I don’t want to talk about politics. Not because I think writers and artists shouldn’t talk about politics — they can, and should, and are arguably well-equipped to do so. It’s just — it’s just very tiresome. This feels like the most obvious, easy-to-answer election in history. We’ve done it once already, and it was pretty well-settled, and...

As ever, once in a while it becomes essential to upend a vital news post upon ye weary heads, whereupon I tell you the things I’m doing, the places I’m going, the stuff I’m, er, stuffing? Whatever. Anyway. Here’s what I’m working on, here’s some scheduling updates, and all that pizazz. *jazz hands* The Staircase in the Woods Here’s...

Given, well, everything, I thought today’s photo selection could focus a bit on Portugal’s prodigious, and I do mean prodigious, street art presence. Obviously, Portugal is home to a deep presence of art everywhere — statues, fountains, architecture, egg tarts (ahem), and perhaps most notable and everpresent, the azulejo tiles. But it’s the...

“With fear for our democracy, I dissent” — Justice Sotomayor, today, in a statement that is chilling in its necessity and also vital. That statement, her statement, keeps doing laps around the inside of my skull. You can read the whole thing here (the bottom for the dissents). But that final statement of hers is a terrible, essential...

HEY WHO HAS TWO THUMBS AND A CASE OF COVID? *shakes little plastic baggy of two severed thumbs at you* This guy. As in me. As in I have COVID, and also this little baggy containing two severed thumbs. This is pretty much exactly what happened to me last year on my Amsterdam – Germany – Spain trip. Came back, two days later, ta-da, COVID. As we...

I’ll do a more proper trip report at some point, but suffice to say: Portugal is beautiful. Labyrinthine cities brushed with a soft, uninsisting decay — turn down any street and you will be met with a place you want to stand still and remain for a time, just taking it all in. And the street art? It’s everywhere. Everywhere. All the time, around every...