Another essay I put on Medium back in '18. Worldbuilding gone awry; or, when the world is building the author: Not that your crazy wall would look like this. But then there’s maintenance. So you collaged clippings, notes, and printouts and used pins and color-coded threads to fully materialize your mind map. Everything is stuck on with … Continue reading REPOST: Living Wall of Cray-Cray
REPOST: Frida, BODY, and the body
Put this on Medium back in '18. Blockbuster embalmed corpses face off with Frida Kahlo viscera in the arena of brunchtime entertainment: I am devouring a Camembert souffle while my girlfriend, looking to buy tickets from her phone, stumbles upon one of these pesky bits of controversy that seem to crop up more and more … Continue reading REPOST: Frida, BODY, and the body
The People Who Stay After The Party | a misadventure
Though the party had been a failure, the after was way worse. There were three people around the table in the dark, derelict room, one more of a character than the other, and a fourth mixing drinks. The Asian woman I certainly noticed first, not only because she spoke incessantly and in a high pitch, … Continue reading The People Who Stay After The Party | a misadventure
Someone’s There | on loneliness
I try to keep busy. I have my code, my books, my writings, my personal trainer. I have friends to chew the fat with. The flat doesn’t feel all that empty. Someone’s there, in a way. It’s when I go out that I see them. A woman carrying groceries in the bus. She’s going home … Continue reading Someone’s There | on loneliness
Rilke’s women
Letter to the young poet Kappus, Rome, 14 May 1904: Women, in whom life abides and dwells more immediately, more fruitfully and more trustingly, are bound to have ripened more thoroughly, become more human human beings, than a man, who is all too light and has not been pulled down beneath the surface of life … Continue reading Rilke’s women
Nobody gets how people talk like HBO’s Succession
"Words are like, what... nothing. Complicated air flow." I wanted to do a whole bit about this but turns out Nerdwriter has me covered. Seven-odd minutes of coercion, equivocation, nothing words, awkward pauses, emotional dyslexia, and bringing things up just to have them squashed. See how poor fuck Greg just can't tell context from content … Continue reading Nobody gets how people talk like HBO’s Succession
The Dragon’s Baby
Μαργαρίτα Παπαγεωργίου We only know her as Baby, and she does do baby, damsel in distress. She also does femme fatale. She does abuse survivor, war survivor, class survivor. She does tease and faithful friend. His friend. iMDB calls him Ogre, Franzen called him Fiend, the movie really calls him the Dragon. That's what you still call … Continue reading The Dragon’s Baby
Crashing through in Corona Time
Working on my essay on the pandemic blues. Big ups to J, as always, for helping with the editing: Corona Time is as weirdly social as it is intensely technological. When we can’t turn it into quality time, a lot of it seems to be about managing the contraflow of the Internet coming back at … Continue reading Crashing through in Corona Time
In praise of Bill Pullman’s soft-boiled detective
Harry Ambrose of The Sinner is the opposite of every Loose Cannon protagonist cramming the nicotine-stained hallways of detective shows—at least in terms of affect. Affable yet aloof, mumbling and groaning as he's searching for words, he's a man barely present. Loose Cannons take on cases either reluctantly or with the self-destructive fixation to match … Continue reading In praise of Bill Pullman’s soft-boiled detective
the thank you for your wishes poem | after Bukowski and co.
there has been enough anxiety frustration desperation self-loathing rage in my twenties to ruin any good seafood pasta at any good beach-side restaurant on any good birthday and there has been far too much inertia indecision insensitivity melancholy doubt and navel-gazing journal entries instead of outrageous fantasias that trigger the senses or sensual fantasies that … Continue reading the thank you for your wishes poem | after Bukowski and co.
the Budafoki amended 