April 28, 2019
“Can’t You Rest Now?”: Nightwood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Madness
I have a theory: the ending of Season 7, Episode 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (“Beneath You”) was inspired by Djuna Barnes’s queer modernist novel Nightwood (1936). I know it sounds […]
October 2, 2018
Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry – October
This is a love story. This is the story that led me here, writing to you about how and why I fell in love with poetry, and what I think […]
June 22, 2017
Minor League Season Begins—Again
People asked Ron Shelton, again and again, if he was going to write a sequel to Bull Durham. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, and I’m glad he didn’t. […]
June 5, 2017
Touchscreen Headstone: Speculations on the Digital Afterlife
“Eterni.me wants to rely on the real substance of twenty-first-century life: online activity. There are other companies that offer related services: Legacy Locker and Entrustnet allow users to nominate an […]
March 28, 2017
The Show – Episode 3 of 3
(Continued from The Show – Episode 2 of 3) I remember a moment, the second time I got bed bugs, that I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I was in […]
March 15, 2017
The Show – Episode 2 of 3
(Continued from The Show – Episode 1 of 3) I had a notebook beside my bed where I sometimes wrote (I was beginning to think I should be a poet). […]
March 8, 2017
The Show – Episode 1 of 3
My first serious girlfriend told me once that she wasn’t sure her grandparents would be okay with me. My existence was problematic, that is, relative to their granddaughter. I don’t […]
February 23, 2017
On Difficult Loves
March 14, 2016
The Eros of Bees
To the bee, a flower is the fountain of life, and to the flower, the bee is a messenger of love. —Khalil Gibran On the 7 Train, a friend tells […]
February 18, 2016
The Weight that Will Make Us Planets
A week before the Lunar New Year, an old friend whom you met only last year drops you a line, which means you Skype. Lately the computer freezes because he’s […]
December 1, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence, Part 2
“Well, he acts like he has genuine emotions… But as to whether he has real feelings is something I don’t think anyone can truthfully answer.” — Dave Bowman on […]
November 19, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence
‘Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.’ — Max Frisch (1) My mother did not like me hanging around outside: to stand on a street corner any day, […]