August 2011
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On Lara.
Her name was Laura—a healthy, Midwestern name—but she’d changed it to Lara. She hadn’t filed any official forms or notarized any documents, just changed her outgoing e-mail name halfway through college and informed her easygoing parents that she was Lara now, the dramatic double ah sound befitting a sleek Bond girl or a mysterious Russian spy.
Looking back on the summer we spent together, it’s...
July 2011
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On being newly-married.
You think of the word husband one hundred times a day; say Hello husband in the mornings and again at 4:30; practice the words my husband in conversation with cashiers, fellow elevator-riders, other married people (from whom you vaguely expect a response akin to a secret handshake). But most people are used to being married. So many people wear wedding rings; you check in class when they...
June 2011
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Introduction for William Lychack, given at Lesley...
When it came time to request my second-semester mentor here at Lesley, there was an unfamiliar name on the faculty list: one William Lychack, a fiction writer who was returning after a hiatus. The first Google result for his name was my fateful first impression, the following excerpt from his 2004 novel The Wasp Eater, published by Houghton Mifflin:
The mother stepped across the room and pushed...
May 2011
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A belated thank-you to Mr. Tim Frazier, my...
I tried to write a letter to Ray Bradbury last year. It began, “Dear Mr. Bradbury, my name is Lindsey Markel, and this is the first fan letter I’ve ever written.” I wanted to tell him how hearing “The Veldt” read to me in sixth grade changed my life in a way that was undetectable at the time. I remember my teacher, Mr. Frazier, shuddering at the end, encouraging us to sink deep into...
February 2011
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On "Eurydice" and acting.
Earlier this week a newspaper reporter came to write a preview article, and when she asked me what I thought of the play, I said it was strange and beautiful and poetic and poignant, and I meant them all in equal measure. It’s about a girl (yes you may have heard the myth, no it isn’t required reading) who dies on her wedding day and, after arriving in the Underworld,...
October 2010
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On marriage.
Find the two people above in the year 2005—the two blurry people on the left, the ones touching shoulders but not looking at one another. I’m the girl, the one looking nervous. Larry is the boy, looking disaffected. Set your time machines to a painfully bright summer day in mid-July, and find the downtown apartment that he can no longer afford since his ex moved out in the ...
September 2010
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Some Thoughts About Tao Lin's 'Richard Yates' But...
A topic that’s revisited a lot in Writing School discussions is whether or not we as authors “should” utilize brand names, topical trends, etc. in our writing; in these very internetty times, that usually translates to doodads-cum-entities like Facebook, iPods, Twitter, etc. We run the risk of dating our work when we mention things which will undoubtedly become...
July 2010
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On turning 27.
At midnight, Eastern Standard Time, I was sitting on the thinly-carpeted floor of the student center, in a small circle of classmates-turned-friends, thoroughly sloshed on red wine, broadcasting my favorite Marilyn Monroe songs from a borrowed iPod speaker and very nearly crying with joy. A custodian was making his way up the stairs toward us with his cart and clutch of keys, likely thinking...
June 2010
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"The world is very old. Just as you change as you...
I must have been around five years old the first time I thought about the universe. I’d easily swayed my mother into buying a set of Childcraft encyclopedias from the salesman who had shown up at our door (a rare visit for our rural farmhouse). I stayed up late to read about volcanoes and examine the timeline of the world, ponder the extinction of the dinosaurs before falling asleep....
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On death (and Joan Didion).
I guess I have always been afraid of Larry dying.
Of course I fear the death of anyone I love, but the roads of my life converged as such that I met Larry on the first summer after my first big death. Not “my” death, but our death—my family’s, our baby’s. Before the winter of Macey’s death, I had known the sudden deaths of high school classmates in...
May 2010
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A review of Elsinore's "Chemicals" EP
It is fitting that Elsinore’s upcoming EP would be titled after their latest magnetic single, “Chemicals.” After building up a name and following, the Midwestern band spent the last few years trying to shed their stubborn “folk/Americana” label, and The Chemicals EP is their strongest case yet for destroying all labels completely. “Chemicals” itself is either a rock song disguised as...
