Essays and Articles

Latest

“Ralph Steinman awarded 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, dies at age 68″ — feature, The New York Academy of Sciences.

Renowned for his discovery of dendritic cells, the cell biologist and immunologist died Friday of pancreatic cancer, just days before the prize announcement.

“The Rumpus Interview with Hot Head Show” — feature/interview, The Rumpus.

As the opening band left the stage, before the house lights had lifted, a stocky gentleman with plastic cup in hand barreled toward the bar. He pointed, snapping his fingers through the air, and yelled to his buddy, “That was the shit!”

Or did he say, “That was shit?”

Recent

Untitled (February tomatoes) — micro-essay, Creative Nonfiction, Issue 41.

“Pushcorpse” — collaborative fiction, No Colony, #3. (An interesting analysis of the experiment’s results by Darby Larson on HTMLGiant.)

Untitled (NYC, 1896) — micro-essay, Creative Nonfiction, Issue 40.

Untitled (Three Flags) — micro-essay, Creative Nonfiction, Issue 39.

“My Love-Hate Relationship with River Phoenix” — essay, PopMatters. Featured in “Rest In Pieces” series. Tenth most popular article on PopMatters for its publication period.

From the moment that he appeared on screen in the film—with a cigarette balanced between his fingers and the close-cropped haircut of a little boy—media outlets had him pegged as the James Dean of the ‘80s.

“‘Our little flag game’: A strange tradition of the Police reunion tour” — feature, Stewart Copeland Official Site.

With a nod, a smile, and the flick of a stick, Copeland transformed a few fans’ show of appreciation into—as he once called it—“our little flag game,” an unconventional variation on Where’s Waldo? operating on a global scale in front of tens of thousands of unknowing witnesses each night.

“Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders: 6 May 2010 – New York” — concert review, PopMatters.

Hawkins imagined Red Light Fever as “sounding like me having sex with my record collection,” but delivered from start to finish with the same thrusts at the same speed with the same pressure, the music only humps the listener into numbness.

“Q & A with Stewart Copeland: On writing, his memoir, and why the early days of the Police didn’t make the cut” — guest post, WordWebbing.com.

Here he talks about his background as a writer, the stories that inspired the memoir, and the decision of which tales to tell—including what he says is the real reason why he glossed over the formative years of the band that made him famous.