May 2013
1 post
1 tag
April 2013
1 post
1 tag
Why did your pagan lord create crust punks?
Some crustie on the sidewalk said, “You dropped your smile.” I said “fuuuuuuuucck youuuuuuu” in response, but the joke’s on me, because after that I smiled REALLY BIG.
March 2013
3 posts
“I worry when somebody from one particular tradition stands up and says, ‘The...”
– Chinua Achebe, a man who leveraged the full humanistic potential of literary writing. Rest in peace.
February 2013
2 posts
A.S.
Like most people who will read this, I think, I first heard of Aaron Swartz following his suicide. A few photos of him popped up on my Tumblr dashboard, and a post showed that he was going to be buried in Highland Park, the Chicago suburb where I spent most of my childhood.
Highland Park is not a small town in that it’s not provincial, cozy, or physically disconnected from other suburbs....
I started swimming again
In Buenos Aires, I joined a health club where the pool was full of hot water and at least one clump of unidentifiable mossy growth. There was no limit on how many people could swim in a lane. It was wack; I didn’t stick it out.
For a short time during my childhood, I wanted to be an Olympic swimmer. At the age of 8 or so, I could swim something like 40 laps (!). True to the cliche about...
January 2013
1 post
December 2012
3 posts
Matthew: these people are all saaaaaaad http://25.media.tumblr.com/80a1ca9a00f511960910706214f01861/tumblr_mf9a9xsOTN1s0cjm8o1_500.png
"i'm sorry for not being sorry anymore"
how is that not a kelly clarkson lyric
me: whoa that's just nuts
why are you looking at this?
for most of these people it's just their looks
it's not that they're too nice
there's this myth that women don't care about how men look and just want someone who can make them laugh
it's a lie
being too nice is not a problem for handsome men
Matthew: haha
well, yeah
but that myth fucks your head up, when you're not at that level of attractive
where you can sit on your hands and girls will approach you
hah, the fact that girls care about physicality as much as men do, about as much at least
damages a lot of long held ideas about attraction, relationships, etc.
it's probably harder for a lot of people
to face that, than it is to rationalize "these girls are mean to me because i'm too nice"
but it's not even that, really
in order to think "these girls don't like because i'm too nice"
you've got to be some kinda big bitch
i imagine being unattractive is about as bad as being a huge self-effacing bitch
i bet none of the dudes on this blog listen to rick ross
i say that as someone who doesn't even like rick ross
but ricky rozay would probably change these dudes' life
*lives
me: hahahaha
you are a miracle
Prairie State of Mind
Out of every year of my life, this is the one in which the most time has passed. I left behind a lot of selves, living in different cities and passing time in distinct ways. There’s a version of my life in which I’m still living in South America, bickering with my roommate, eating gelato every day, and drinking red wine in loft apartments with other expats. In another version of my...
revealing screen shot 1
revealing screen shot 2
November 2012
2 posts
Pro-Feminist Bro: Male Ally Tips - Things You Can... →
Please take a look at my friend Steve’s helpful (and quick) guidelines as to how men can support gender equality.
profeministbro:
I was looking around for something that gives strategies that men can do to prevent rape and rape culture. Outside of Jackson Katz’s “10 Things Men Can Do To Stop Rape,” I didn’t find anything that was more recent. I put this list together as a handout for the...
October 2012
2 posts
Chicago's Segregated Schools: A Case Study →
TL;DR “Research in the 1970s blamed the inferior performance of low-income minority students on their poverty and family background—not their schools. But a meticulous reanalysis of the evidence, published in 2010 in the journal Teachers College Record, strongly indicted segregation. The authors, University of Wisconsin professors Geoffrey D. Borman and Maritza Dowling, found that...
Here I am in Brooklyn. A friend told me to apply for a job within her company, and after four interviews and an intercontinental flight, I found out that I didn’t get it. I stayed with her and slept on her couch, and stood naked in front of an oscillating fan with a 101 degree fever. I shared the place with four other women and only one bathroom. It was a sticky, humid late-September.
...
September 2012
3 posts
Q. Since it’s about Celeste separating from a man, not about her searching for one, did you think about how it fit in the canon of romantic comedies or about subverting those conventions? It seems like we’re seeing more of that on screen.
A. We tried to create an element of surprise: He’s her gay best friend, but he’s not very good at being gay. Women have been interesting forever. I’ve had so...
