5 Artists I’m Watching in 2025 In the spirit of the new year, here are five lesser-known musical acts I’m keeping an eye on in 2025. Some have tours or album releases coming up; I have no direct contact with these musicians so I don’t know for sure whether 2025 will be a big year …
Why I’m Glad Donald Trump Won On one level, of course, I’m not glad Trump won. I would much rather live in a world in which he lost. I would have much preferred a world in which me and 140 million other Americans came together to elect a candidate who would systematically deconstruct the American …
Travelogue: Big Bend National Park Last fall, my partner Grace and I took a much-anticipated trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. I think I’ve spent enough time in this state now to say it is the best thing Texas has to offer. Absolutely awe-inspiring from start to finish. We hiked through the Chisos …
Book Review: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi This book was really engrossing. The only thing that kept me from devouring it in a few days was that it was too heavy and too real. I would get anxious and have to put it down for a while. Anyone who has read Cadillac Desert will …
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In which Buc-ee’s shows gas stations to be the center of the capitalist universe I had never heard of Buc-ee’s until I drove to Texas in 2021. Like so many first-timers, I was intrigued and amused by signs on the highway hundreds of miles away from a Buc-ee’s location telling me “You gotta pee it …
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Powers of Two While trying to figure out the number of ancestors a person has at a given generation, I realized it might be useful to have a shorthand for approximating powers of 2. Unlike powers of 10, powers of 2 don’t follow any immediately obvious rule, but I thought it might be possible to …
This essay was written in April 2022, about one year after the death of my father. Two Prayers I only know two prayers, really. I mean, I know the Lord’s Prayer like I know the woman who delivers my mail, that is, I know of the Lord’s Prayer. I see the Lord’s Prayer every now …
The following essay was written in one go probably around December 29, 2021, back when I first started thinking about starting a website for essays and other creative projects. On Horse Gait I was thinking today about the significance of the gait. Gait occupies a particular category in terms of the way the mind and …
Death Grips, Bob Dylan, Intertextuality, and Old School Cool The first song on the Death Grips album Government Plates bears the distinctive title “You Might Think He Loves You for Your Money but I Know What He Really Loves You for It’s Your Brand New Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat.” This long and opaque title does …
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