In 2011 I published a story on this site called “The interloper”. In it, a teenaged girl named Jessie falls in love with her best friend Sarah. They eventually break up when Sarah can no longer take the pressure of being queer in high school. Sarah gives Jessie a box of the notes they’ve exchanged […]
Author Archive
Year-end mix: Too much of a good thing edition
Part 1: Cookies Here in the midwest, December rolls around and you start getting invited to Christmas cookie parties. Everyone makes their favorite recipe. Much hilarity ensues, with (literally) too many cooks in the kitchen and the oven going full-blast for hours. The smell of butter and sugar permeates your clothes. You leave your neighbor’s […]
Constellation prize
Today’s assortment of random enthusiams brought to you courtesy of my favorite student malapropism of the semester (see above). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62SfBbSpxxM[/youtube] 1. Live music I am incredibly excited to go see Kelly Hogan tonight at a house concert here in Madison. Hogan is sort of a personal hero of mine, which is sometimes awkward because she […]
This person’s list
So the Pitchfork “People’s List” came out last week, along with some interesting demographic data. It seems that “the people” are overwhelmingly 21-30 years old (no surprise there, given Pitchfork’s hipster readership) and male (EIGHTY-EIGHT PERCENT!! Dude skewed! Don’t girls like to geek out over music and make lists too?!) So, predictably, the list kind […]
Dayzipper
Jumping off tall objects for fun: yea or nay? Are you an adrenaline junkie? Do you like pushing yourself beyond limits of comfort (and possibly sanity)? Do you enjoy the sound of your own panicked shrieking? Are roller coasters just not cutting it for you these days? If the answer to any of these questions […]
I still love you, 33 1/3
Remember the time I totally fell in love with an album that completely rearranged my DNA and then tried to write about it analytically and it was a massive success? Me neither. The 33 1/3 book series, with which many of you are familiar at least since it published Great Whatsit alum Bryan Waterman’s awesome […]
Best things this week
Sorry for the grab-bag format, folks, but it’s late and I have a terrible sunburn from gardening all day. (I know, cry me a river, right? Boo-hoo, suburban academic on summer break!) These are some of the things that have delighted me recently: 1. Simon Reynolds interviews Greil Marcus for the Los Angeles Review of […]
The yellow wallpaper
It’s been close to two years now since I bought my first house. It’s a ninety year-old Craftsman-style home on Main Street in a small city in Wisconsin, full of hand-rubbed plaster walls, oak built-ins, and birdseye maple floors. Despite my occasional restlessness and a love for urban life, this is well and truly my […]
