January 2011
13 posts
The Letterpress: Gun, With Occasional Music
Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem
A few years back, I was talking to my favorite musician, Glen Phillips, after a concert in Virginia. He’s both a great performer and a super-literate guy. When the conversation turned from science to science-fiction, I asked him for a book recommendation and the first one he came up with Jonathan Lethem’s Gun, With Occasional Music. ...
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The Reaction
The Reaction
“Rubber” Trailer
Before I even say a thing, let me just describe the opening scene of the new trailer for French writer/director Quentin Dupieux’s new movie, “Rubber”. Like all great stories, it starts with a tire. The worn and weathered radial is lying in the sand in what could be any strip of roadside America in the southwest. Boring, I know. But that’s when things...
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Channel Surfing
Channel Surfing
Califoirnication Season 4
Sundays at 9pm
Showtime
Lock your liquor cabinets and hide your daughters. Hank’s back. Showtime’s hit series Californication has returned for its fourth season which can only mean three things: more whiskey fueled self-loathing, more zany adventures with Hank’s agent Charlie Runkle and, of course, more of the city’s angels...
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The Mix Tape: RING THE BELLS EP
The Mix Tape
Artist: Satellite
Album: Ring the Bells EP
At Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles, writer and producer Mitch Allan hosts a recurring singer-songwriter night featuring his friends and co-writers. In 2009, Steven McMorran joined the rotation and jump-started the chain reaction that would lead to Satellite’s formation. Once Josh Dunahoo fell in with the project, the band was...
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Now Hear This: O Shit: Why Oprah Winfrey Might Be...
Now Hear This
O Shit:
Why Oprah Winfrey might be the most dangerous woman on earth.
She preaches weekly to a viewership of over twenty million (about 15% of the nation’s adult population). She has been ranked one of TIME magazines 100 Most Influential People eight times (the only one to make every list). She is simulcast in over one-hundred different countries. Her magazine is one of...
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The Letterpress
The Letterpress
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
I saw the animated film version of Howl’s Moving Castle in theaters when it came out and walked away with mixed feelings: the world was stuffed with vivid characters, falling stars, and shape-shifting magic. Yet, the story was somewhat lackluster, jumpy, and poorly explained. While it took me several years to get around to...
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On The Menu
On The Menu
Restaurant: The Quarry House
Cuisine: Bar Fare
Location: Downtown Silver Spring
Cost ($-$$$): $ Cheap
From the street, you’d be lucky to even notice that the place exists: a small plywood awning with the faded letters “QH” etched into it is your only indication of where this local watering hole is hiding. Find it once, though, and I promise that you’ll never forget.
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The Reaction
THE QUOTE:
“When you’re awake you can suppress imagination. But you can’t suppress dreams.”
-Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore
THE REACTION:
My brother recommended this book to me about a year ago, saying that it would be unlike anything I’d ever read. He was spot-on accurate with that comment and the novel is as entertaining as it is abstract. If...
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The Mix Tape
The Mix Tape
Artist: Kanye West
Album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
When I first heard “Power” last spring, I knew that Yeezy was back and that his long awaited follow-up to Graduation (disregarding his dark foray into electronica, 80’s Heartbreak) was going to be some of his best work yet. What I had no idea of was that the world’s most revered narcissist, a true DB through...
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A New Beginning
The first post of a blog reminds me of writing the first page of any story: it’s raw and loosely focused, there’s a careful uncertainty to the writer’s words, and an underlying style and routine is off in the distance. But, still, fueling it all is the excitement that can only be brought on by a metric ton of optimism and unlimited potential.
In short, it’s a...
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Welcome?
How do you write a welcome to an audience that—as of this moment—doesn’t exist (might not even ever exist)? Do you start off with something witty? Profound? Should you try to lure in the masses with Tourettes-like cursing and a little bit of hot and heavy vampire-werewolf-Jersey menage a trois action? I could even throw in some magic, if that would help. I don’t know. Maybe I’m...
