On the 1868 Soldiers’ Memorial in the center of the town square of Santa Fe: Apparently the word that’s been chiseled out is “savage.”

posted 23 March 2012 in Photos. no comments yet

Where is “Bullet the Blue Sky” set? I always assumed the United States–mostly because of the way Bono keeps saying “Outside is America.” But just recently I tracked on the lyric in Bono’s rap: You take the staircase to the first floor And thought it was an amusing Irish mistake–here in the U.S.A., pal, we […]

posted 22 March 2012 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments

That was the dullest Academy Awards ever, right? But there were some highlights for me, not least that Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall won the Film Editing Oscar for their work on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo–work that they were kind enough to dissect for me (and the readers of The New York Times). […]

posted 27 February 2012 in Articles, Links. no comments yet

This was, I believe, the fourth issue of Details I worked on as a staffer. (Before that, I was freelancing for it while I worked as a copy editor at a computer magazine; I filed scads of record reviews, and then articles on industrial music, Dinosaur Jr., and Marky Mark.) There were a lot of […]

posted 23 February 2012 in Tasty Bits. no comments yet

“He’s one of the funniest improvisers ever,” Seth Rogen told me, speaking of Danny McBride. “But he gets frustrated if you laugh during his take more than ten times, which I constantly do.” For my article on the saga of McBride, and his epic journey from motion-control cameraman to star of Pineapple Express, Your Highness, […]

posted 22 February 2012 in Articles, Outside. no comments yet

This New Year’s Day, I woke up early and went to Padadena for the 123rd Tournament of Roses Parade. Of the many marching bands, this was my favorite: That’s a Japanese high-school band, almost all girls, from Kyoto Tachibana. Aside from their general awesomeness, they sounded different from American marching bands, which made them stand […]

posted 17 February 2012 in Photos. no comments yet

My history of Doritos was a story a year in the making; it required a trip to Texas to see the flagship Frito-Lay plant and some detective work to track down the snack’s then-96-year-old inventor, Arch West (who has since died, alas). But you can now read it on the Maxim website, with or without […]

posted 14 February 2012 in Articles, Links. no comments yet

When I started writing up the 1988 countdown, I never imagined the artists would be dying on us as I did it. Well, although I wasn’t deeply fond of “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”–it was no “I Will Always Love You” (which, really, was in a class by itself)–I still respect Whitney Houston’s instrument, and […]

posted 13 February 2012 in Tasty Bits. 2 comments

Photographed last week at the Orange County Museum of Art (in their “State of Mind” retrospective, part of the “Pacific Standard Time” extravaganza). The work, by Paul Kos, was first presented in 1970.

posted 27 January 2012 in Photos. no comments yet

With the Oscar nominees being announced today, may I offer you the interviews I’ve done with some of them? I spoke with George Clooney (Actor in a Leading Role, The Descendants; Screenplay, The Ides of March) in 2005, around the time of Syriana. Just a few weeks back, I got Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall […]

posted 24 January 2012 in Archives, Articles. 2 comments