Ben van Loon

Age of Folly

In trying to make sense of our current political situation, I recently read Lewis Lapham’s Age of Folly, released last month (and currently 50% off print and digital versions at Verso). Broadly speaking, the book claims to examine the last 25 years of America’s “imperial adventure.” Narrowly speaking, it’s 400+ pages of Lapham waxing poetic about… Continue reading Age of Folly

Dec. 3, 2016

#haiku mennonites in space: no war with the galactic empire, no TV

Dec. 2, 2016

#haiku: little sapling prince bows to the november wind then snaps back, unheard

Dec. 1, 2016

thursday morning smells like cold electricity and warm bodyparts

Colorado

Over the past two months, I found myself headed out of Chicago every two weeks, first to see family in Boston, then for a long weekend in Venice Beach, and finally, to visit my brother and his girlfriend at their new place in Colorado, about an hour north of Denver. It was my first time in… Continue reading Colorado

An entire city waited beneath them

If you read anything by Peter Hessler, make it Oracle Bones. It’s about the China I one day hope to meet. Here are a few parts I liked: In Anyang, at an archaeological site call Huanbei, a small group of men work in a field, mapping an underground city. The city dates to the fourteenth and… Continue reading An entire city waited beneath them

Now what?

When I went to bed last night, sometime before midnight and after Clinton won Nevada, I knew I was going to wake up to one of two nightmare scenarios: a multi-state recount or a Trump nomination. After a few fitful hours of half-sleep, I checked my phone around 3 a.m. and saw Trump’s official win… Continue reading Now what?

Eddie Award win!

A few weeks ago my work in Sync Magazine was nominated for an Eddie Award and at the awards luncheon in New York earlier this week, I took home the Eddie Award for best technology article.

Venice Beach

I recently took a long weekend to hang out in Venice Beach, the Land of Lebowski. No itinerary. We ate some good food, rode some shitty bikes, stayed in an AirBnB along the canals, hiked to the tallest peak in the Santa Monica Mountains and caught our last dose of Pacific sun before heading back… Continue reading Venice Beach

Full of fine sable

While waiting for one of my favorite restaurants to open on a recent Saturday in Evanston, I killed some time in Market Fresh Books, a used book store that sells by the pound. Buried behind the travel shelf I found a battered copy of Farley Mowat’s The Siberians, which you can get for a penny +… Continue reading Full of fine sable