The Horror (office)
panoramic shots of what was once my office on campus at CU Boulder (before the remodel of the building)
etc
The Horror (Study)
Which is to say: where I write. Well, where I write when I’m writing in my study. Where I write when I’m writing in my office (on campus) is here. But, this is home. The door of it, anyway: And this is me standing in the middle of it all, trying to go as fast/slow
Happiness is :
Over the many years since I got online, these are the six absolute best things I’ve found. When I need to be happy and don’t have a slurpee, I just click here, and all’s well:
James Welch
is still James Welch, but now he’s also a Google Doodle. So, so cool, the whole searching world seeing a Blackfeet face when a new tab opens. I vote we keep this one for a while:
Trump
I’m going to start this out in a way I’ve never felt I had to start anything out online: this is just me, talking. Not for any of the schools I teach at, any organizations I’m in. Just me, on my personal site. Check the URL up there: it’s my name, one of my book
The Ones That Got Away in Italian soon
Racconti is putting it out November 10th or so, here. They’re the publisher with the dead bug: Pretty cool group of people, near as I can tell. And, as the title-in-English loses its punch in Italian, they dialed back to the collection’s original title, “The Meat Tree.” Here‘s their page on it, with the full
My First Reading, ca. 1993/1994
Digging through some old boxes, stumbled onto this little pamphlet. Way I remember my first reading, it was for this story “West Texas Dirt” I’d won an award for, in 1994, the last year of my undergrad work at Texas Tech. I guess I must have done this one too, though—with a friend I’d go
Texas
This is so right, so real. It’s how you feel, growing up in Texas, then one day leaving. [ from Terms of Endearment ] Then, once you’re somewhere else, this is always playing in all your backgrounds:
Blair Witch
I have to share my favorite #BlairWitch anecdote since the (really good) sequel is coming soon. pic.twitter.com/rsOBAsEf1O — BenDavid Grabinski (@realbdgrabinski) July 29, 2016
The Stanley
One of the cooler group-photos I’ll ever get to have been in, I suspect, since, I mean, it’s too late for me to photobomb The Right Stuff or Reservoir Dogs, or sneak into that hot tub with Steve McQueen, or jump off the roof behind Joan Didion’s Vette: And, for reference, here’s the original: So cool
Writing: It Takes a Village
For the thing I’m writing right now, I of course needed info. This is just for today and yesterday, too. Here’s the process: What’s a likely military-cargo plane out of the Middle East?  ➔ called my dad (retired USAF) Where’s John Wayne buried? ➔ asked Google How does a doctor get certified to perform surgery? ➔ facebook-mailed
Writers, Writing (and not)
Makes me half-nervous, making fun, as I know you see your own frailties best in others. But still—well, I don’t like coffee, or beer, or fine dining. But I’m sure I’m a poser in some way all the same: List of Things That Don’t Make You A Writer When I moved to Austin, I was
Fine Dining
This must by my first post about food, ever. Anyway, was just commenting on a friend’s pic of a some pie on Facebook—can’t link to it, but the Instagram’d version’s here—and realized that the reason I have yet to try keylime pie (that’s what the pie in question was), even though I promised myself to
Al Jazeera Panel
Was live, and now it’s here. Good times, good panel, good hosting; we could have gone a couple hours I figure. And, we were all talking before things cued up, and I don’t think any of us are trying to pull JK Rowling down. I mean, all writers owe her for creating a whole generation
Podcasts
I should have put a podcast category on my 2015 list. I’ll just do a whole post instead. Because a lot of them deserve a wider audience, and, honestly? Not sure I could really pick a favorite. Podcasts are so . . . situational, like. At the gym I want one thing, driving another, walking across
Year in Review: 2015
‘Tis the season for lists, yes? And mine at this time of year, they’re always skewed by my terrible recall—the books and films &etc that just happened always seem to get higher billing. Still, in an effort to be even-handed, I did scroll back a few places, just to refresh, refresh (that’s a story joke)
Jeremy Robert Johnson & Skullcrack City
Because I kind of insist on assigning amazing stuff for my grad workshops, I of course assigned Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Skullcrack City (my original write-up here). It was dug by all. Here’s JRJ’s answers to the questions we crowd-sourced: —To start with the ending: Is this bleak or is it hopeful? Are they (that is,
The Shining in Emoji
From forever ago, yes. But I’m just now stumbling onto it. And, is ’emoji’ the right word? Like, what are those little character-based happy faces people put in their texts? It’s all confusing to me. But this isn’t: The Shining, without words. Pretty cool. Wondering if I should learn whatever this language is (he said
Ello
I’m there now. Or, I’m here: https://ello.co/sgj I like the smiley face a lot more than the birdhouse, and I like the distinct non-blueness of the whole thing so far. Feels a lot like a Tumblr, really, but I got on Tumblr like fourteen years too late. G+, though, I’m still one of the holdouts
Society Isn’t Doomed
mix Buzzfeed‘s “23 Things that Prove Society is Doomed” with Salon‘s “War & Peace on the Subway: How Your iPhone is Saving Literature,” then angle it through my publicists’ rose-colored glasses, and you end up with something a lot  like: 1. Sitting together and reading still counts as socializing: ↳ Via quoteinvestigator.com, once upon a time. 2. It’s
This was (my) 2011
Favorite movie → Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Favorite novel → The Enterprise of Death or 11/22/63 Favorite collection → We Live Inside You Favorite non-fiction → Shock Value or Teenage Wasteland or Blind Descent Favorite current tv → Breaking Bad and Phineas & Ferb Favorite catch-up tv → Deadwood tv I miss the most