little time as possible be used in the construction of the list. So naturally, I thought about it a lot. I didn’t agonize in the selection of the fifteen writers; I dutifully followed the instructions in that respect. But I did think about the list quite a bit after I shared it with … Continue reading My Writers: An Introduction
I contributed a couple of pieces this week at Spectrum Culture. On the film side, I reviewed a French film based on a true story involving terrorists hijacking an airplane. While I didn’t expend much effort on this angle in the review, it’s sometimes very odd to see French filmmakers wrestle with the some of the established mechanics of action movies and thrillers without applying their deconstructionist tendencies. It really does wind up landing in some nether region between United 93 and Passenger 57. In the Music section, I reviewed the debut full-length effort from Alabama Shakes. From the editorial … Continue reading Spectrum Check
“Most nights Claire disappeared into the crafts room, or had never come out of it in the morning. Technically no crafts emerged from this part of the house. We named it once with the hope that someone, sometime–a future child of ours, perhaps–would go in there and be productive, make something pretty or useful or interesting. Such were our speculations for the children we might have. They would fashion objects that glowed or spoke, and we would sit in wonder as we held their tremendous work in our hands. Our children would solve some fundamental boredom we could not escape, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire. We finished our lunch in silence.” –Don DeLillo, White Noise, 1985 “SETTING SUNLIGHT SLICES SHARPLY THROUGH THE DRY NOVEMBER AIR, BUT CANNOT CUT ITS CHILL. RUSH HOUR THRONGS CROWDING THE STREETS PULL THEIR COATS TIGHTER AGAINST THIS FIRST TOUCH OF APPROACHING WINTER…YET ONE MAN, LOOMING HIGH ABOVE THEM ALL, CASUALLY SHRUGS AWAY THE COLD…AS ALWAYS, HE KNOWS THE COMING DARKNESS WILL BRING A NEED FOR HIM–AND, AS ALWAYS, HE IS GRIMLY PREPARED–FOR HE IS … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
“Nineteen seventy-three. In the public imagination it was as fraught a year as you could name: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, withdrawal from Vietnam. Gravity’s Rainbow. Was it also the year that Prufrockian paralysis went mainstream–the year it entered baseball? It made sense that a psychic condition sensed by the artists of one generation–the Modernists of the First World War–would take a while to reveal itself throughout the population. And if that psychic condition happened to be a profound failure of confidence in the significance of individual human action, then the condition became an epidemic when it entered the realm of … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
I was all over the place at Spectrum Culture this week. First of all, I had a piece in the music section, reviewing something that was definitely outside of my usual range. The super-secret DVD backstory of this review is that I wrote it while flat in my back while suffering with an ailment that really needs not be elaborated upon. You should appreciate my discretion, believe me. I also reviewed the new film from director Ti West, which I actually made a point of requesting months in advance. For one thing, I have a marital obligation to get horror … Continue reading Spectrum Check
Last year, I took the occasion of Halloween (or at least the run-up to Halloween) to confess to the perhaps odd things that scared me when I was a kid. It only takes a second post to turn it into … Continue reading I’m afraid. I’m afraid. No, I’m scared. No I’m scared.
“I come to my journal as a Catholick to a confessor. My bruises insist these extraordinary past five hours were not a sickbed vision conjured by my Ailment, but real events. I shall describe what befell me this day, steering as close to the facts as possible.” –David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 2004 “HE STRIDES INTO THE THREATENING DARKNESS…AND NEITHER THE DARKNESS NOR THE CHAOS THAT IT CAUSES KEEPS HIM FROM THIS MIDNIGHT STALKING! THE FIRST FULL MOON OF WINTER PRESIDES OVER THE CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION. FIRECRACKERS SHATTER THE DARKNESS, EXORCISING THE EVIL SPIRITS OF THE PAST YEAR. AND YET, … Continue reading Great Moments in Literature
Coffee for Two 