Sir,I have read the short story Benjamin Button in Colliers and I wish to say that as a short story writer you would make a good lunatic I have seen many peices [sic] of cheese in my life but of all the peices of cheese I have ever seen you are the biggest peice. I hate to waste a peice of stationary on you but I will.
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Actual Letter To F. Scott Fitzgerald
that last post
was to weed out the weak of heart.
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Twenty-One Songs For Suicide
21. Valet, “Kehaar”20. Grouper, “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping”19. Belle & Sebastian, “I Don’t Love Anyone”18. Max Richter, “Vladimir’s Blues”17. Beat Happening, “Godsend”16. Philip Jeck, “Fanfares”15. Brian Eno, “The Big Ship”14. The Velvet Underground, “Black Angel’s Death Song”13. Junior Boys, “Count Souvenirs”12. Guided By Voices, “My Valua
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The Ropes — “Be My Gun” — Be My Gun EP
The Ropes...
The Ropes — “Be My Gun” — Be My Gun EPThe Ropes strike me as utter phonies—the kind that try too hard to appear oversexed and as though their hearts are balls of ice. Still, maybe I shouldn’t be judging bands by their haircuts. For all I can tell, it’s part of the act: with material more bleakly affectless than your average Bret Easton Ellis novel and the menacing flatness of a f
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93 Million Miles From The Sun — “Yesterday Morning”...
93 Million Miles From The Sun — “Yesterday Morning” — 93 Million Miles From The SunFolks: just as I was worrying it would never happen, the true heirs to early Ride announced the release of a proper debut. Heavy swirls of feedback, unifying drones, smothered vocals, seemingly backmasked white noise that gives way to plangent melody—every mark of the classicist shoegazer is worn, for be
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Swallow — “Sugar Your Mind” — Blow
A dangerous band/album combo...
Swallow — “Sugar Your Mind” — BlowA dangerous band/album combo to Google at work, I found out. But Swallow, a fully fleshed-out 4AD duo, were among the more asexual acts in a shoegaze’n’dream-pop scene that emphasized sensuality and the erotic, fashioners of innocent sweets and fuzzy twee. After being casually discarded some 17 years ago as a Cocteau Twins knockoff—a perception t
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This Better Go As Planned
This Better Go As Planned: A new story of mine, “This Better Go As Planned,” was just published in a beautifully done magazine called A Cappella Zoo. You can order a copy here! If you have any interest in ghosts that haunt office buildings, that is.
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Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World — Haruki...
Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World — Haruki MurakamiAs a struggling writer, it must be confessed that that my attraction to rule-breaking fiction has the ring of deadliness to it. And a rule that’s been hammered into me is one Murakami upends for a diabolical laugh, time and again: No Passive Protoganists. Your narrator cannot be a victim of circumstance; he cannot be a lab ra
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Lackthereof — “Fake Empire” — Your Anchor
This...
Lackthereof — “Fake Empire” — Your AnchorThis National have a song well on its way to being a given cover—Frightened Rabbit sure have fun with it live—but there’s something extra-ballsy about Danny Seim’s (the drummer for Menomena’s) version. Knowing it’s just the one guy on all instruments makes it even spookier.
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Flowers Of Hell — “White Out” — Come Hell Or High...
Flowers Of Hell — “White Out” — Come Hell Or High WaterIf it’s true that too many cooks can spoil a broth, then assembling an orchestra is starting a grease fire. The best symphonic acts exploit that logistical nightmare underpinning their sound, threatening to drive off the rails with every crescendo, to stray from the unified vision just barely holding them all together. Spacemen 3
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Ride — “Vapour Trail” — Nowhere
The music world...
Ride — “Vapour Trail” — NowhereThe music world lost a bright constellation when Ride backslid into drunken retro-rock and pissy spats about artistic direction (let’s just say none of them were right), but Nowhere—recorded when these Oxford lads were all of what, twenty?—is still a rafter-busting revelation. ”Vapour Trail” is a favorite among favorites, boasting the most seamles
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Girl Talk — “Shut The Club Down” — Feed The...
Girl Talk — “Shut The Club Down” — Feed The AnimalsAnother clue. For which I should probably be held in contempt of court.
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Choir Of Young Believers — “Sharpen Your Knife” —...
Choir Of Young Believers — “Sharpen Your Knife” — Burn The Flag EPFinally, post-rock can be cheeky, and not just dour. Which isn’t to say Choir Of Young Believers don’t scare me a little bit. As an added bonus, this song is the second in an ongoing series of oblique allusions to the trial I’m sitting on. Just try to stop me, Manhattan Criminal Court.
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An Arsonist’s Guide To Writers’ Homes In New England...
An Arsonist’s Guide To Writers’ Homes In New England — Brock ClarkeIt’s easy to make fun of adults who read Harry Potter books, isn’t it. Ditto book clubs with social agendas. Same goes for fictionalized memoirs, overread academics and barely literate bond analysts. Do we really need a novel of lazy satire as an excuse for taking potshots at all these sitting ducks? Brock Clarke
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Family Day
Family Day: This may be a better fit for Hate The Future, my alter-ego tumblr, but hey, I already posted it there. It’s new surreal and future-dreading fiction from yours truly, published courtesy of fantastic literary site elimae. … just in case someone besides me wants to get critical.
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The New Pornographers — “The Laws Have Changed” —...
The New Pornographers — “The Laws Have Changed” — Electric VersionIn honor of my being rather haphazardly sentenced to sit on a New York City criminal trial as juror #8, here’s some wishful thinking courtesy of our relatively well-behaved neighbor to the north. This district attorney is in for some serious eyerolls.
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