From the monthly archives:
It’s smokey in Pasadena today. We’ve got fires burning all around us, and the air quality is, well, it’s not great. I feel a little bit like I’m working at Sterling-Cooper. On Wednesday, as I walked to the Metro station, a man stopped me and asked when the last time it rained was. I didn’t [...]
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What better way to celebrate Tuesday, that most underrated of days (It’s not Monday, after all!), than with a pair of Dan Chaon related stories. As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a big fan of Chaon’s work. His new novel, Await Your Reply, hits shelves today. You can read my review of it [...]
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It’s been awhile since I posted one of my classic link posts. I know you’ve all been jonesin like all get up, so here you go: It’s long as hell, but I still highly recommend Eric Harvey’s Social History of the MP3 at Pitchfork. Those in the book business will likely see some scary (and [...]
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Yesterday, inspired by Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone’s Favorite Treat, we took a break from the literary life and hosted our first Cupcake Bake-off. The rules were fairly simple: make some delicious cupcakes, and then bring them to the store to be judged by Vroman’s customers and staff. The cupcakes were judged [...]
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If you’re expecting a lot of analysis here, forget it. It’d be like asking a man who’s just run a marathon to help you move. I started reading it in late April. In between beginning and ending the book, I finished at least five other books, probably more. Was it good? Yes. Was it, at [...]
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When you have a moment, click over and check out the new redesign of The Millions. Max has done a great job of combining an up-to-the-minute linkblog with a forum for lengthier, more considered pieces. Plus it looks freakin’ great.
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I saw Julie & Julia over the weekend, and I have a few thoughts on the film, and on blogging and on reading. It was twenty minutes too long. If I were a film critic, I’d probably create a hot key for this phrase, as I find myself longing for the credits a solid quarter [...]
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I was reading Choire’s email newsletter update from The Awl today (which you should subscribe to, if you don’t already), and he was riffing on the idea of how quickly pop culture becomes dated: This is the problem with the pop culture. Even a few, what, months later, the “Sex and the City” clothes are [...]
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By now, everyone knows that the film director John Hughes passed away yesterday. He directed movies like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Great Outdoors. I’m not the guy to write a eulogy for him. He made some very good movies, some movies that I’ve watched dozens of times, and a few [...]
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