A Pop Culture Query

I realize that this question is not exactly topical, but when a scrawny guy with a sideways baseball cap and a huge black jacket with skulls on it boarded my bus yesterday, Offspring’s “Pretty Fly (for a white guy)” couldn’t help but jump into my head. I realize the best person to answer this question [...]

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“Because our pain makes us real, Dawson”

I fell in love with Dawson’s Creek in the summer of 2003, my first summer home from St. Thomas. If the first summer after college is indeed a universally frustrating experience, then I would guess that mine was worse than most in a number of ways. I won’t invoke past hells, but it’s just now [...]

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The Magic Ring

I talked about this book briefly when I first read it over a year ago, but after recently giving it a second look, I thought it deserved a little bit more attention. Friedrich de la Motte Fouque is a name pretty much forgotten in today’s literary scene; information about him, especially critical treatment of his [...]

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Pitches, man, Pitches

I’ve been thinking a lot about the business side of writing lately; of course, like any devoted ex-Liberal Arts major, I can’t but think any business of art a crude and unfortunate evil that causes my first-year poetry students–with the utmost of solemnity–to define Great Literature as *ahem* “whatever makes the most money.” Of course, [...]

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Why American Idol Makes Me Smile

This had to be done. It’s no secret that I’ve been waaay too into American Idol this season, and I’m well on my way to not being ashamed of that, on account of there were some seriously talented and original kids this season that are going to end up maybe surpassing the Kelly Clarkson/legitimate star [...]

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