“Artists are the worker priests of the cult of man.” That’s a statement by Brice Marden. A brand new painting by Marden will set you back about nine hundred thousand dollars. In addition, Marden has been pretty up front about his drug use. He really likes to smoke pot. So what kind of cult is […]
Archive for August, 2006
Found
My stalker has returned. Maybe “stalker” isn’t the right word. He’s not outside my door every night; he doesn’t call me at weird hours; I’ve never felt unsafe. But I haven’t been able to electronically get away from the first man I ever slept with. He has found me wherever I go, under whatever email […]
Poetic lie-sense
Please read me—please read me—please Because I got out of bed to write this Please read me—please read me—please Because if everyone read this I’d be anthologized for ever Please read me—please read me—please Because it’ll only take a moment Please read me—please read me—please Because I look under every dark emotion for an even […]
A few weekend discoveries
The Last Movie, directed by and starring Dennis Hopper (1971): My weekend started early with a day off on Friday, so I went with my friend Stephanie to Anthology Film Archives to see this classic of early-Seventies American cinema that I’d never had the chance to see. They had a new print playing for a […]
Summer soundtracks, part two: Driving
When I was a kid in the mountatins of northern Arizona, just about anything we wanted to do required driving 45 minutes to two hours, depending on the size of town we needed — three and a half if we were heading to Phoenix for a live show. This meant that the late 80s, for me, […]
Stella at the races
Escaping the humid Washington summer, Stella had occasion to visit Saratoga Springs for a day at the races earlier this month. A couple of years ago, she had developed an interesting betting scheme that was yielding a 15-20% return. The system consisted of betting to win or place on three horses per race, two favorites […]
Farrell Fawcett's six degrees of separation
I am quite proud to announce that I personally know every one of the contributors to The Great Whatsit. Yes, even the anonymous contributors. And as far as my research indicates, I am the only contributor who can claim that honor (sorry Dave and Bryan). So in the interest of helping those home viewers feel […]
Strip maul
Once upon a time last week, five TGW writers from different regions of the country (who would all prefer not to be “outed,” you commenters who know us, for professional reasons) had a big night out. It started with cocktails and music and chatting, moved on to copious amounts of sushi and sake, and ended […]
City stories
In college, in a smallish, suburban city, I would go out on weekends with friends who co-edited a student magazine. It was a dry college, so we’d end up at Denny’s or IHOP instead of some after-hours club, Belgian waffles replacing booze. To entertain ourselves, we’d play a game of making up stories about the […]
Summer soundtracks, part one
For years — probably too many years — my quintessential summer album was New Order’s Brotherhood. Nothing sounded more like tossing frisbees or sprawling in the grass with friends or making out on a blanket under the stars. For the last several years, though, I’ve made self-conscious attempts to identify what I think of as my […]
