January 2012
4 posts
December 2011
2 posts
2 tags
“This is the problem: Many years ago I sat one day, in a sad enough mood, on the...”
– Franz Kafka in his diary, 1920
November 2011
1 post
3 tags
Review of 'Drive' (spoiler warning)
I want to talk about this movie. Prior to seeing it, I knew nothing about it other than 1) Ryan Goosebumps is in it and 2) It involves fast cars.
Ok. Have you ever played Grand Theft Auto IV? You know all the interim scenes, between Nico’s missions, when scary ugly mafia people are fighting and then you finally get to the missions and you’re like “Oh shit, I’m about to...
October 2011
3 posts
“Life is so only-once, so single-chancish! It all depends on your arranging and...”
– Sylvia Plath, from The Journals
This was my “senior quote” in the high school yearbook. She would have been 79 today. (I still think she’s right.)
September 2011
5 posts
So I wasn’t joking on Twitter earlier when I...
1 tag
August 2011
5 posts
Tales from the Crypt[ic transaction]
Cashier: Good evening.
Me: How are you?
Cashier: We’ll be fine.
Me: Yeah…
Cashier (handing me my receipt): Just in case.
Me: Thanks.
Cashier: —
Me: Have a good night.
Cashier: —
3 tags
2 tags
“It’s amazing what lies people can sustain behind the mask of their real...”
– Philip Roth, The Paris Review, Issue 93, 1984
July 2011
4 posts
5 tags
1 tag
Bruce Springsteen - I’m Goin’ Down
1 tag
Boss (65): How old is he?
Me (29): Young, like 27 or 28.
Boss: That's not young.
June 2011
9 posts
1 tag
2 tags
1 tag
May 2011
6 posts
1 tag
Two Girls, Murray Hill
“Hey! You look so gorgeous. Happy birthday!”
“Hey! You look so gorgeous. Where is this from? J. Crew?”
“Yes! I bought it yesterday! I’ve always loved this shrimp color.”
“Oh my god—me too! Wait, what is that? What are you reading?”
“Oh my god—how embarrassing to be sitting alone at a bar reading this. Perfect, right?...
6 tags
A bronzed woman on the train wears a t-shirt that reads “TGIF” across her chest. She looks at no one as she shimmies to a song on her iPod, occasionally taking a pull from a 20 oz bottle of Hawaiian Punch. Her appearance is youthful but her hair is grey. Either she went grey prematurely, or she dyed her hair, I think. I quickly realize I don’t care, and obviously she...
2 tags
April 2011
7 posts
1 tag
When life hands you grapes
After five, a middle-aged man in the corner store digs through a box of Blow Pops. He puts around ten of the purple (“grape”) ones on the counter and takes out his wallet. The cashier smiles.
“These all for you?”
“Yes. Everyone has to have something bad. This is my bad.”
March 2011
6 posts
Resilience
On my right, a woman on the train is clenching a rosary and praying softly to herself. Her nails are painted silver and she is wearing purple, fingerless gloves. I can’t make out any of her words—only faint hisses of the letter “S”.
On my left, another woman is reading the chapter “Financial Peace” in a book called Dumping Debt. She is wearing a black coat,...
1 tag
