“He got up before dawn…looked down at the water. He would have welcomed an instant of wisdom. However, none arrived. The water kept its own counsel.” – Lydia Millet, ‘Dinosaurs’ […]
‘Sinners’ Is Twice As Good
“You come to me for advice, but you can’t cope with anything you don’t recognize…have to tell you something you already know but make it sound like news…” – Douglas […]
Three Fun Ways To Mess Up Chord Progressions
“A basketball game was, and always will be, part playing the game before us and part making sure we have someone to bear witness.” – Mac Crane, ‘A Sharp Endless […]
Storytelling In Instrumental Music
“Prometheus was trying / to invent the guitar solo. / Fire was his first draft.” – Amorak Huey, “Seven Stories About Fire” Maybe this is an increasingly impossible experience in […]
Re-centering
“A beach house isn’t just real estate. It’s a state of mind.” – Douglas Adams, ‘Mostly Harmless’ Warm weather always helps. Not shivering when I wake up, the ability to […]
On Nonparticipation
“More and more [voters] declared, if only by nonparticipation, their alientation from the political system. In 1960, 63 percent of those eligible to vote voted in the presidential election. By […]
Designated Months & Reading Habits
“Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me…” – Jorge Luis Borges
Why Are All The Best Short Story Writers Women?
“I fell in love with a robber and he took me on his rounds.” – Aimee Bender, “The Ring”
The Poem I Recommend If You Don't Think You Like Poetry
“I had my first nightmare about dangling by an umbilical cord from a white sky above a white boat floating in blood.” – Zachary Schomburg, “1978”
Unwriting Copaganda
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero…” – Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art of Murder”