How Far Is Too Far For An Artist?
Charles Krafft's response to the charge that he's a Holocaust denier raises the question of how audiences respond to artists they once admired once their opinions go round the twist.…
So Over It Contest #11: Book and Movie Edition
No winner for So Over It Contest #10. The answer is the Koenigsplatz, in Munich. The subject of our current contest provided inspiration both for one of the most famous…
Neil DeGrasse Tyson on ID’s Failings
After a 1700 word (!) post yesterday, I thought I'd let someone else do todays talking, so I'll turns things over to Neil DeGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium…
Location, Location, Location: Fiction and the Anthropic Principle
Nichole Bernier's blog post on locations and their impact on fiction got me thinking about the settings in my own work and why I picked them. Bernier starts her post…
Errol Morris’s Tabloid
I just finished watching Errol Morris's Tabloid, which tells the story, or stories, of Joyce McKinney, the former Miss Wyoming who was accused of kidnapping and raping the Mormon missionary to…
What Is to Be Done About Book Reviews?
Apparently, Talking Points Memo is kicking around the idea of doing book reviews, and Josh Marshall, TPM's lord asked the following ask on Twitter mere minutes ago: I have…
Finally I’d Like to Thank Me, Without Whom This Blog Post Wouldn’t Have Happened.
I guess it's late in the week, so it's time for something trivial to become a thing. But Noreen Malone devoted a column in this week's New Republic to snark…
Denialism Chronicles: The Strange Case of Charles Krafft
Blogging's been light recently because I've been wrapping up applications for fellowships for the now-seriously-it's-ready-but-wait-let-me-change-one-last-thing Denial screenplay. But this story about the apparently well-regarded ceramic artist Charles Krafft in The Stranger drew my…
So Over It #10: Sneak Preview Edition
Sadly, the winning streak ends at one. No winners for So Over It #9. The answer is Tooele High School, in Tooele, Utah. Not only was it the place I…
Stuff That I Think About Late At Night: Six Often Misunderstood Songs
What I'm talking about here are not songs with deliberately obscure lyrics (early R.E.M.), or songs whose lyrics are often misheard. I'm talking about songs where the semantics seem clear…