Posts from ‘May, 2009’

A few months ago, we went to Marineland hoping to get some postmodern photos of America’s decaying culture of entertainment decadence. Instead, we got these, some depressing shots of a half-demolished theme park that is still trying to milk out a few dollars before sliding headlong into entropy.

Wait, wait, wait… WHAT? I can’t read! Right… SIT! ‘Ethel the Aardvark was trotting down the lane one lovely summer day, trottety-trottety-trot, when she saw a Quantity Surveyor…’ I’ve come to a scary conclusion recently that seems at odds with my chosen profession. I can’t read. Or, more accurately, I don’t read very completely. I [...]

Not that anybody’s asking, mind you, but this would be my syllabus for a course in writing short fiction: Stephen King, On Writing Stephen Koch, The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop J.D. Salinger, Nine Stories Stephen King, Night Shift Stephen King, Different Seasons James Joyce, Dubliners Flannery O’Connor, The Complete Stories Jeff VanderMeer, City of Saints [...]

If my two greyhounds have taught me anything, it is that you don’t own something until you’ve pissed on it. This must be the logic behind all these recent reboots and reimaginings: in the absence of true creativity, it works just as well to defile someone else’s story for a new generation as to create [...]

Sometime in the distant past, long after the statute of limitations on trespassing has gone by, certain individuals entered an abandoned school in an unnamed southern city. Authorities found their camera gear a year later, and these pictures were recovered.

My definition of “friend” is shifting and slipping thanks to Facebook. Yes, I joined. The reason is embarassing: I really enjoy gossip way more than you’d expect or consider healthy. I am a busybody and snoop, all too eager to read about the arcane doings of people I know well, hardly know at all, or [...]