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On moving.
We’re moving in August. The first time that we planned to move out was last year; we shrugged at each other when the question of lease renewal came up, and then a couple weeks later, Larry found me crying on the floor of my closet instead of cleaning it, like I’d said i would be doing. I looked up at him, a pile of myself, and said What if we don’t find a place we like...
September 2009
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Excerpt from the Introduction of the You Are Among... →
I might throw the word “feminism” around here, and I want you to know what I mean when I use it. Basically, if the ideas in this book excite you and make you feel powerful and ready—even if you don’t know yet what you are ready for—that’s feminism in the pages. You should never be denied any opportunity simply because you are a girl. That’s all it means....
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A Review of 9, Or: Great, Now Everyone Will Know...
We just got home from seeing the movie 9.
Let me say this: If you are afraid of the robot apocalypse, you might not want to see this film. If you are not afraid of the robot apocalypse, see this film. You should be afraid of the robot apocalypse.
Alright, well, I think I’m biased, because I didn’t know I was afraid of the robot apocalypse before, but I was a prime candidate. ...
July 2009
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We Don't Need to Sound Good to Sound Good, You...
The startling thing about The Jips is that they’re kids. Alright? Let me just say it up front. They are teenagers. They’re in high school. Think about what you were up to in high school. Personally, I was making feminist zines and getting pretty heavy into Buddy Holly and online flirting, so I was awesome, but even from way up on my pedestal I could see that most people in high school are not...
May 2009
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Red Faction: Guerrilla Tour Truck to Stop in...
Champaign, IL (May 11, 2009)—Fans of THQ’s Red Faction franchise no longer need to wait until the June 2nd release date to experience life as a Mars colonist in the upcoming video game Red Faction: Guerrilla—they can simply visit the RFG tour truck when it makes its stop in downtown Champaign on May 18th.
Red Faction: Guerrilla, developed at Volition, Inc. in Champaign, is ...
April 2008
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Kimya Dawson Loves You Sunday at the Independent...
Upon the premiere of last year’s indie film sensation Juno, Kimya Dawson said, “I am excited for when the soundtrack comes out. But […] it’s all really scary for me. Some of those songs were recorded in my bed in Bedford Hills, under the covers, on the 4-track. And when people were coming up to me telling me I did a great job, it felt weird because I didn’t do a job. I wrote a bunch of crap...
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Local Music Awards Tonight Spark Controversy
In 2005, John Hoeffleur made the following soon-to-be-understatement: “I must confess I personally have a bad feeling about it.” Hoeffleur, the frontman for local group The Beauty Shop, was speaking (on the local music forum OpeningBands) of the WPGU/buzz Local Music Awards, then in its first year. The Beauty Shop took home the award for “Best Roots/Americana Band” that year, but this year,...
March 2008
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Boogying Around the Farmland: Marimbist and Metal...
I wanted to review Jane Boxall. I really did.
I trudged to Aroma Café last week with all the best intentions: I would write up the show with Lynn O’Brien that she was playing at the café that night. However, as soon as Boxall took her place behind her instrument of choice — the marimba — and picked up her mallets, I found myself quite unable to describe exactly what was happening. My stilted...
December 2007
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On being backstage.
Backstage during a play, there is sometimes a lot of waiting, or something that looks a lot like waiting. Actors wait, reading by dim light, listening to iPods, or knitting quietly, the clicking of needles punctuating the muted sounds of conversation from the stage. The stage manager sits, idly turning pages of a script, occasionally setting off sound cues, while the director paces...
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Local Hip-Hop Stalwart to Star in Shakespeare...
“Suddenly, I was casting rappers and teaching them to act, instead of casting actors and teaching them to rap,” says director Aaron Polk on casting local hip-hop artist Krukid in “The Bomb-itty of Errors,” an award-winning “ad-rap-tation” of the Shakespeare classic “The Comedy of Errors.” He adds, “I’m certainly more qualified to teach rappers to act.”
Written and originally performed by a...