Buffalo — 05.14.22 — [*deep breath*] This isn’t an essay. This won’t be edited or even read before I post. I’m not offering the definitive take, nor a particularly novel one. I’m ruminating from a perspective I specifically have because of where specifically this happened. [Of paramount importance, though, and since I’m writing the…

Life is short — live dangerously. — [*lights cigarette*] Some of you will find what I’m about to say offensive — bordering on reckless. But there’s something I want to say because it’s something that I feel viscerally, and I wanna get it off my chest and on the record, and what better way to say what’s…

Writing about collapse for the past decade-plus painted me into a pretty dark corner. Now I want out. — I don’t need to spend the next 1,500 words dissecting the myriad injustices present on Earth and in the United States today, or all the obvious ways our history led us exactly here, or the increasingly bleak probabilities that await us tomorrow and over generations to come. In fact, I…

Requiem for a living-room lion. — A week ago, we lost the great and powerful Oreo. Oreo was my cat. She’s appeared on these pages before. Less than 24 hours earlier, noticing her sudden weight loss and lethargy, I’d brought her to the vet. They said she seemed stable, but also sick and dehydrated, and they’d…

Sisi and the ladder. — “I want to see them,” Sisi said to her mother. “Now.” She was seven, a young Venezuelan long before the time of Bolivar, and, as children often are, she was unafraid to dream. “Well, Sisi,” said her mother as she ushered the young lass outside, “The stars are right here…

The annual list (belatedly) returns: Here are 10 great writers to read in (what’s left of) 2021. — Great writers — I mean, the ones who really stand out —are conduits through which you unearth a greater understanding of the world, of your line of work, and also of yourself. They’re as rare as they’re also necessary. Not all good writers are great writers. I’ve read whole J-Schools…

Why the world feels more unhinged than ever. — Let me start by saying the world’s not overpopulated, it’s overburdened. There’s a difference; by the end of this essay, I’ll make that clear. Still, it’s obvious that our current way of life was not designed to support eight billion people. If you’re looking for proof, well … look around. …

Art is dead and content is king. Is there any going back? — “Genius is insanity that turns a profit.” — John Gorman, Los Angeles Fine Art Show (January 19, 2012) Oh, how I’d adore if you could — after reading this magnificently overwrought and underthought essay, of course — listen to the new Twin Shadow record. God, it’s lovely: immersive in the…