I recently read Edward Abbey’s, Desert Solitaire. Here are some of my favorite parts: “I’m a humanist; I’d rather kill a man than a snake.” (17) “We have agreed not to drive our automobiles into cathedrals, concert halls, art museums, legislative assemblies, private bedrooms and the other sanctums of our culture; we should treat our national parks… Continue reading Desert Solitaire
Author: Ben van Loon
Writer, Researcher, Chicagoan
Every job I’ve ever had because I’m a lazy Millennial
I was riding the train back form work the other day and standing next to these two Naperville-looking Baby Boomer dads in jean shorts. They were on their way to the afternoon Cubs game, fighting their upcoming senility to remember the last time they rode the L. “Must have been ’94? ’95? Whenever Blues Traveler played the… Continue reading Every job I’ve ever had because I’m a lazy Millennial
The Iceland Ring Road: Part I
I took an eight-day drive with my wife and partner Sarah around Iceland’s famous and rugged Ring Road. It was like a weeklong movie filled with mountains, swamp gas, lucid dreams and horsemeat. In these posts, I explain how we did it and what we saw along the way.
The Iceland Ring Road: Part II
I took an eight-day drive with my wife and partner Sarah around Iceland’s famous and rugged Ring Road. In the last post, I explained how we did it. In this one, I explain what we saw and ate along the way. Against popular currents we took a counterclockwise route around Iceland’s 830-mile Ring Road, starting and… Continue reading The Iceland Ring Road: Part II
New piece for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
I have a new article up at Loyola University’s Center for Digital Ethics & Policy exploring the ethics of big data and pre-crime monitoring. Think Minority Report, but without Tom Cruise. Minority Report’s claims about free will could keep a philosophy class going for hours, but the real relevance of the film, as with any serious… Continue reading New piece for the Center for Digital Ethics & Policy
New essay in ‘Klaus Kinski: Beast of Cinema’
A few years ago I wrote an essay for a forthcoming book about the actor Klaus Kinski. My contribution involved the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, the problem of genius, and a handful of straight-to-video movies from the bottom shelf of the 1980s. After a few years in editorial limbo the book, Klaus Kinski, Beast of… Continue reading New essay in ‘Klaus Kinski: Beast of Cinema’
New book review in the Journal of Popular Film and Television
I have a new piece in the latest issue of the Journal of Popular Film and Television, a book review of Eric Ames’ somewhat-recently-released edited collection, Werner Herzog: Interviews. Because it’s an academic piece, the article costs $41 and the full journal costs $97. But HMU if you want a free version because IDGAF.
Finally have an official listing at the Poets & Writers Directory of Writers
Finally got my official listing in the Poets & Writers Directory of Writers. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. But it does make me more Googleable, and that’s something.
Am I selling out, buying in, or growing up?
A few years ago when I was working in marketing, I spent the day on a project with the CFO, a six-foot-something ex-varsity shooting forward with an economics degree from a little ivy somewhere in the northeast. He had kids on the hockey team and talked college basketball and was as eccentric as sheetrock. With my black dress… Continue reading Am I selling out, buying in, or growing up?
New cover story for Sync magazine
A few months ago I interviewed Ken Strasma of HaystaqDNA for Sync magazine and today in the mail I got the new issue with my story as the cover. As soon as the story is posted online I’ll link it, but meanwhile, feel free to oggle my jpeg.
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