Thoughts on a drive out into the country, where the rebel flags fly.
I’m Not Obligated to Understand Your Hostility
Category: Books
Sharpen the Senses
We could bitch all day about what sucks. Why not mention some things that don't? Such as: a very un-boring world history, tyrannical pigs, and skate punk.
Have You Told Your Self to Shut Up Lately?
Learning to manage our own mental health is often done alone and sometimes painfully. That shouldn't be the case.
All the Proof of a Good Time
Some words on Emma Cline's "The Girls", NOFX's autobiography, Chvrches
This is Not a Think-piece on Jonathan Franzen’s “Purity”
It seems borderline impossible nowadays to enjoy a tiny sliver of pop culture without bringing at least some third-party opinion into the experience. Hype – positive and negative – snowballs in the age of the internet, where deep-dives and think-pieces exist to segment, dissect and extract cultural value. To say we’re blind to it or [...]
This book is the Mic-Drop on the Subject of Creativity, Happiness
Think back on your life’s happiest moments thus far and it’s unlikely that expensive vacations, that 10-hour binge of Netflix last week, or whatever other pleasurable activity we design for ourselves make the list. On the contrary, life’s most enjoyable moments – the times we would consider ourselves to be happiest – are usually formed [...]
Put Simply, “Fourth of July Creek” is an Outstanding Novel Worth Picking Up
It’s been said that the mark of a good book is in the author’s ability to instill a sense of forgetfulness in the reader. That through a compelling story, sharp characters and some good, old fashioned surprises, the engrossed reader forgets he’s even inching through a book at all. Such books are always worth talking [...]
We’re All Screwed: A Word on ‘The Unwinding’
I pleasantly stumbled upon George Packer's "The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America" while doing my usual perusing through the local book store, and I'm almost sure Packer's audacious journalistic endeavor is my favorite book of the year thus far. Packer strolls through the Rust Belt, Wall Street, D.C., the Piedmont and into [...]
Out of a Chalk Circle
No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken. 'Tis a step out of a chalk circle of imbecility into fruitfulness. -Ralph Waldo Emerson "Power" The calendar won't declare it for another month, but it's winter here in Trumansburg. That brash, cutting cold. And [...]
I Mean, Academia Likely Ruined Reading for Most Folks, Right?
I will now type a very adult sentence: I actually read something great in this past weekend's Wall Street Journal. A feature -- "Who Ruined the Humanities?", which is surprisingly un-WSJ and available without a pay wall here -- touches on the meaninglessness of collegiate literary studies. Now the main takeaway from this whole screed [...]
