On Friday evening, during a mini-vacation with Jeremy, I asked my boyfriend to join me in a celebration of our special bond. I asked him to do this by exchanging rings with me. I had built up to this moment with a series of arcane puzzles that he had to solve, which was part of…
I’m watching a movie so dumb and unnecessary that, during its running time, I’ve typed two weeks of journal entries and cleaned my room. The movie is Flight Plan, and is about as imaginative as a real one. Aside from exploiting cheap fears, like Scary Arabs on Airplanes or the Missing Daughter, the movie has…
I today discovered a fiercely proud entrant in the 10 Worst Movies Ever sweepstakes. See it at the bottom of the growing list. Dreamcatcher Van Helsing Monster’s Ball Bad Santa Universal Soldier: The Return Troy Alexander: The Director’s Cut The Mangler Reborn Does anyone remember the first mangler movie? Hello? Bueller?
For the holidays, my friends Elaine and <a href=”http://www.docrpm.com”>Ryan</a> gave me a beautiful edition of Dava Sobel’s <a href=”http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/author.pperl?authorid=29038″><span style=”font-weight:bold;”><span style=”font-style:italic;”>The Planets</span></span></a>, published last fall by Viking. If you’ve ever read an English translation of Charles Baudelaire’s <span style=”font-weight:bold;”><span style=”font-style:italic;”>Paris Spleen</span></span>, you’ll have a strong sense of how tight and pleasing this book is. As…
I don’t often talk about my job on The Clog because I like to separate the shit I do for a living from the shit I do to contribute absolutely nothing to history. But a specific topic has arisen again and again over the last year, one I never hear broached with any gravity. Is…
Recently, and completely by coincidence, two novels have crossed my path. The first, <span style=”font-weight: bold;”><span style=”font-style: italic;”>The Rule of Four</span></span>, takes place in modern times and involves several people’s attempts to solve a riddle rooted in documents and lives that existed centuries ago. The second, <span style=”font-weight: bold;”><span style=”font-style: italic;”>The Da Vinci Code</span></span>, takes…
Thanks to DVD and iTunes, I’ve been able to take part in the phenomenal joy of the Sci-Fi channel’s Battlestar Galactica without suffering the venal claptrap of network television. Many people have touted the strengths of this exquisitely crafted show, and for those of us who grew up on the new Galactica’s cheesy 70s progenitor,…
At long last, my novel, The Superhero’s Closet, is going to print. Since I haven’t yet built a promotional site for the book, I just wanted to share the good news and what’s happening as I write. Today, I invited professional actor/model Ronnie Kerr to pose for cover photography. Local photographer Michael Sexton will take…
I’ve held my tongue for the longest time about the demise of a simple Strunk & White grammatical rule: do not end sentences with a preposition. I’ve held my tongue because, as a student of the English language, I recognize that language — and its rules — evolve over time. Spelling changes. Syntax changes. New…