Tag: benjamin van loon

Making Truth in Alaska: The Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference

As a native Illinoisian, mine was a childhood of highways, humid summers, and Hardees. So when I learned I’d won a grant from the City of Chicago to visit Alaska I wondered if I’d come back alive. Alaska would be my first encounter with actual geology, a foreign concept in my home city of Chicago,… Continue reading Making Truth in Alaska: The Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference

What I Watched in 2014. Including ‘Jack Reacher’ for Some Reason.

Though 2014 was a busy year for me, I managed to fill my downtime with regular doses of B- and C-grade media, and an occasional A-grade treat. And I’ve captured (almost) all of it in the below list that charts all films and TV series I watched during the year. There is a lot more… Continue reading What I Watched in 2014. Including ‘Jack Reacher’ for Some Reason.

A Thank-You Letter to the Packard Foundation

Vasalgel Packard Foundation

Have you heard of Vasalgel? It’s a new contraceptive technology for men that’s recently been making news rounds at The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Daily Beast, The New York Times, and others. The short version is that Vasalgel is a safe, non-invasive, non-hormonal, and completely reversible form of male contraception. And if you don’t believe me, read… Continue reading A Thank-You Letter to the Packard Foundation

Freedom From Religion

Pleased to announce that I’ve placed in the 2014 Brian Bolton Graduate/Older Students Essay Contest, offered by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The essay had to answer “why ‘Religious Liberty’ does not mean the right to impose your religion on others,” and though I played by the rules on this particular submission, I’m glad to see… Continue reading Freedom From Religion

Everything Loose Will Land

“Tip the world on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” Once said Frank Lloyd Wright, famously smug. In his mind was the teenage City of Angels, then and now a sprawling metropolis of traffic jams, cultural piracy, and media cacophony. Angelenos had no innate culture but for those rootless scraps landing… Continue reading Everything Loose Will Land

Letters to Ted Kaczynski: Part I

[I began writing letters to Ted K back in 2011. I needed a muse and so I designated Ted K as the would-be receiver of my epistolary confessionals. I have and will never sent these letters to Ted K. They’re for my own amusement. And now yours. I plan on posting them intermittently. Following is… Continue reading Letters to Ted Kaczynski: Part I

Five Ways to Make X Look Like the Dickhead He Is

[Following is an experimental piece I wrote for theNewerYork a year-or-so ago. It combines mathematics and juvenile self-loathing. All that’s missing from this Neopolitan combo is the strawberry flavor.] 1. Neo-Yiddish Poo-Poo Sequence: X + [shm(X-Y)] X = thing you want to poo-poo Y = consonant(s) prefixing X; if there are no consonant(s) prefixing X, Y=0 Example: You… Continue reading Five Ways to Make X Look Like the Dickhead He Is

Let Me Tell You about the Ibexes

[I took a free trip to Israel in winter 2012 as part of the sometimes-criticized ‘Birthright‘ program, which is an Israel/non-profit/private-funded trip for American Jews between age 18-26 to visit Israel. I would turn 27 shortly after the trip, so I got in just under the wire with Shorashim. It was a great opportunity (to… Continue reading Let Me Tell You about the Ibexes

Serious Tower: Reading Homan Square

In October 2013, I was graciously invited by my friend, John Rich, executive director of Chicago’s venerable Guild Literary Complex, to participate in a reading event organized in cooperation with the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House Chicago. The reading was held at the ‘Original Sears Tower‘ in Lawndale’s Homan Square on Chicago’s west side. I… Continue reading Serious Tower: Reading Homan Square