Grief, memory, and a video game
We Simones are an exceedingly practical, if not irreverant, folk regarding death. Case and point: last year, over Christmas dinner, we discussed who would be the executor of my father and step-mother’s will without blinking an eye (thankfully, my sister got the short end of that stick). And, not two days ago, my father taught … Continue reading
In which I have a hard time keeping a straight face (That’s what she said)
“He’s got a mean streak,” says his manager, Sparky Anderson. “As mean as Pete Rose. That’s saying the best thing that could be said about a ballplayer.” There are a lot of weak aspects to my game – hence hiring a coach to convert me into a real, badass third baseman, aka #Project3B. But despite … Continue reading
The best thing I ever ate
This weekend, my mom and aunts came in to town to visit and to go out to dinner. My first thought was that it was yet another opportunity for me to procrastinate being a healthy, productive human being. The second thought was that the pressure was on. I’ve brought up my aunts in this column … Continue reading
Thoughts on Gaga
Doesn’t it seem like there are equivalents to Lady Gaga arriving on the scene every few years like clockwork? Someone that is different from the rest of the landscape, thrown into the spotlight, who dominates and then fades. Sometimes they aren’t a disappearing act. Sometimes there is something in the music that allows for a … Continue reading
November 1-6, 2010
It’s Lady Gaga Week at The Idler! Today, Mike Vincent tries to figure out whether the Lady works better in video than on the radio. Read “Thoughts on Gaga” In “PopHeart,” Ana Holguin returns from a Lady Gaga show and tries to sort out the “little monsters” whose hearts Gaga has devoured. Read “The good, … Continue reading
Seeing red
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: “When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle.” For you Siddhartha Gautama fans don’t bother sourcing that quote; … Continue reading
Sparky and his daddy
In 1984, the Detroit Tigers were off to the strongest start in baseball history. On May 16, manager Sparky Anderson appeared on the CBS Morning News with owner Tom Monaghan. It wasn’t their first national interview: ever since Jack Morris no-noed the White Sox in Chicago live on NBC to go 4-0, everyone had wanted … Continue reading
Gamers read too
Amazon has named Tom Bissell’s Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter as one of the 10 best nonfiction books of 2010. Read my review from June, 2010: http://wordwright.blogspot.com/2010/06/diary-of-casual-gamer-2-confessions-and.html
Bless You, Sparky
On a Monday night in third grade in the Catechism classes of St. Rita’s church in Holly, Michigan, Ronnie Haslem — the first boy who’d ever kissed me — opened his chubby fist and I gasped. It was a piece of notebook paper. It was a little damp — Ronnie had ferreted it away in … Continue reading
The good, the bad, and the Gaga
I love Lady Gaga—her power, her passion, her snake-skin Alexander McQueen armadillo/hoof shoes. As someone who enjoys kitsch, camp, pop culture and excess, Gaga’s arrival on the world stage was exciting, titillating and dangerous. Why dangerous? Well, I liked her immediately, but I pretended to myself that this wasn’t the case. She’s too pop. Too … Continue reading
