by: Lazy & EntitledPosted on:

2025 Year In Review

“The waiter whipped out a handkerchief and removed the feather. And that too was a horror: what have we lost when you can’t shake off your own jacket or wash a single dish, when comfort is your only concern. What are we willing to ignore, or let atrophy, for the right to indolence. What a monstrous thing, comfort.” – Yuri Herrera, ‘Season Of The Swamp’

Apologies for borrowing an epigraph from the Clip Show post. It is the quote from any book that has stuck with me the most this year. Maybe aside from a character in Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer announcing that they have “switched sides,” which is another thing I feel happened this to me this year. That one takes some context, though. So Yuri Herrera gets quote of the year.

Anyway, here’s one last desperately insistent ICYMI:

BEHIND WITH KNIFE

The second Lazy & Entitled fiction project dropped this year! One day, sometime around late 2023 or 2024, who knows when, Brendan texted me that we should write a slasher set in a kitchen, and call it, well. We’re really pleased with how it turned out, and I’m going to switch to the singular, since I’m talking about my own experiences. Writing this novel was incredibly structured. Five-act structure, five chapters within each section. Each chapter outlined by the two of us together, then written solo. I gotta say, writing with this much structure was useful to me. The finished product had a little more confidence behind it. That’s partially because it’s collaborative, partially because of the structure. I’m never sure of endings. It also felt nice, after the relatively experimental VINE and a bunch of poetry, to publish some popcorn genre fiction I knew my wife and parents and Friends Who Otherwise Don’t Care About Book And That’s Fine would genuinely enjoy. I always want to push boundaries and convention, but I also really like people having fun with literature. Especially if it’s Socialist literature with punk rock and kidney stabbings, like Behind With Knife.

a black book cover with a bloody chef's knife slashing through the title, BEHIND WITH KNIFE, by Chris Corlew and Brendan Johnson, a slasher selection from Lazy & Entitled

Want to start reading? Here’s chapter one. Want to read more reflection? Here’s an afterward.

BURGERS OR TACOS?

The first major project of this year, of course, was Burgers Or Tacos? That’s a link to my Bandcamp page. Here are the liner notes, if you want. This is a solo project—I played guitar, bass, keys, and manipulated/programmed the drums—but mercifully, Brendan produced and mixed it. Brendan was also there for all of the songwriting, helping me know what was working and not working, making me feel less insecure. Ultimately, I think these songs are cool. I wanted to push what I could do with a guitar on this record, push what I could do with chord progressions, and will probably never make a record this difficult to play ever again.

Unless.

The difficulty of these songs is pretty funny, because the record’s driving impulse is “jazz, electric drums, and chill vibes.” On some level, I’m always trying to make Homey. Anyway, as with all records, there’s stuff I think could’ve been better, and stuff I’m really proud of. Hope you enjoy your burgers, or your tacos.

an album cover with a yellow checkered picnic blanket overlayed with a wire design that is half-burger, half-taco, with BURGERS OR TACOS? in red letters at the top and SHIPWRECKED SAILOR in red letters at the bottom.

Oh, and want to listen on the go, but don’t have the Bandcamp app? The album is on Apple Music, Spotify, and probably some other places I don’t know about.

THE LAZY & ENTITLED READING SERIES

Brendan and I have talked for a long time about how to get Lazy & Entitled less on the internet and more in real life. Yes, this blog exists, yes, podcasting is cool, but real life is where it’s at. These two readings felt great. We’ll do another two in 2026, Poetry Gods willing. I co-ran a reading series back in college. Brendan and I (and Spencer, too) were always organizing shows in high school. So getting back into this has been a very welcome thing. Shouldn’t have taken 15 years off, honestly. Oh, and if you want to host a good reading series? You gotta have great authors. Shoutout to Micah Mabey, Sandra Marchetti, Adrian Sobol, Bob Sykora, Lauren Bolger, and Ted “Theodore” C. Van Alst, Jr. Shoutout to Adam Hinkle for filming the first one. What else to say about the reading series? Idk, dude. Here’s the post announcing it, maybe I said interesting stuff there?

