Defrosted from the archives
For all y’all who’ve spent a lot of this week snowed in … Washington was spared (this time) but for some reason I was having vague memories about this piece, from February 2003, and I wanted to go back and make sure I wasn’t imagining that I actually wrote it. I remember it was inspired…
Read MoreHe has a pulse (and a booty)
Actual proof that I still exist: National Journal‘s Hotline came knocking the other day, with lighthearted questions for their Friday Feature Q&A. The what? The hunh? National Journal is a D.C. publication that is so essential to the Beltway power/media structure that it costs, like, hundreds (thousands?) of dollars to subscribe. Otherwise I would link…
Read MoreA Very Roller Christmas
Here’s a painting from 1987 that artist Donald Roller Wilson is apparently putting up for sale, probably at a price only Carrie Fisher could afford. It’s Brenda’s house. You want it, you want it… The caption, as always, makes it even better: BRENDA’S HOUSE AT BRENDA’S NUT FARM…LOCATED IN THE STATE OF MIND…BEFORE THE STATE…
Read MoreDon’t like Christmas? Uh, then “forget” youuu
I think Crudbump’s inspiring little anti-carol kinda says it all about America, Christmas, religion, retail. If you don’t like Christmas, then there’s something wrong with you and you deserve a Scrooge slap — that’s our overriding cultural message. But also: just open your mind, let it happen, look at it real close, have a laugh,…
Read MoreAttention all book clubs that have more than one person! An official “Tinsel” Discussion Guide
Courtesy of the marketing elves at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner Books, here is a useful (I think) Readers’ Discussion Guide. If your book club is reading Tinsel, please know that I’m always open to answering your questions by e-mail. If you live in the D.C. area, I’m also happy to come visit your group for a…
Read MoreIt’s moaning again in America
My broader analysis of the cultural zombie fixation, vis-a-vis my Walking Dead review on Sunday. And another nice use of art on the section front (see below), courtesy of illustrator Zohar Lazar. The print edition of the newspaper is still a bargain and a visual treat that the web site just frankly still isn’t. However,…
Read MoreOnce more, with feeling
The paperback edition of Tinsel shipped in early October and is in stores now — usually you can find it in the “cultural studies,” “sociology/culture” or “American culture” shelves, with all the books about pot, tattoos, prisons, the real-estate bust, shopaholism, and meatpacking and other biofood nightmares, which is as good a home as any…
Read MoreOne-Man Book Club takes the EZPass lane
At this rate, the One-Man Book Club will soon be meeting at St. Elizabeths. (And no, Mr. Hinckley, we’re not going to read any books about Jodie Foster.) I actually had a fantasy during all the deadlines for fall TV reviews: If I could get just sick enough — something that required convalescence but not,…
Read More“I hate television. I hate it as much as I hate peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts.”
Orson Welles said that. I say AMEN. I haven’t been blogging as much because it’s like a department store in December around here. I’m the TV critic for The Washington Post. That’s my bread, that’s my butter. There is ENTIRELY TOO MUCH to do this time of year. (The rest of the year, there’s only…
Read MoreHighway 1990
My raging case of nostalgia continues unabated, and I’ve decided it’s a good thing. Unless and until it causes me to obsessively scan images of old diner menus and matchbox covers and spout vaguely jingoistic observations about the end of civilization and the people I encounter in the Target parking lot. It occurred to me…
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