Kindness of Strangers

My first article in a series on etiquette for the Morning News.

Contrarian

My first piece for Filmcritic.com is up. It’s a
review of Nijinsky. Nijinsky is a bad movie.

I also wrote a CD review of Exo’s “Say Hello to the Master Siege Control” for the Morning News. The premise for these reviews is that one of the contributing editors picks something they love, and the other three people have to say what they think too. Therefore, it’s a long-ass CD review. If you’re an impatient sort, I’m buried at the bottom, so scroll down.

Spooky

“Our Town”, my latest piece for the Morning News, is a creepy article about real towns where weird stuff happens. I came across a few odd things while researching the article. None of them were quite right for the piece, but they were cool nonetheless.

For example, the Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri fell into disuse in 1962. Groundwater flooded the tunnels, and today they’re open to divers who swim down to see old train tracks and carts, steam-powered jackhammers, and abandoned mining equipment.

An old missile silo in Texas is another attraction for divers. The once top-secret underground bunker used to contain nuclear weapons, but the concrete silo now contains a quiet well of groundwater. Divers enter the complex by descending a long staircase, passing through several blast doors and the launch control bunker, and entering a tunnel that leads them to the silo. From there they enter the deep pool of water, which is 52 feet wide. A pile of metal debris and the missile control station wait below, 18 stories underwater.

Indignities

“Chagrin and Men I Have Loved,” I wrote a new piece for the Morning News.

Elsewhere

The Case for Cocktails is my second piece for The Morning News. Cheers.

All the Ladies

I wrote a very long Ladies Night excerpt for The Morning News. It’s a doozy.

THIS MORNING

A woman in a white Hazmat suit sprays down the sidewalk in front of the Castro theater.
The train smells like pepper.
A church sign reads, “Join us, pray for America.” Two men are seated on the steps below the sign. Their heads are bowed, hands in their laps. It takes me a moment to realize they’re sleeping.
A huge black garbage can overflows with blossoming branches.
A group of old women are talking on the sidewalk. The shortest one holds her cigarette like a joint.

A SMALL, GOOD THING

“We realize some of you may now defect, and while we wish you well, we also spit on your backs.” The Morning News just relaunched. Take a moment.

EXCERPT

Subway post from Andrew at the Morning News: “This morning when I got on the subway a mother and daughter — the daughter around six years of age — boarded with me. At every stop the girl raised her fists above her head and shouted, “Yaaaaayyyyy!” Each time her mother would say, “Not yet.” When we reached the Union Square stop the girl said nothing. Her mother said, “This is where we get off.” The daughter raised her fists above her head and yelled, “Yaaaaayyyyy!”

Posted by andrew at 06:35 PM, December 06, 2001″

3:41 p.m.

WHICH OF THESE KIDS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS?

The charming young fellows over at The Morning News just posted a roundtable discussion of writing on the Web. They talked to me, Dean Allen of Textism,
Joshua Allen of Fireland,
Wil Forbis of Acid Logic
Michael Goldberg of Neumu.net,
Matt Haughey of MetaFilter and Whole Lotta Nothing, Joshua Robin of Newsday,
and The Web Today of…The Web Today. Go see.

4:38 p.m.

The guys over at The Morning News just published a very brief interview with me (bottom right corner, second column).

11:01 a.m.

Went backpacking this weekend, and cursed my lack of penis.

Me: Are you peeing again?

Him: Yep, and I don’t even need to.

Me: Damn you.

Him: I’m just doing it because the convenience overwhelms me.

Me: Bastard.

10:49 a.m.