Do people still read? Will there be people in the future who will read? Are we too distracted, disinterested, content to bother? Do we need everything to talk to us, show us, wash over and drown out all senses in frivolous entertainment and spectacle? Continue reading Volume XXII – January 2023
I started watching old episodes of the “The Real World” recently. If you grew up in the nineties or early aughts then you remember the cultural power of MTV and this one show in particular. Continue reading “The Real World…”
The ferris wheel emits a swirl of light visible from all parts of the boardwalk. It stands sentinel over the crowds snaking in all directions, over chipped and fading hardwood, through the smell of fried fats and salt air, the screams and squeals of fun impending or reaching its conclusion. Continue reading Volume XXI – November 2022
Home by 6:30 on the dot. Cat fed and dinner on the stove by 7. A quiet meal, alone at the dining table, staring at a beige wall by 7:30. Dessert, on the days when he’s feeling a little naughty or just doesn’t care, by 7:45. Continue reading Gene
The death of Queen Elizabeth has made me think about her legacy. The idea of a monarchy in 2022 has always struck me as curious. Continue reading God Save Us From Queens (and Kings)
“Pick me up.” He looked at the locked front door, then the room itself, wondering if he was hearing things. “Look at me.” He put down the book he was reading and tip-toed around the room, trying to locate the sound. When he got to the opposite end of the room he looked back at … Continue reading Algo
He sat in his well-appointed dressing room and stared through himself in the mirror, not seeing his imperfect facial features and flabby body under his clothes, but instead the idealized version of himself concocted out of thin air, made into mythology, and sold to the masses as a genuine article of American entrepeneurship and social … Continue reading The Grifter
Major holidays in the city are like turning down the volume of a boisterous song. Transient renters scatter to the suburbs of their youth or families. Work mostly grinds to a screeching halt. Those with nowhere to go don’t try. You can walk for blocks without seeing another soul outside. And when you do a question always comes to mind – what are they doing here? Continue reading City on Holiday
It’s probably possible to put a ‘snake oil’ label on a bottle of water and sell it to the public as a cure-all. A con that lends its name to a stereotype yet isn’t obvious enough to fool many. Continue reading Volume IX – November 2020
There’s something curious about our collective conception of entertainment. Somewhere along the way we became convinced that only mindless diversions qualify. That we must shut off our brains and let the entertainment take over. Let it happen to us, instead of being an active participant in it. Continue reading Entertainment
GLAZ 