Photographed this morning on the bike path next to the L.A. River. The river, for once, was not totally dry. But it’s still goofy to have a bike path between a concrete channel and a major freeway–it feels like a parody of the great outdoors.

posted 30 December 2011 in Photos. no comments yet

My favorite albums of 2011: 1. Washed Out, Within and Without 2. Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne 3. PJ Harvey, Let England Shake 4. TV on the Radio, Nine Types of Light 5. Radiohead, The King of Limbs 6. Wild Flag, Wild Flag 7. EMA, Past Life Martyred Saints 8. The Roots, Undun […]

posted 29 December 2011 in Tasty Bits. no comments yet

Prince’s “Another Lonely Christmas,” a song about an obsession with a dead lover who died on Christmas, is both excellent and demented. It has qualities that distinguish it from the rest of Prince’s catalog: for example, it’s the only song of his I can think of where he gets goofy on alcohol (as opposed to […]

posted 27 December 2011 in Tasty Bits. 4 comments

Photographed recently on Hollywood Boulevard. Only in Los Angeles. Thanks for reading; I hope your 2011 was all it should be, and that your 2012 will be even more.

posted 24 December 2011 in Photos. no comments yet

I have another piece in The New York Times Magazine: this one’s a conversation with David Fincher and his editing team of Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, breaking down a four-minute sequence in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I’d always wanted to know more about editing: it’s an omnipresent but largely unconsidered aspect of […]

posted 15 December 2011 in Outside. no comments yet

I’m always happy to learn more about the state of the art in artificial languages, such as this article in yesterday’s New York Times. If that whetted your appetite for a historical overview of totally made-up dialects, you might enjoy a 1996 Wired article I wrote that delivers exactly that.

posted 13 December 2011 in Links, Outside. no comments yet

From “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” the 1983 chart-topper by Yes: Look before you leap / And don’t you hesitate at all Listen, Jon Anderson, I am perfectly willing to follow your commands down to the last detail, but you need to make up your mind.

posted 13 December 2011 in Tasty Bits. 1 comment