“True to the book’s title, Rothbart often turns his focus to his own failed attempts at romance. While he treats his platonic acquaintances as individuals, his love interests all blur together. They’re pretty, tragic, and unfamiliar; they do not have comfortable lives. ‘I’m always drawn to girls in the service industry—waitresses, baristas, bartenders, concierges, strippers—basically...
August 2012
0 posts
1 tag
“Do you know how long it initially took us to produce At the Movies? Six hours!...”
– —an excerpt from Enemies: A Love Story, posted on Slate.
I urge everyone to read this story, especially if you’re at all familiar with Siskel & Ebert or if you’ve lived in Chicago. The show was a brainy, populist institution that did good on behalf of the Windy City. Before...
July 2012
7 posts
1 tag
Dulce de Leche
It’s hard to know what to write: I journal, but that doesn’t lead to sharable projects, or I initiate projects, but don’t finish them. I’m trying to save my ideas for the right outlets—probably something that pays, probably not this blog. Who knows if anything I try will come to fruition. As a writer, I have a discipline problem. I’m working on it.
Because of...
me: I am scared I will never have as active of a social life as I had in Chicago just before I left
Josh: i imagine that is not true
social lives ebb and flow
and you just moved
and made a major move at that
give it time
you'll meet new people, etc., it just takes some time to establish it
me: THIS LETTUCE IS AWFUL
GOD IS MOCKING ME
Josh: likely
1 tag
June 2012
3 posts
2 tags
me: ugh south america is so slow
Courtney: i think it will be good for you to move somewhere that makes you patient
me: so, hell?
1 tag
May 2012
3 posts
Our Dearly Departed
On June 30, I am moving to Buenos Aires. Moving, or taking a short trip, depending on how I feel when the plane lands. I’m leaving it open-ended for the sake of my sanity, which—what a fucking joke. Every day my pulse quickens when I think about the move, and I feel ready to vomit or cry without warning. I’ve already given notice at my job. The nerves are my body’s way of...
1 tag
"It's Not About You"
“Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a...
April 2012
8 posts
2 tags
me: I have to work but all I can think about is candy
Two gleaming excerpts of the Yelp reviews for...
“I am not a hardcore doughnut fanatic; that said, I wouldn’t ever turn one down either.”
“I used to think that a donut was just a donut. After today I realize that I am wrong. Dead wrong.”
1 tag
89 Minutes With Natasha Lyonne
“Lyonne feels deep kinship with outcasts. ‘I will take the subway and look at certain women and think God, that woman’s story will never be told. How come that lady doesn’t get a movie about her? I have this weird trip going where I think of some little girl in an abusive home and she’s got drunk parents or something and she’s flicking through the TV and can’t find anything she can...
katgrecianinspired-deactivated2 asked: I'm always trying to write something; poetry, screen plays or essays. And every time I write, all I think about is the grammar of what I'm writing, as well as if what I'm writing is even worth writing about; something that past teachers have said to me. Because of this though, I'm always so hesitant to write. Do you have any advice so I can write, and enjoy writing again?
Sicko
If I was writing this post only for myself I might write “trigger warning” at the top.
Suddenly—since about four weeks ago—I hate living alone. I’ve been doing it for years; I started living alone, on and off, at age 18. I don’t know what made it easy for me then, and why some people insist that it’s a luxury. Maybe I was so ready to assert my...
March 2012
3 posts
1 tag
1 tag
My 24th birthday is coming up
In my dream last night, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor of a hallway in my high school. A large group walked by—all twentysomethings—and I yelled,
“STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!”
They stood still and stared at me. I was feeling overwhelmed and I had tried to stop time, but it wasn’t working. I told them nevermind and they kept going.
Two stragglers, a scrappy,...
1 tag
February 2012
3 posts
edgarkennedy asked: What's your favorite book and movie at the moment? By the way your freelance works are fantastic!LOVE them!
“Ripper says we live in ‘a nightmare paradigm of a commodified world, a...”
– Sady Doyle, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, and others re-envision love in In These Times
3 tags
“Graduation brought ample fanfare from the department and the school at large—a...”
– read about mentors and my Bell Jar summer at Emily Books
January 2012
6 posts
3 tags
some girlfriend things
1. On the commute to work, I stood behind a black-haired girl, probably in her early 20s. For about 12 minutes, she didn’t do much of anything. Then she took out a black sharpie and started to write. “I keep thinking about how I can’t stop thinking about you,” she printed in stubby, grade-school handwriting, and drew a circle that she filled in like the globe. She was...
1 tag
wordsandbirdcages asked: How did you first get published and what was your experience like? I mean, actually finding out that something of yours was officially published.
1 tag
