Messages
12/19/2024
8 : 14
Review: “James”
Percival Everett sharpens his pen in this radical retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Everett's writing cuts like a knife. He takes the bones of Mark Twain's classic American
12/19/2024
7 : 14
“OMNIPUBLIC” (SHORT STORY)
Two advertising giants eye each other across the shimmering canyons of New York. One giant will swallow the other whole, and a hundred thousand souls hang in the balance. “Omnipublic” is an advertising
12/19/2024
7 : 4
Scenes from the city: Icarus statue
It's an odd sight at the always hectic airport. Outside the international departures terminal and in the middle of the hurly-burly of frantic passengers rushing to make their flights stands a giant
12/10/2024
5 : 54
Scenes from the coast: New electric scooters
The future is coming. There's no stopping it. There never is. Increasingly it's coming sooner than expected, a lot sooner and a lot faster. It seems to be accelerating. But isn't that the
12/10/2024
5 : 4
“GREY NOMADS” (SHORT STORY)
A man stands alone on an empty outback road as a sunset bleeds across the sky. His motorcycle lies twisted in a ditch. There is no blood. There are no wounds. He cannot remember the crash. The road
12/1/2024
12 : 24
“MCPRESIDENT” (SHORT STORY)
Five powerful men sit around a mahogany table on a private jet, pretending to enjoy a make-believe meal. It's a photoshoot meant to show loyalty and camaraderie to the President-elect. Steve Bannon
11/27/2024
4 : 44
Review: “Monica”
Daniel Clowes doesn't mess about. The opening two-page spread of his heart-wrenching fictional biography jump cuts from amoeba to cavemen to Jesus on the cross to the industrial revolution to the
11/24/2024
9 : 14
“THE ROAD TO FIEFDOM” (SHORT STORY)
Friedrich Hayek sits at his desk, pen in hand, writing the kind of letter that cuts deeper than an apology. His sharp certainty worn blunt by watching his economic theories collide with reality. Free
11/19/2024
4 : 44
Scenes from the city: Homeless musician
There's a faint drizzle falling on a grey day. Opposite the art gallery is a park. Verdant grass, proud trees, clumps of flowers in well-cared-for beds. There are deep basalt steps leading to a
11/17/2024
10 : 14
“PERFECT RED LIPSTICK” (SHORT STORY)
She paints her lips carefully, precisely, watching the colour bloom. There are dozens of lipsticks in her collection, each containing its own shade of promise. “Perfect Red Lipstick” is a meditative
11/11/2024
4 : 44
David Milch writes “NYPD Blue”
David knows that being alone with his demons in a room with a laptop is not going to produce compelling television drama. In fact, he knows it's going to end in tears. David's just come back
11/10/2024
10 : 14
“DELIRIUM” (SHORT STORY)
President Donald Trump floats naked above the gilded carpet. The air grows thick. Time bends. Reality shifts. Walls breathe and somewhere beyond the concrete and the security cordon, history unravels.
11/8/2024
4 : 44
Magnanimous dictators
It's 1972 and Ennio Flaiano knows he's going to die. He gets his affairs and journals in order and makes one final entry. It's about - of all things - beloved dictators. It's about how
11/3/2024
10 : 24
“THREE MARTINI LUNCH - EPILOGUE” (SHORT STORY)
Anne Sexton steers wild, cigarette dangling, while Sylvia Plath fixes her lipstick. They are young and brilliant and haunted. They laugh too loud and share too little. The real things stay buried deep.
10/31/2024
4 : 44
A time to die
It's 1961 and Ennio Flaiano recounts a story of a sick snake, An ailing python escapes from a little circus in Rome where he used to perform in the evening together with other beasts. The python
10/27/2024
10 : 54
“VITAREN” (SHORT STORY)
In an advertising agency's office high above the city, two creatives struggle with pills and broken pencils. They're trying to sell a new drug to make people feel immortal. The walls are
10/23/2024
4 : 44
Not until next month!
It's July 1958 and Ennio Flaiano runs into an old film extra he's known for years. Given Rome's cinematic historico-biblico-mythological re-birth, this film extra has been shuttling from
10/20/2024
10 : 54
“HITLER IN THE BARDO” (SHORT STORY)
A lost soul wanders through a supernatural salt mine in Austria, surrounded by the greatest artworks of Europe. Adolf Hitler has just died by his own hand in a Berlin bunker but his consciousness
10/20/2024
8 : 34
“CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN” (SHORT STORY)
A man walks into a bar, knowing he's stepping into danger. The front door locks behind him. He's trapped, outnumbered, but not outmatched. The air hisses with tension as he pushes through the
10/20/2024
6 : 54
David Milch teaches a writing class
It's 1981 and David Milch is an English literature professor at Yale University. He is known for his cerebral and unorthodox approach to writing, for the profanity of his dialogue and for the