Over at Los Angeles magazine, the redoubtable R.J. Smith writes about the Village Voice-New Times merger in progress. I like R.J.; I think he’s a solid and accessible writer who knows how to turn a phrase and how to let it sing by not overworking its setting. This is a complaint I’ve had about alternative … Read more
A lot of folks around town thought there was something special about Richard Kunkel. Big things were expected of that poor fellow. Certainly no one believed that such a fine, bright boy as Richard Kunkel would stick around a tiny little jerkwater village like ours for the rest of his life. Many assumed Kunkel would … Read more
I’m here to tell you I’m proud to be valedictorian of the Tom Delay School of Congressional Ethics. Why put too fine a point on it? The guy who can match up Patty Wetterling with Osama Bin Laden in campaign ads probably deserves much worse than being called a slimeball. In fact, if you meet … Read more
Fell asleep again with the boy. That means waking up at roughly midnight, wide awake, overheated. One would think that in the next two to three hours, it would be possible for me to clean the kitchen. It is not. Too many books to read, magazines. Rereading Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island (not getting … Read more
1) The Critters, Mr. Dieingly Sad On the surface a simple little song with a borrowed melody (from Paul Williams, no less), The Critters’ masterpiece takes a turn down a very dark road about mid-song, and the next minute-and-a-half is a pure, harrowing cage match with Satan. No surprise: Satan wins, and before he’s done … Read more
It says here that everything is fine and dandy Not content to spread their bullshit just to Americans, the Bushies now are planting stories in the Iraqi press about how well it’s going over there. Unfortunately for the administration, the LA Times isn’t for sale…at least not for the pittance the military was paying to … Read more
I’m not going to lie to you: I lie to you all the time. Seriously, all the time. There’s absolutely no me here. Whoever or whatever Brad Zellar is, it isn’t this. I have never, for instance, owned either a Plymouth Duster or a Scamp, let alone done any of the things I might have … Read more
Last week, as if you didn’t notice, the new Microsoft X-Box 360 went on sale, and serious gamers waited up until midnight for the chance to buy it. Of course, for the serious teenaged gamer who rolls out of bed at about lunchtime, midnight is the equivalent of high noon. I was not among them. … Read more
Tumult, by God. I saw a burning angel, vogueing in the corn. Somewhere’s the key that fits. Something vague creaks and whispers in the night beneath the ice under which also a river shambles still. I wait for the day when these murmurs come to stay. The whole family was crazy as shithouse rats. They … Read more
Right here where we’re standing used to be a proper god-damned street before those sons of bitches down in the state capital decided to run the interstate highway through the godforsaken middle of nowhere forty miles south of here. Used to be if you wanted to drive across the country up this way you had … Read more