When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says ...
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That Thing I Wrote That Wasn’t True: On Facts, Memoir & John D’Agata
The challenge, and the art, lies in confronting the facts—all of them, whether you like them or not—and shaping them into something beautiful. Hannah Goldfield, “The Art of Fact-Checking,” The New Yorker I wanted to say I had a romance in the summer of 2002. That my adoration for Montreal grew stronger because of my love [...]
Istanbul Through an iPhone Lens (via Instagram)
I’ve been in Istanbul for a week and have neglected my Canon G11, which has taken 95 percent of the photos you see on this blog. (A handful have been shot with my Nikon, which I rarely use.) I’ve mainly used my new iPhone to take photographs here. I was a (mostly disgruntled) BlackBerry user [...]
Post-It Inspiration: Compiled Bits on Writing and Memoir
While I tend to muse on fleetingness and elusive memory, and find an odd satisfaction in not knowing, recording, or understanding, I do believe in Post-its: a thought frozen in time, emerging from somewhere I sometimes don’t recall. Yellow slips of paper stuck to my journal pages. Virtual ones scattered on my desktop. While I [...]
The Watts Towers: An Unlikely Landmark in an Unexpected Location
The Watts Towers loom over East 107th Street in a neighborhood of Watts, California. The sculptor of these towers, Simon Rodia, wanted to build “in the direction of the sun.” Last week, during a hot spell in Los Angeles, I saw the towers under a bright, persistent sun—a setting I think Rodia would find ideal, as [...]
Notes on Alternate Timelines and the Stories That Facebook Doesn’t Share
Audio for part one of this post. I wrote an outline of my parallel universes at the start of this year. The beginning: 1. My mother and father, both born in the Philippines, move to the United States and meet one another, or 2. My mother (or father) moves to the United States, but my father [...]
From Clarion Alley to Caledonia Street: Murals in the Mission
After a bowl of pho on a brisk, overcast Sunday, my best friend Ann and I strolled in her neighborhood—the good ol’ Mission. I wanted to search for splashes of color on the walls, so we wandered down Clarion Alley and Caledonia Street. I hadn’t been to the former in a while, and new murals [...]
Notes on Virtual Life, Part VI: Facebook Status Updates (And What I Could Have Said)
Facebook makes us jealous. Competitive. Depressed. Facebook stirs up that fear of missing out. Facebook’s meaningless, frictionless sharing—think automatic Spotify updates—makes us care less. Facebook is destroying our friendships. Our connections. What it means to truly interact and be social. And so on. You’ve heard this all before. There are many of these articles floating [...]
The Colors of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg: Storefronts and Street Art
When I roamed the streets of Berlin earlier this year, I kept returning to Prenzlauer Berg, a neighborhood in the Pankow district in northeast Berlin—I was drawn to the cute boutiques of local designers, the vintage and secondhand markets, the bars and cafés, and the street art and graffiti. It’s leafy. Quiet. But edgy and urban. [...]
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Cheri Lucas: Yes. I agree with everything you said, Nico. (And ...
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Nico: I think as long as humans require daily reaffirmat...
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Where Neon Signs Go to Die: The Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas
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On Eternal Sunshine, Erasing Memories, and Facebook Timeline
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Street Art of Blu: Murals in Berlin and Lisbon
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A Glimpse of Granada
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Istanbul Through an iPhone Lens (via Instagram)
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Set Words Free: On E-Books, Jonathan Franzen, and the Book Itself
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That Thing I Wrote That Wasn’t True: On Facts, Memoir & John D’Agata
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(Digital) Life After Death: A Perfectionist’s Postmortem Fears
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Istanbul Through an iPhone Lens (via Instagram)
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Post-It Inspiration: Compiled Bits on Writing and Memoir
