The Booky Man: Children’s Accursed Literature
The first book that ever made me cry told the story of an egg-sucking, ringwormy male with one ear chewed off. Did I mention he was yellow? And I was six?... read more
Start Press: The Spirit of Radio
The story is already legend. On October 30th, 1938, listeners who tuned in to hear CBS Radio’s regular broadcast of Mercury Theatre on the Air were whipped into a frenzy by a series of increasingly calamitous news bulletins chronicling a Martian invasion of Grover’s Mill, New Jersey. At that moment in history when Orson Welles staged his now-infamous radio drama War of the Worlds, the run-up to World War II was already in motion. The American public might as well have been collectively listening to the cadence of a wooden roller coaster clack-clacking inexorably toward the first of many stomach-turning... read more
High Definition: After 3 Seasons, Mad Men Is Just Getting Started
I was born a couple years after the 1960s ended, but the decade’s shadow loomed with import over the ones I first encountered. It was the second half of the decade I always heard about, though—Viet Nam, the moon landing, the summer of drugs. So one of my favorite things about AMC’s Mad Men is watching the forgotten beginnings of the ’60s, before John, Paul, George and Ringo touched down in an airport that had recently been named for the just-assassinated president John F. Kennedy.... read more
Listen Up: Mariah, Hootie & My Golden Hour
I turned 11 years old in November 1995, let me just say that up front.... read more
Film Friday: A Weekend of Pushing Buttons
This weekend at your local Big Screen, the movies are about pushing buttons. In The Box, directed by Donnie Darko creator Richard Kelly, a mysterious man in a long coat who appears to have been slapped in the face on more than one occasion shows up at the home of Cameron Diaz and James Marsden to ask if this attractive, cash-strapped couple wants to see what’s in his box. Spoiler: it’s a button. Push it and you get a million dollars, but when you do someone on the other side of the earth whom you do not know will be... read more
The Booky Man: Maus... or There's No Place Like Home for the Holocaust
Comic books in their most familiar form—tales of super-heroes and adventurers—sprang from pulp novel potboilers of the 1930s and ‘40s. They were often lurid, licentious, shocking. In fact, by the 1950s, as America focused on the Red Scare and those dirty Commies tunneling like termites under our American way of life, ‘seditious’ comic books grew so popular among impressionable young people that authorities passed laws banning comics… and even burned them.... read more
Start Press: Lost In Space
Lately it’s been getting dark around five o’clock in the evening. Ireland is situated far enough north that it won’t be long before the daylight—notice I said ‘daylight’ and not ‘sunshine’—will fizzle out each afternoon around 3:30pm. I like to imagine that the sun has gotten sick of its job and begun showing up late to work, slipping out the backdoor early. I don’t mind the shorter days. Nighttime amplifies the comfort of your domestic environs. Like when you’re watching a stage play with an elaborate set and all the lights fade to black except for one spotlight trained on... read more
High Definition: Modern Family Finds Its Funny
Despite my high hopes for Joel McHale, John Oliver, Ken Jeong and the rest of the cast of NBC’s hit-and-miss Community, the funniest new comedy this season is Modern Family on ABC. The story of three inter-related families works because its characters seem familiar to life but fresh to the screen.... read more
Listen Up: The Tourettes Are Dead, Long Live The Tourettes
I wore a lot of skirts my freshman year of college, but one of my favorite songs that year was “Pants Fever,” a catchy little tune by a band that I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard of. And I mean that in absolutely the least snobby way possible. You don’t not know them because you’re not cool enough. You don’t know them because, really, there’s just not that much to know.... read more
Film Friday: George Lucas and the Canadian Force
When the National Film Board of Canada released an iPhone application last week, I naturally thought of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and Yoda. For some people, trolling through the NFB’s video archives will undoubtedly bring to mind those three famous Canadians.... read more
The Booky Man: The Stranger Among Us
God bless the French. They gave us French kissing, French bread, Brigitte Bardot and Tati. They gave us useful terms: ennui and guillotine. They gave us The Statue of Liberty.... read more
Start Press: If I Could Turn Back Time
In the past I’ve tended to avoid racing games that strive for a realistic simulation of the driving experience. As far as I was concerned, the brake pedal existed for morning commuter traffic, not virtual speed-demon fantasies. I could abide the handbrake, but only because it allowed you to go drifting around bends, tires screeching like a pack of bloodthirsty harpies on the attack. But it felt wrong that a game would require you to slow down in order to be successful. Inevitably I’d spend a few minutes skidding off the track and spinning my tires in the sand or... read more
High Definition: Battlestar Galactica: The Plan
Today marks the release of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan on DVD and Blu-Ray, and for a couple of hours, the show’s fans can relive the best sci-fi show in TV history from the perspective of the Cylons who almost completely annihilate humanity. Without answering the series’ biggest unresolved questions (like, what exactly was Kara Thrace?), it certainly adds a layer to the show’s first two seasons.... read more
Listen Up: Welcome to the New Folk Revival
Alela Diane Menig, the Portland-by-way-of-California singer-songwriter who released one my favorite albums of this year, To Be Still recently got a haircut... read more
Film Friday: Your DVDs Are Rotting
Like the autumn tomato left on your window sill or the miniature pumpkin forgotten on the mantel until November, your DVD collection is rotting. Maybe not physically deteriorating like fall fruit (although some people worry about that, too) but deteriorating in the way that all media seems to: by sitting still as technology marches past. You can’t easily play the video games of your youth, peruse a defunct web site, listen to an 8-track tape found in the attic, or, at this point, even play an audio cassette or a VHS video in many households. The DVD is headed for... read more
The Booky Man: The Fellowship of the Reads
Opera seems an unlikely portal to a new column on books. Still, a recent evening at an Atlanta production of The Elixir of Love, Donizetti’s long and silly little love song, left me thinking more of reading and readers than of bel canto, lovely as it is. As a writer, observance is blessing and curse at once. Forget immersion in most any moment—lovemaking, gardening, sports events: The Writer perversely takes notes in the midst of overwhelming pleasures and the humdrum alike. How pretty her eyelashes. The earth feels warm here, like freshly baked bread. Fourth and goal, why is Saban... read more
Start Press: The High-Score Scourge
Videogames are fun. This is not breaking news. When we play games, we’re transported to different worlds and set free to explore. When we play games, the clock’s minute hand slows, blurs and then disappears entirely. Our brains are tickled, challenged to solve the puzzles and master the challenges presented to us by the game’s developers. There’s nearly unlimited potential for rhapsodic pleasure in a well-designed game. But lately I’ve been swearing at my games with unusual frequency, spitting out combinations of expletives that, to borrow the words of author Anne Lamott, would “make Jesus want to drink gin straight... read more
High Definition: Dexter, 24 & The Fallenness of Man
For the longest time, I resisted watching Dexter. I didn’t want to find myself rooting for a serial killer, justifying his murderous appetite with the fact that he only kills bad guys, that he’s really a nice guy who brings doughnuts to the office each morning, that there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing justice served to the most wretched of criminals who had thought they’d beat the system. I’d already got caught up in a season of 24, and it left me feeling a little icky.... read more
Listen Up: After Far, Reconsidering Regina Spektor
I don't like Regina Spektor's new album, but maybe you already knew that... read more
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