Fiction: A Chance Encounter
At 4:15 a.m., the New Orleans−bound passenger train made its scheduled stop at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where I disembarked, along with…
The Occult Magic of Purity Ring’s Shrines
I left the recent Purity Ring concert with two predominant thoughts. One, that magic might actually be real, but real…
Movies and Politics: Truth in Fiction
With Election Day right around the corner, the propaganda machines are busily spinning political webs with which the candidates can…
Letter from Russia, Volume I: Life on the Other Side of the Language Gap
A few years ago I tutored a Chinese student during his first summer in the U.S., before he started his…
A Poem by Chelsea Blakely
If you do not understand the number 86 as a verb, you've probably never worked in food service. If an…
Divine Decadence: Memories of Glam
Glam—or as it was originally called in the UK, Glitter Rock—flourished from early summer 1972 to summer 1974: shorter than…
Letters from Chicago, Volume II: Bursts of Inquiry
I was hovered over a trash can outside Walgreen's fiddling with a book of stamps I bought for nine dollars…
America’s Schools: Breeding Grounds for Compliant Citizens
For those hoping to better understand how and why we arrived at this dismal point in our nation’s history, where…
Horror’s Next Step
I understand I am late to the game in voicing my opinions about The Cabin in the Woods. The movie…
Two Poems by Conley Lowrance
How are you so confident in your perspective? Is not your reality as subjective as mine? I find these questions…