Vespucciland

One of the great pleasures in opening a new book is discovering that it is not quite like any other book you’ve previously read. You knit your brow, purse your lips, go “hmmm,” and maybe flip the pages to see if the rest of it is written in a similar fashion. If one were ignorant […]

Sometimes I get sad. Uninspired. Lethargic with the weight of the world and my powerlessness at changing one whit of it. This melancholy more often than not has propelled me to the bars where I can drink beer and whiskey and forget. Of course, beer and whiskey does not make one forget. That’s just a […]

After the success of the Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire franchises, everyone and their mother thought they could cash in by simply creating their own fantasy series. Talk to anyone over the last fifteen years who has decided they want to write a book, and more often than not one of […]

Dear President-Elect Assclown McFuckface: FUCK YOU! No, seriously, fuck you with a rusty spatula, dipped in battery acid, covered in barbed wire and poison ivy. Fuck you for bullying and mocking just about everyone in this country. Fuck you for empowering bullies like you to feel once again comfortable to open their mouths in public […]

The very concept of a sprawling novel can be daunting for both the reader and the author. A writer has to be able to juggle narratives like flaming chainsaws dripping with acid. The reader needs to stomach the occasional hundred-page long digression away from characters they’ve grown to love. Any writer who challenges himself to […]

History is myth. Abraham Lincoln did not free the slaves; the Thirteenth Amendment did that. FDR did not halt the Great Depression; a wartime economy ended what he had only been able to slow. JFK is considered one of the most beloved of all Presidents even though his accomplishments are few. Still, it can be […]

A  couple of years ago the director Ivan Reitman made a film called Draft Day. It stars Kevin Costner as the General Manager of the Cleveland Browns. It’s not a good film. It’s not a bad film either. It’s just another sports film starring Kevin Costner. A couple of those have done well in the […]

We all exist in communities. We live in small towns or neighborhoods within large cities or suburban tracts where most know one another’s face if not each person’s name. We work in small shops or big companies, factories, schools, studios, salons, bars, and labs. We have our cliques, our drinking buddies, our food snobs. Game […]

I don’t know. I really don’t. What don’t you know, Jake? Who I’m going to vote for. Duh, you’re voting for Bernie. You already said that on Facebook like a thousand times. I know, I know, I know. But I’m having some doubts. Oy, now you tell me. Okay, what’s going on, bubala? So, a […]

What can you say about a movie like Star Wars? How does one review it on an objective level? Haven’t they become their own subgenre of films? Can one even review a film like Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in the same way one would The Godfather, Part II? Answers: A […]