ulysses

  • Shit, I Missed Banned Books Week

    Shit, I Missed Banned Books Week

    Despite all of the press releases, despite all the bookstore banners, and despite the groundswell of media attention, I managed to miss Banned Books Week. Last week! Perhaps I was blinded by its ubiquity — I couldn’t see the forest for the trees (before it was pulped into paperbacks). Or maybe there is something more sinister…

  • To James Joyce: A Bloomsday Apology

    To James Joyce: A Bloomsday Apology

    Dear James Joyce – It being Bloomsday and all, I just wanted to apologize for not having finished reading Ulysses. Again. I know, I know, this is totally ridiculous, not least of which because my own mother named me for one of your major characters…

  • Bass Fishing in America: The Search for Meaning in a Beer Bottle

    Bass Fishing in America: The Search for Meaning in a Beer Bottle

    Bass Ale cameos in works by Manet, Picasso, Joyce and Dylan Thomas, so how does this help the search for meaning in the universe?

  • Look Homeward Angel

    After two-and-a-half years of self-imposed exile in the East Bay, my family and I are repatriating to Sonoma County – specifically to my hometown of Petaluma. For me, the move marks an interesting chapter in my ongoing autobiographical opus, which I’ll likely lead with an epigram cribbed from Simon and Garfunkel: “Homeward bound, I wish…