How to Visit a Strip Club
To visit a strip club is not to objectify women; for as long as commercial sexuality exists women, and to a lesser extent, men, will be objectified. The goal of visiting a strip club is: To assuage the...
View ArticleMy Love Affair With Brooklyn
With this long New York winter, I’ve flirted with thoughts of other cities. But in my heart I know I’m not going anywhere. Unlike many of the people my age who have recently moved to Brooklyn, I was...
View ArticleWhere I Become W.G. Sebald In Anticipation of Spring
I walked along the path that borders the sheep meadow in Central Park. As I trod the wet dirt, my shoes giving in to the loamy soil, I felt European. I was in a northern place, that could have easily...
View ArticleThe Tin Drum is an Exemplary Novel
As a child I wondered about The Tin Drum the same way I wondered about Ulysses: a thick book with an intimidating title and a history of being talked about. Having just finished it, I want to better...
View ArticleWhy You Shouldn’t Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day
March is one of my least favorite months, but it’s not because of how it comes in like a lion—it’s drunks on St. Patrick’s Day that get me riled. How is one day enough to ruin an entire month? I’m...
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10 Best Reasons Beards Are Back
A number of actors and celebrities have recently grown facial hair, from Jared Leto to Joaquin Phoenix, and then there are traditional Hollywood beard-wearers such as Zach Galifinakis, Johnny Depp and...
View ArticleThe Mississippi River: A Starter Course
The Main Tributary: Missouri River One morning I woke up early in Kansas City and walked to the banks of the Missouri River. It was October and the river was not as wide as it had been earlier in the...
View ArticleThe Cold Fronts
Pizza brain, rocket cat, now steap and grind. Barren streets from poorer 1980s, Tiny anthills on grandpas cracked driveway. Different than the broken glass I’m used to? Chain link fences around drain...
View ArticleA Guide to Narrative Voice(s)
For a year I have set the novel I’m writing in first person chapters based on multiple points of view, much like As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. Last week, I received edits back on my novel, and wondered...
View ArticleHello American Lady Creature: A Profile of Lisa Kirchner
“I don’t hate men,” says Lisa Kirchner in the New School classroom where she was a student seven years ago. Her memoir Hello American Lady Creature is about how her marriage ended while she was in...
View ArticleHow Snow Melts
In a foreign city two friends walked on a bright cold day. No snow remained on the trees. It was not too cold, just cold enough so that the snow was beginning to thaw. They walked into the city park...
View ArticleDear Roberto Bolano, This is How 2666 Makes Me Feel
The little girl ran into the water as it crashed over her tiny body. She rode her boogie board up and down over the waves and though this was exactly what she wanted it lacked something. Her mother or...
View ArticleA Fragment, for D.H. Lawrence
In reading Women in Love I am struck by how D.H. Lawrence captures the unconscious sentiments of his characters. While this novel was published 95 years ago, it sounds strangely modern at times, and...
View ArticleThe Ultimate Response to Gentrification in Bushwick, 2014
The other night a real estate agent, the friend of a friend, strolled into my apartment as I sat half naked over a plate of spaghetti, and after surveying our place, said that I was lucky to pay what I...
View ArticleMellow Pages Reading Tomorrow 6/12/14
Mellow Pages is a lending library and literary salon in Bushwick. Matt Nelson and Jacob Perkins are the co-founders of this cozy book-filled space, and they host established and emerging writers from...
View ArticleMemories and Desire at Punjabi Grocery & Deli
Today I went out for lunch to a well-reviewed hole in the wall called Punjabi Grocery & Deli. I skateboarded to the edge of the East Village, down a short flight of stairs into a long air...
View ArticleWhy You Should Love The World Cup
If you know me, you know I don’t care about sports. Generally I think they’re a waste of time, a way to entertain the masses and build a tribal mentality of us vs. them. But I kind of love the World...
View ArticleWhy Cards Against Humanity Should Be Renamed Cards For Humanity
A recent viral post of Jonah the Transgender Cards Against Humanity Player burning a card that read “passable transvestites” has been the subject of recent controversy. After posting the image of the...
View ArticleSlow Homecoming
Sometimes, if I’m lucky, I become aware of the earth as it exists in a continuum of space and energy. It happens anywhere, between the striated clay mountains of Southern Utah, the grassy hills of...
View ArticleWhat It’s Like To Be A White Male In A Patriarchal Society
I have “privilege,” I am at the “top of the food chain,” I am poised for success. I am a white male. In a Freudian slip, I write ‘white shark,’ because that is sometimes how it feels when I am looked...
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