My kingdom for a shoe rack that doesn’t avalanche every time we breathe near it.

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis knew how to start a novel.

Prairie School Freakout and Beet tend to get more love, but Lived to Tell has always been my favorite of Eleventh Dream Day's work from that era. I'd like to live inside its guitar tones someday.

This morning, I watched THE RUNNING MAN instead of running. The contrast between Richard Dawson‘s performance and everything else in this movie is striking—it is the only aspect of the film saving it from utter mediocrity.

I auditioned for Amazing Grace & Chuck and got a call back. Didn’t make the final cut. One of my classmates did though and wound up with one or two lines.

I returned from vacation to a lovely surprise. I already know that Howard A. Rodman’s The Great Eastern is delightful. Looking forward to Destiny Express—blurbed by none other than Thoman Pynchon.

One last good morning from the beach

Good morning

Good morning.

Picked up @bhousepress.bsky.social’s new reissue of Friedrich Torberg’s Vengeance Is Mine from my local

Rare bit of personal news: Elder Kid will attend Duke next year.

The Old Shop on Main Street is the best movie I will never watch again.

Last night, @mulaney.bsky.social gave a shout out to my colleague Howard Mortman on Colbert. Specifically, Howard's seating the chart for the Supreme Court oral argument in the tariff's case. www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

I’ve heard @jeffreyford8.bsky.social recommend Alvaro Mutis’s Maqroll novellas a few times. I finally had to have my own copies…

Old Friends book club selected Tristram Shandy for our next read. I’ve wanted to read it for years, so I’m thrilled.

K. C. Constantine’s Upon Some Midnights Clear is another fine Rocksburg novel. Citizens of the fading steel town open their wallets after a little old lady claims to have been mugged of her Christmas money. Chief Balzic, however, sees bigotry at the heart of their generosity.

Monster Hunter is dumb and bad. I enjoyed it.

This is a phenomenal piece of music writing, a great intro to the genre, its history and the social and cultural context around it. Obviously helps if you're a fan of Quiet Storm-type soul & R&B, but well worth a read even if you're not.

Happy Opening Day to all who celebrate. I’ve set aside two baseball novels to read this MLB season: Bernard Malamud’s The Natural and Michael Bishop’s Brittle Innings.

“‘The Quiet Storm’ was not born in a vacuum. It came out of an HBCU ecosystem, out of Black institutional life, out of a station that was both commercial and culturally accountable.” www.kolumnmagazine.com/2026/03/22/w... Fascinating piece on the origins & significance of Quiet Storm radio format

Delighted to come home to my copy of @willwiles.bsky.social The Dead Man’s Empire.

A first printing of William Trevor’s The Story of Lucy Gault showed up at the used bookstore in DC’s Union Station.

Nice article on the D.C. punk collections at the University of Maryland via Library Journal! www.libraryjournal.com/story/news/d...

Phil Davis's "Shake me up, Judy!" and "I'm warm as toast—warmer than toast!" remain catchphrases in my house.

Howard Rodman's THE GREAT EASTERN is brilliant, inventive, and often quite funny. I hope the new edition brings it to the attention of many more readers.

Elder Kid brought me home a new shirt from a clothing swap. They intended it to be for Halloween, which makes me think my Elder Kid doesn’t know me that well.

Good lord the new Neurosis is even better than i had hoped. neurosis.bandcamp.com/album/an-und...

I am on chauffeur duty tonight. While Younger Kid was at their first party I went book shopping.

Aaron Turner joining Neurosis is a pleasant surprise. Can't wait to listen this weekend.

Now it's official. THE TERROR: DEVIL IN SILVER is coming to you. I can't begin to express how proud I am of the show we made. It's a story of systematic evil, unjust imprisonment, abuse & the need for ALL to fight together to beat the devils who prey on us. Get ready!

🌍 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Atlas Shruggied

Grant was inconsistent after the Huskers (as was Bob), but he had a lot of gems, including "2541," the title track of "The Last Days of Pompeii," "Think It Over Now," and this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCBd...

Grant Hart's "2541" gets overshadowed by his work with Hüsker Dü, but there's a reason Marshall Crenshaw and Robert Forster covered it: It's remarkable. In the running for best post-Hüsker track by either of the band's chief songwriters.

Did you know Craig T. Nelson starred in an early ‘90s fantasy novel?

Spider Stacy’s assertion that Shane MacGowan is "better read than anyone I've ever met” reminds me of the MacGowan doc Crock of Gold. Talking about reading James Joyce, Flann O’Brien and Graham Greene as a kid, MacGowan says, “That’s an Irish trait. We’re a literary people even if we’re illiterate.”

Two fun facts: My kids and I provided feedback on the cover design. (We loved it.) I preordered it from my local.

Kaaron Warren’s THE UNDERHISTORY is a fun gothic thriller. Pera leads ghost tours of her estate, the site of a freak accident that claimed the lives of visitors, employees, and her entire family. She recounts the troubled history for a gang of toughs who intend to walk away with more than a thrill.

For those of you blown away by my Oscar-prediction prowess…

My picks, selected only from the movies I’ve seen. Best Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor Best Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro Best Actress: Jessie Buckley Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan Casting: Jennifer Venditti Cinematography: Adolpho Veloso Costume Design: Ruth E. Carter

I’ve been reading The Adventures of Augie March off and on since last fall, unable to keep momentum for more than a few pages at a time. I’m about 3/5 through and determined to finish it, but I can’t recall the last time I had such trouble focusing on a book.

I attended a Library of Congress event last night where they had a number of artifacts on display, including some old fire insurance maps. I have a thing for old fire insurance maps. My two favorites were…

I've just started "The Universal Baseball Association"---need to get on this.

I didn’t know until recently that Art Spiegelman illustrated a long-ish short story by Robert Coover called “Street Cop.” An Italian company, isolarii, published it in a palm-size format in 2021.

The first three quarters of Octavia E. Butler’s PARABLE OF THE TALENTS is even more bleak and brutal than PARABLE OF THE SOWER. Worth it, though. Butler is a remarkably good observer of the ebb and flow of history and uses it to great effect.

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński made a career of reporting from the world’s troubled spots. His 1982 book Shah of Shahs combines history, ethnography, and reportage with novelistic flair to provide an impressionistic portrait of life under the Pahlavi regime and the last Shah’s downfall.

I’ve wanted to hear this for years. And all I had to do was donate to a good cause. Easiest decision in forever…

Holy heck, Fugazi just released the 1992 Albini sessions for Bandcamp Friday! Proceeds going to Letters Charity.

“Godlike,” by the seminal punk musician Richard Hell, transposes a notorious affair between 19th-century French poets to 1970s New York—and testifies to punk’s paradoxical relationship with the past. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/UsuIy8