a flyer reading Lazy & Entitled presents Scary Stories To Tell In Rogers Park October 8th 7 PM celebrating new books Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr. Lauren Bolger additional readings and music by Chris Corlew & Brendan Johnson Rivers & Roads Cafe espresso bar and snacks available 1259 W Devon Ave
we’ll get video on this one eventually, but it was fun as hell. Ted and Lauren are wonderful people and great readers. (credit: Brendan Johnson)

THE LAZY & ENTITLED PODCAST

It was a great year for The Lazy & Entitled Podcast, in that it started in earnest. If it’s not clear from the episodes and from what we’ve said on mic, we’re aiming for 23 episodes per year. Each month, I edit one and Brendan edits one. We’re still experimenting with a couple of different things, and honestly? I hope that stays a constant. The other constants I hope: interviewing cool people and great friends, celebrating the hard work that goes into creativity, celebrating the hard work that goes into life itself, and SCREAMTALK. Here are some notable moments of laziness and entitlement.

a black logo with white font reading l&e lazy and Entitled
also Apple Podcasts kinda gave us shit for this logo (credit: Brendan Johnson and Chris Corlew)

THE LINE BREAK PODCAST

It was a great year for The Line Break, even if we missed a couple months. Hey, Bob had a book come out! To paraphrase Zach Lowe, that’s why we do all this stuff. Podcasting, posting on social media, writing this blog—all of these things exist for reasons, but the main reason is to celebrate when my friends have books come out (one day me, too). Anyway, some notable enjambments in 2025:

  • poetry that breathes fortification into your body (feat. Melissa Ferrer Civil) Apple | Spotify
  • raise Hell praise Dale with Justin Carter Apple | Spotify
  • publishing books takes a long time with Sandra Marchetti Apple | Spotify
  • AWP 2025 AND BOB’S BOOK CAME OUT Apple | Spotify
  • read that poet you’ve been meaning to read Apple | Spotify
  • what’s been making you feel Apple | Spotify
  • find the right form for your anger (featuring Teo Shannon) Apple | Spotify
  • Good At Emotions (featuring Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi) Apple | Spotify

Oh, and if you’re wondering what our style guide is, in terms of capitalizing titles? It’s like poetry, baby, we do whatever we want!

a logo with pink, yellow, orange, and blue stripes and a book open to look like an L and a speech bubble with a pink B
still love this logo dudes (credit: A.M. Strickland)

PUBLICATIONS

Something had to get sacrificed with all of the new projects this year, and that was submitting to literary magazines. I didn’t submit nearly as much as I should have, and therefore didn’t publish nearly as much as I would’ve liked. I did submit my manuscript, LAKESHORE MONK, to a couple of presses. The homies over at River River Books had LAKESHORE MONK in their top 20 finalists, which is pretty sick. But: the two poems I published this year:

a white man in a gray Chicago flag tank top stands at a podium reading poems
here I am reading poems, some of the ones I published this year, too (credit: Mallory Corlew)

THE DAILY MEAL

Writing for The Daily Meal this year has been just about everything I could want out of a freelance job. There’s a one article per week quota, but I can write as much as I want. Pick a headline, then write an article—it takes a lot of the hard work out of “coming up with an idea,” which I appreciate. For that reason, I don’t necessarily feel as precious about my output here as I did back at Cracked. But I love being a food writer. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve gotten to interview chefs, I’ve gotten to do cool research, and I get to say I’m a food writer. Anthony Bourdain was one of those, you know.

a white man with long brown hair and palm trees on his black shirt holds chopsticks and eyes pork belly and beef cooking on a Korean barbecue
not sure if I can use any of the same images here as over there, so here’s me eating food. Specifically, Korean BBQ in Los Angeles with my friend (credit: Bob Sykora)

BLOGS OF NOTE

Hey, I enjoy writing this thing. I hope you enjoy reading.

a black and white logo that says L&E with the words Lazy and Entitled Productions circling it

That’s it! I will have some reflections on what the hell I learned this year on next week’s blog.

Sorry you got an email,

Chris

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