If I could adapt three works of literature for TV or film, they would be: K. C. Constantine's Rocksburg novels The Golem & the Jinni by Helene Wecker The Great Eastern by Howard A. Rodman If I could remake one previously (and poorly) made adaptation, it would be J. G. Farrell's Troubles.

I’ve only recently discovered Leo & Diane Dillon’s lovely artwork for the Ace Science Fiction Specials line from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

For @rollingstone.com, I wrote about the making of the myth of sheriff Buford Pusser, and how recent revelations that he was likely responsible for the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline, undercuts that myth -- and begs for a new narrative about intimate partner violence and family trauma.

Cathedral of the Drowned (2025), the second novella in Nathan Ballingrud’s dark and surreal science-fantasy Lunar Gothic Trilogy, is a work of stunning imagination. Ballingrud remains one of the few writers whose works I find consistently thrilling.

The clouds have broken just long enough to see the outline of Mount Ranier.

Chief Mario Balzic teaches an idealistic new mayor about police work and the justice system in K. C. Constantine’s Always a Body to Trade. The Rocksburg novels continue to be the best crime series I’ve stumbled on in a decade.

Good evening from the PNW

I’ve used my insomnia well: starting my “10 favorite reads of 2025” list that no one will read.

I started rewatching This Is Spinal Tap on Friday night after watching the sequel. I couldn’t even imagine then that I would be finishing it under the current circumstances. Still a perfect movie.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is far better than I expected. It’s a pleasant curio, ready for regular rediscovery.

Do hipsters still wear knit caps?

It didn’t turn out the way i would have preferred, but I enjoyed watching my alma mater play my hometown team.

Happy holidays!

Every few months i think about how JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS and ZOOLANDER are nearly the same movie. JOSIE, the better of the two, came out five months earlier, tanked, and was pretty much forgotten.

As of 22 minutes ago, C-SPAN is available on YouTubeTV. www.youtube.com/watch?v=toMU...

Long shot but anyone out there with access to John Mack Faragher’s Daniel Boone biography who can check the index for “Banta” for me?

Eric Brown’s Helix gets by on wonder and awe if you can set aside its shortcomings with respect to emotions in more ordinary registers.

They were “a peaceful, flourishing culture” for centuries. And then the orgy of violence began. www.science.org/content/arti...

Pretty sure this is a 4x-great-grandfather. Just in case you want to know where I got *it*.

I listened to Darryl Hall’s brilliant collaboration with Robert Fripp, SACRED SONGS, for the first time in years today. What starts as an interesting pop album swerves into unknown territory halfway through “Babs and Babs” and only rarely returns to known space.

Montana is too big, folks. No one should have that much Big Sky

I spent most of today with either peanut butter or soup on the top of my nose. My colleagues, all maddeningly polite, didn’t say a word.

I am happy to report that my team won at bar trivia, thanks, impart, to William Faulkner, Emiliano Zapata, Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, and Alien.

My Top 5 movie genres: - An ancient evil will fuck you up, sometimes hilariously - Very paranoid, lots of talking, and brief bursts of violence - This place is very spooky - This almost looks like the real world but not quite, and these almost seem like real people but not quite - Mel Brooks

Beautiful sunset in Fredericksburg, Virginia, tonight

Michael Malone intended HANDLING SIN to be a Southern DON QUIXOTE, but Cervantes’s novel was so much more than a madcap picaresque. There’s a brilliant 250-page comic novel in here, but it’s a slog at 620 pages.

Honored to have an excerpt from @johnlingan.bsky.social's exceptional new book in this month's @phillymag.com. I learned a lot about Questlove in this story, and I suspect you will too:

I hear good things…

Welp, I have another Barry Malzberg novel to track down. THE LAST TRANSACTION seems to bear some semblance to Georges Simenon’s THE PREMIER, one of the finest political novels I’ve read.

Deborah Cohen’s LAST CALL AT THE IMPERIAL HOTEL is an outstanding group biography of the foreign correspondents who explained the interwar world to increasingly isolationist Americans, laid groundwork for U.S. intervention in WWII, recorded the advent of the Cold War, and screwed each other silly.

I had a good time at John’s book launch tonight. Can’t wait to read the book and hear things I’ve never noticed before when listening to The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Bad Brains, Slayer, and more.

Ben's novella is an outstanding work of dark fantasy with a richly imagined setting and vivid, complex characters. Great book.

I enjoyed del Toro’s Frankenstein, but, dear lord, the CGI was distracting.

Green’s book is a fascinating look at the early ‘80s NYC art scene. And he captures an array of cultural currents—the rising awareness of police violence, the heyday of tabloid journalism, and soon-to-be celebrities like Keith Haring, Basquiat, and Madonna—without the book feeling overstuffed.

I spent the weekend driving to South Carolina and back, listening to the entire discographies of Nada Surf and Wussy. Both of their 2024 albums are excellent—maybe the strongest in over a decade by each band..

My office for the afternoon

My early thoughts on books to nominate for Cousin Book Club: Mockingbird by Walter Tevis Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry Basic Black with Pearls by Helen Weinzweig The Premier by Georges Simenon Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

Gang of Four—and, maybe, Mekons—fans will get the most out of TO HELL WITH POVERTY!, but Jon King’s razor-wire wit is occasionally awe-inspiring. The chapter in which King recalls Gang of Four’s first booking on Top of the Pops, in particular, is a virtuoso performance of clear-eyed absurdity.

I would like to know whether the guy with the JISLORD license plate we just passed thought it through.

My wife learning that she is of Italian descent: “It explains my love of pizza!”

Catholic University librarians showed some colleagues and I amazing artifacts from their collections today. Their rare book holdings include a 1911 book of Oxford University statutes signed by its original owner, J.R.R. Tolkien, and two U.S. first printings of FRANKENSTEIN.

An unknown force from a dark star leads to madness among the crew of IKARIE XB 1 as they search for life in the Alpha Centauri system. The 1963 movie scans more like an extended episode of a Czech STAR TREK than a predecessor to SUNSHINE, EVENT HORIZON, THE BLACK HOLE, or, even, SOLARIS. It’s fine.

Hüsker Dü were a pivotal band (for both good and bad reasons in my book tbh). Stevie Chick does the business here in this in-depth profile speaking to Bob Mould and Greg Norton about wide-eyed beginnings, drug-wracked endings, the reformation that almost happened, dealing out the first... 1/2

Great piece. Mould describes the CANDY APPLE GREY opener “Crystal” as “one of the most difficult pieces of music we ever made.” I read this as a challenge; I’ve not yet been able to find my way into that song.

THE HEART IN WINTER by Kevin Barry is funny, sad, crass, and lovely. And Barry’s prose has enough energy to power a small city. Highly recommended.

U.S. Marines have unsettling experiences after exploring the site of an Afghan-Soviet War–era massacre. John Milas’s THE MILITIA HOUSE is an excellent haunted house story and a vivid portrait of living with PTSD, but it’s Milas’s depiction of everyday life on the frontlines that held me in thrall.

Had a chance to hit my local

The stretch from the windmill through the retrieval of the Necronomicon is brilliant—among the best 20 minutes of comedy made in the 1990s. The rest is pretty fun, too.

Checking in on an old friend as I wait to pick up Elder Kid from a concert

I will let Bill Murray get away with anything, apparently