Emerald City ComiCon 2014—an ethnography of sorts

My ethnographic essay thing-y about the Emerald City ComiCon 2014, in anticipation of ECCC 2015, coming soon!

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night—movie review

My review of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, now up at Psycho Drive-In:

The grass and cows and wind from the southwest—poem

This appeared in THE HAT (a great poetry journal) way back in 2005:

 

The grass and cows and wind from the southwest

The grass and cows and wind from the southwest

still cold around the hills blows plastic bags

from distant roads into barbed wire fence chest

high and a red tailed hawk flies low and lags

a bit to watch the windmill creak and shake

no longer pumping water its well dry

the metal trough with bullet holes

                                                      a snake

may live there or may not but there’s a thigh

bone of a cow or horse half buried in

the dirt

             a plane flies east the vapor trail

thin crossed with long thick clouds

                                                        that start to drift

cows eat and shit the windmill blades still spin

a wooden fence post falls with rusty nails

the cows look up the wind begins to shift

The Avengers Vault—book review

My review of The Avengers Vault, up now at Comics Bulletin:

The Palace of Illusions by Kim Addonizio—a review

My review of Kim Addonizio's The Palace of Illusions, now up at WORD RIOT.

Oh to be in Puerto Rico!—poem

My poem "Oh to be in Puerto Rico!" now up at Camel Saloon:

Information Doesn't Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow

My review of Information Doesn't Want To Be Free by Cory Doctorow, now up at ENTROPY. Click on pic to go:

Writer's Cramp: Comics From An Innocent Man

My review of Byron Case's comics strip, written from prison, Writer's Cramp. Up now at COMICS BULLETIN. Click on pick to go.

To read more about Byron Case wrongful imprisonment, check out the Free Byron Case Website.

Hemingway—poem

"Hemingway" appeared in the poetry journal BELLOWING ARK in 2010.
 

Hemingway

I know it’s not popular

or even politically correct

to (still) like him

but  when my father’s great ambitions

were to have enough time on saturdays

to mow the lawn

and watch college football

Hemingway gave me men

who left conservative America

for adventure

because of course it couldn’t be found there

and causes they actually believed in

fighting the ultimate father figures

trying to protect countries and people

they went alone

were comfortable with that

didn’t talk a lot

though spoke fluent italian spanish and french

and always met beautiful interesting women

trying to do what was right

even if it was also for themselves

but that was possible

and if they came back wounded

disillusioned

or not at all

that seemed to be a given

even to them

and things were things

a big fish was a big fish

Kilimanjaro was Kilimanjaro

the hills in Spain were not like white elephants

what was important

was what was felt under the surface

and unlike my father

he trusted me

to be intelligent enough

to figure that out myself

and if ultimately it wasn’t all real

(and I didn’t care for the great white hunter phase)

enough of it was

and if Hemingway had his weaknesses

and if maybe he gave up without a fight

(though if you knew your mind was going

what would you do?)

he had a good run

and was maybe no more worse

and much more interesting