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Attention 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…
Read MoreOver-served again at the One-Man Book Club
About a week ago, after manic amounts of book-reading this summer, the One-Man Book Club unanimously approved a moratorium (1 in favor; none opposed) that prohibits even the cracking-open and general perusing of any book on the “to read” stack until the club confronts and discusses the entire backlog of already-read and partially-read books. This…
Read MoreHousekeeping
I’ve solved a major problem (pictured, right) that was really the bane of all existence backstage at Tonsil. Thanks to the smart people at AuthorBytes, I’m once again feeling like maybe it’s time to blog. Honestly the junk that collected in the comments pile was so depressing, I’d taken a break from logging-in to WordPress…
Read MoreNo, please, not that …
Go get me a spoon
This Real People clip of a valley-girl competition in 1982 in the Sherman Oaks Galleria (RIP) hurts in about a hundred different ways. All those Beths and Lauras and Laurens and Loryns and Lauries and Loris — to think (on birthday eve), they’re all in their 40s now, regretting the many afternoons they slathered up…
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