Frank B.
Field notes from Albany (part 2)
One of my neighbors constructed one of those Little Free Libraries. You have probably seen them – perched at the fronts of lawn, they resemble birdhouses, but with a glass door and room for books inside. The idea is that you take a book while leaving a book and no money exchanges hands. But I […]
Field notes from Albany (part one)
The Catholic Church in my neighborhood closed a few years ago when two parishes were consolidated. Fortunately the buildings were preserved. The church itself is now occupied by an advertising agency called Overit. Now every time I walk by, I think “Once I was Catholic, now I’m Overit”. They had an open house a while […]
On gratuitous fucks
Films these days are cluttered with gratuitous fucks. I’m talking about good films, thoughtful films, ones with Oscar buzz. I understand there are commercial reasons for wanting your film to have an R rating, and if your film is a grown-up comedy of manners or tale of corporate intrigue mostly devoid of sex and violence, […]
Arrested Development – season 4
(What better place to post this than saltinwound.com!) I watched the first episode the other day – the “Michael” episode – and I’m a bit disappointed so far, but for reasons that don’t seem to align with any of the commenters out there (not funny enough, too few character interactions, too many in-jokes on the […]
Robert Hazard and the Heroes and Me
Author’s note: This was first published in December, 1988 in issue #4 of Cubist Pop Manifesto, a fanzine I published with my college roommates at the time, Brian Welcker and Tom Hoffman. This story was one of the first things I had ever written that drew a response from people outside my immediate circle of […]
The Memory Hole (part 3)
I got Larry Marshall right as well. As I remembered, he was both the Eagles kick and punt returner – a bit unusual, as teams usually use two different players for these roles. He served this role for four seasons (1974-1977). According to pro-football-reference.com, he ranks #58 all-time for combined return yardage, though never scored […]
The Memory Hole (part 2)
Well, contrary to what neuroscience was leading me to expect, nearly all of my details check out. The main one that did not was my age – I figured I was 6, but actually I was just a few weeks shy of turning 8, so this hardly counts as one of my earliest memories. I […]
The Memory Hole
One time when I was in graduate school, a few of us students were sitting around the lounge talking about our earliest memories. A lurking professor, overhearing our conversation, observed that our recollections were dubious, at best. What we were more likely remembering were repeated stories or photographs or home movies – and not even […]
Expect the unexpected
Today, on a financial form, I was asked to estimate my unexpected expenses for 2011. Acceptable categories included funerals, natural disasters, and legal proceedings.
Jack Silbert, curator