THE MUSIC STOPPED… AND SHE DIED! I’m listening to the first of two (so far) Halloween mixes at World of Wardcrap. My life is awesome right now. Via Sean Collins. EDITED to correct the name of the site, and also to note that the second mix is a lot less my thing than the first. The second mix has “Do They Know It’s Halloween?” and “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps,” both of which are fantastic, but it also does a... Read more

COTTON-GIN PUNK. Read more

BLOOD OF PALOMAR: And although biology is obviously among Beto’s primary concerns, destiny is the operative word. I don’t think the Palomarians have the ability to escape the way the Locas do. Not all of them need to escape, mind you–there’s a lot of really warm and adorable and hilarious and awesome stuff going down in Palomar–but whatever walks alongside them in their lives is gonna walk alongside them till the very end. more Read more

“WHAT’S ‘BARK’?” Read more

I reconciled myself to my desire to secure for Gabe and Ana a respectability I myself was fleeing as fast as possible. I thought of all my old Beat friends from college who were now leading their kids off to Sunday School and dance class. I told myself that they–we!–were giving our kids a choice. If later they wanted to reject a middle-class status they could, but ninety-five percent of the world longed for the security and comfort we affected... Read more

GOOD LEADERS SHOULD USE THEIR “DARK SIDE”: Popularization, but here you go. Read more

IT’S NICE TO TAKE A WALK IN THE RAIN: I finished Slings and Arrows. Not sure what to say to make you guys watch this terrific TV comedy set behind the scenes of a Canadian theater company, but I will say that along with all of the gallows humor (one of the main characters is a ghost and/or hallucination) there’s a really compelling portrayal of leadership-through-chaos and its limits. Since this is the only kind of leadership I personally have... Read more

OH RIGHT, I FORGOT ABOUT: “She’ll defend Catholic moralists one moment, but defend prostitutes and bad girls the next.” I knew I liked her for a reason. Now praise drunks! Read more

SUSIE THEN REMOVED HER MASK/AND CAUSED A MIGHTY STIR: Just so everyone’s clear, 1. Here are some of my favorite posts by Helen Rittelmeyer. These posts in no way exhaust her awesomeness; they merely give you what Lady Holliday in The Great Muppet Caper would call “a soupcon–Marie, I don’t think we should chew gum!” “Decadence, Christianity, And Oscar Wilde’s Conversion to Catholicism.” My own senior essay changed my life. If mine hadn’t, hers might’ve. “Toward a Bioethics of Love”... Read more

Since his humor never overturned his preconceptions it didn’t take him or his listeners by surprise; no, it was a local affair, just a snarl in his mental traffic, not an accident.—The Farewell Symphony Read more