Snow Day
Snow Day 5:00 am I wake up, look out the window. A couple of inches on the ground, but no snow falling. I check my phone for news from work -...
OTHER RECENT POSTS
-
How to Make Professional Team Sports More Appealing
Working in bars has re-acquainted me with professional team sports. Professional team sports are arranged to be a constant presence, such that the calendar year is nearly devoid of a day without televised professional team sports. So I've caught...
-
Parting Pieces on The Blackstar
With the passing of Bowie came a smorgasbord of writing on the late great Starman's legacy. Below we've posted a few more that tickled our literary pickle. Hopefully these will never stop, but if they do we'll have had...
-
Sam Pink’s ‘Ask the Asshole Advice Column’ #1
Question from an anonymous reader: Dear Sam Pink, How do I get girls to notice me? SAM PINK: I'm very glad to be asked, thank you. You have done the right thing by asking me, and I will now tell...
-
Getting a Seat
Every Thursday I used to take 3 or 4 trains from my home in Zoshigaya in north-central Tokyo to work at Center Kita station on the outskirts of Yokohama. In the watery light just after dawn I’d hustle uphill...
-
The Left Hook of An Audiobook Publishing House
THE TALKING BOOK is a literary venture dedicated to promoting thoughtful discussions on the subjects of books, art, culture and the beautiful absurdity of existence. We believe literature is the ultimate guide in mankind’s quest for empathy and blah,...
-
Porn
The first time I saw porn was a huge deal. I had to make an appointment. That's how it worked in my neighborhood. You had to make an appointment with this kid called Sigg. You had to...
-
The Sun Machine Is Coming Down and We’re Gonna Have A Party
The sun machine is coming down, and we’re gonna have a party.
In astrophysics, the black star, of semiclassical gravity theory, is an alternative to the black hole of general relativity. The black star’s infalling matter...
-
Shooting The Shit with Bud Smith
'I drove a heavy duty f-250 pickup truck. 1990. Blue. 92,000 hard miles. Loose, ineffective brakes. There were a lot of crashes—into people, places, things, whatever was around. The truck was too heavy, I was weighed down, springs sagged,...
-
A True Story
by Tal Clapp My parents like to tell a story. When I was a few months old they left me in the care of my grandparents (I don’t remember which) and went camping in the Uwharrie Mountains....
-
The Force Awakens Ain’t Star Wars
by A D Jameson
People keep calling The Force Awakens “a real Star Wars movie,” to the point where I wonder whether they’re quoting a Disney press release. I also have to wonder if they’ve seen the...
-
On The Dr. Bronner’s Bottle / A To-do From The Founder
Life's a fucking mess.
My resolutions this year are about being more relaxed and in tune with my body and mind, as I’m told they possess all the solutions to all the problems.
Ben’s 2016 New...
-
Family As Fiction // Frank & Bud as Legend
In 1964 three attractive Americans in their late twenties wearing fashionable clothing pose for a photograph in a San Francisco bar called The Red Balloon. For roughly thirty years that photograph passes through multiple hands, albums, rooms,...
-
New Year’s Is Going To The Dogs
It wasn’t long after midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1974, that Patti Smith turned to Lenny Kaye and repeated the words of her mother: “So as today, the rest of the year.” While I cite...
-
STORY GEOMETRY, a podcast for writers
Friend of Spoken Word Inc, filmmaker and writer in Ben Hess has created a literary-minded podcast for writers on the subject of craft, business and everything else you'd wanna know about the life and work of 'the...
-
The Cans, The Beckies
Years ago I had this job that I hated, but needed, so I put up with it. Most of the people I worked with were middle-aged, single women. They were day-to-day lifers of the job. They worked hard but hated working....
-
Fake Island, Flat bush ( a gentri fication )
through a stained glass window above a blank marquee Christ washes black ruby plums turning them blue then yellow then green
Pits & ash—black markets barter black bags that swing along slow... -
Many Times, Many Ways…
It's cold, and the backseat of the car has only warmed enough to keep my breath from showing. Through the window I watch the leafless trees and the bare ground along the road brighten momentarily in the swing of...
