July 2011
5 posts
Nerd Lib
For The Economist, I talked with Mr. Simon Pegg:
In less enlightened times, nerds were damned to the fringes of society. Their knowledge of triffids and wookiees was ignored, their habit of layering T-shirts over T-shirts mocked. But the nerds have risen up. Today they are recognised as an influential, moneyed elite. They build multi-billion dollar corporations from secret algorithms. They star...
Friends Without Benefits
For The Economist online, I wrote about Ralph Sassone’s debut novel, The Intimates:
By the time we get to know them they’re in their mid-20s: Maize is a reformed “college slut”; Robbie is a romantic idealist. She’s straight and he’s gay. She’s an unpublished writer, he’s an intern at a newspaper. New York is their oyster—picked clean. These are the...
Sorting Out Thurston Moore
Last summer, I was standing in line at a bookstore.
Okay, that’s not a promising start to a rock feature. I’m aware of this. It’s always best to begin these things with a bold declaration. Something like: “Mr. Big is back!” Though the problem with such pithy beginnings is they’re often false. Because Mr. Big is never coming back. Not to the pop charts, at...
The Voice
For The Village Voice online, I spoke with a longtime hero, Laetitia Sadier:
The voice is both plaintive and bright; beguiling and stark. It knocks around a quiet range of expression, yet it sings directly—of Marx, erotic transgression, and “the Dinosaur law.” And it might have cheekily soundtracked a Volkswagen commercial or two.
The voice belongs to Laetitia Sadier and after 20...
Michael Bay, Aphorist
“I can officially say I’ve probably thought more about robots on earth than anyone in the past year-and-a-half.”
“Every guy’s been in that circumstance by the pond or the lake, where the stud comes up to you and gives you shit.”
“I’ll take 30 kids into a screening room.”
“Death threats freak me up.”
“A lot of the older ladies, like 35, 40, they are like, ‘I didn’t want to come here. I didn’t...