Book of the Irish:

My review of Michael Patrick MacDonald's memoir "Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming up from Under" has been published in last week's San Francisco Chronicle. It's a sequel to MacDonald's debut "All Souls" which I loved. I didn't love this one so much.

Married to the Media: Fall TV Season

Does anyone else feel married to the new fall TV season? Around this time last year I had a small but managble stable of shows I watched with regularity--Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Gilmore Girls, Criminal Minds. I made time for an occasional Simpsons rerun. It left me with maybe an hour of TV viewing in the evening about every other day of the week. Kind of like a lover you have a smokin' hot time with but is moving to Estonia in a few months so you don't want to see too often.

race to this September and my casual affair has turned into a full blown committed, I'm-buying-birthday-presents-for-your-parents kind of relationship. There are easily 6 new shows (Kidnapped, Six Degrees, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) that I've started following. I'm also flirting with Heroes and can't help but listen to my friends natter on about Entourage which is only a Netflix click away. Plus, I've got the entire second season of House M.D. on my laptop acquired through, eh, uh, some means.

Now I could watch 2 hours of TV, seven days a week and still not be caught up. I know it a temporary condition. Some shows will stay, others fall away, we'll have different priorities, want separate things out of the relationship. But for now, it's like being chained to a very large easy chair.

Thank god the Library Book Sale is this weekend. I could use the lack of stimulation.

Kevin in Fast Company:

Oh happy day! My piece on Citizen Media is in Fast Company this month. Page 30. On newstands now.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "The Last Kiss" (2006):

The Last Kiss (2006): "It has taken Zach Braff exactly one movie to become a cliche'."

Notes: Seen in New York over Rosh Hashannah weekend with my buddy Jo (owner of this fine establishment). We were not impressed.

Poetry at Georgia Tech:

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution...

Amid all the courses in bioinformatics and global economics, algorithms, combinatorics and optimization — look it up — the next generation of engineers and computer scientists is reading, even writing, poetry.

That makes perfect sense to Wayne Clough, president of Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. in civil engineering.

"The pursuit of science and technology is just as creative a process as poetry and the arts," Clough says. "Both require intensely creative people who can think outside the box, look at the same things everyone else sees and imagine something more, and put the pieces together in new ways."

For alumni who still might be wary of such right-brain activities, Thomas Lux, director of the Poetry at Tech program, offers a presentation every year called "Engineering a Poem."

"We're trying to diminish the stereotype of the poet as some dreamy bozo who wanders around and then all of a sudden gets struck by inspiration," says Lux. "Poems are made things. They have everything to do with intense emotions ... but poems are made things. They don't just happen."

Cheers to that (via Arts Journal).

Thought of the Day: "Fiction and its Function"

"Fiction is best as the bearer of bad news" --John Updike

I'm All Around:

My first ever piece for the LA Times (a review of Chuck Klosterman's new book Chuck Klosterman IV) has just landed. I couldn't be happier.

Oh and an ancient episode of Talking Pictures is available for your listening pleasure.

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "L.A. Story" (1991):

L.A. Story (1991): "Los Angeles is a place where they've taken a desert and turned it into their dreams." --Line from the movie.

Notes: Seen via Netflix for the first time in 15 years. Still a sweet poetic fable about a city short on gentle. Quite an accomplishment.

Word of the Day: "Tinpot"

Tinpot (adj): "Insignificant or unimportant; minor, often referring to leadership"

i.e. "A Tinpot Hitler"

Not to be confused with other uses of the word "tin" to mean "of lesser quality" like "Having a tin ear" and "a tinhorn operation"

I wonder if the tin industry knows their goods are being talked about this way.

I'm Back, a Tad Early...

And emotionally worn to a nub. Been catching up most of the day, which is just fine.