Here’s the thing with Sarah Vowell. While I’m in the midst of her books, I’m loving them. She’s wry and smart, and the topics she chooses to write about are interesting. They’re things I only had cursory knowledge about — presidential assassinations, Hawaii, and Puritans. In the thick of her books whether I’m listening or reading, I’m all in. I love listening to her read her books. She’s a great reader & she always gets a host of co-readers which…
First: I just submitted my first ever arts grant application. It’s for emerging/beginning artists. I applied in hopes of getting some funds so I can work less, spend that time writing the second draft of the longer fiction piece I’ve been working on, and not have to worry about having to move into Sister #2’s basement. (I can’t say the words “my novel” without making barf faces and rolling my eyes). Keep your fingers crossed for me. Second: I got…
Occasionally, I like to take a look at all the drafts I have saved up in WordPress. Once, something magical happened when I wrote about these drafts. After my friend Polly requested it, I posted my Top 10 Best Episodes of Dawson’s Creek, which is the #2 most popular I Will Dare post of all time. Because I have no brain capacity to write something fresh & because I actually care about the Sunday & Boring post being at the…
I dragged my carcass out bed at the crack of 8:30. I say crack of 8:30 because this post-puppy week has been a constant struggle to sleep. I am the master of sleep routine. If you had my history of insomnia, you’d keep to that routine religiously too. Those two nights of puppy-caused sleep disruptions wrecked me and now my sleep patterns are in all kinds of disarray. I guess the sleep nonsense comes at a fortuitous time because I…
This afternoon as I was shoving pretzels & M&Ms into my gaping maw I thought to myself, If someone put a gun to my head and said, “Choose peanut butter & banana bread or pretzels & M&Ms” I’d probably just tell them to pull the trigger. These are the kinds of thoughts one has when they’re eating lunch at 3 p.m. and it consists of strawberries, pretzels, and M&Ms. While I could probably make a pretty convincing argument for why…
I’m going to use one review in particular to explain why it is record reviews are so often the very definition of suck. The review I’m using to illustrate my point is Time Out Chicago’s review of Vampire Weekend’s “Modern Vampire’s of the City”. Now, it might seem that I’m picking on this review in particular, and I kind of am, but mostly this review perfectly encapsulates all the reasons I hate 99.9% of all record reviews. First, the review…
