So I just finished Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris a couple of minutes ago. It’s a lovely book, funny and moving. Strange that it’s set in an office high above Chicago. My favorite line, just towards the end: “He called this country the best republic that ever began to fade.” Perfect.

Two paramedics crouch over a man with a bleeding head. The man, his skull yellow-white under black skin, struggles and yells. Four police officers tie him down to a board. His head bleeds and bleeds. “What happened?” someone asks. “They beat him.” “Who?” “The police,” someone says. “That motherfucker right over there,” someone else says […]

So I got my California license in the mail today. I’m an organ donor and a registered voter in the 8th Congressional district. This Iowa boy is an official resident of San Francisco, CA. I can’t wait for the election. Pelosi vs. Sheehan? I’m voting for Sheehan because I can. God love America. No one […]

Many of you have already read versions of the below story. But the below version won me an award. All College Honors (Graduate Creative Writing–Fiction) at California College of the Arts. So here it is again. A bit different, a bit the same. Two dirty men smoke a joint on a busy street corner. Henry […]

After a year long search which cost half a million dollars, California College of the Arts has finally appointed a new president. Congratulations to Stephen Beal, until tomorrow, CCA’s Provost. It took a year and half a million dollars to find some dude who already worked here? And tuition is going up next year? Fuck […]

“A top-ranking official at the Department of Veterans Affairs defends the agency’s treatment of disabled veterans and denies the agency has tried to cover up the number of veterans committing suicide.” Top-ranking official = Bush Crony. Believe it or not, people who know me call me calm. Veterans are dying. I once read an article. […]

The smell is sharp, ammonia, decades of dog piss. Their dogs shit in front of my door every night. Maybe they think they’re leaving a gift, maybe they’re trying to be my friends. I want to be mad, I am mad, but they’re just stupid dogs doing what stupid dogs do. Every night. Eleven O’clock. […]

It was very hot the night I pointed a loaded gun at a living person. It was muggy and I switched on the windshield wipers to see the road as I drove to the house. The radio buzzed urgently. The engine roared and the tires hummed over the sweltering pavement. There was no moon. The […]

The United States of America, the shining beacon on the hill, has renewed Blackwater’s contract (Al Jazeera). The State Department says there is “no reason to refuse the license.” Bullshit. One. Two. Three. White houses will burn as well as black houses. But who can afford the gasoline?

Jagged green hills cut the sky. The blue horizon swallows the blue ocean. Hanging buses crawl like slugs over dirty roads. A man sleeping on the corner asks for something to eat. A fire alarm jars me from day dreams. A golden bridge closes the gate.