Buffalo is a whale that fell asleep at the bottom of the ocean. Buffalo is a three-year-old that doesn't cater to vegetarians. Buffalo is a new poem. It’s that weird bird that turns into fire. Buffalo is a Bowie knife run across a forearm twenty years ago. It’s an outpost of a long gone people. Buffalo is a cow's heart perfectly preserved in a jar of formaldehyde. Buffalo is a city block of antique shops with one kick ass record store. Buffalo is the best thing ever to happen to itself. Thing … [Read more...] about Things American: Buffalo
Things American: The Buffalo Sentence (Federman, Coetzee, Creeley).
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. This is actually a grammatical sentence, featuring Buffalo the city, the animal the buffalo, and an obscure verb, to buffalo, meaning to intimidate or bully. Substituting different words for each of these parts we can hear the structure of the sentence better, as in, “Cincinnati bison Cincinnati bison intimidate intimidate Cincinnati bison.” It is perhaps coincidental, but as a student, fiction writer, and professor … [Read more...] about Things American: The Buffalo Sentence (Federman, Coetzee, Creeley).
Things American: An Introduction to Buffalo
This week for Things American, we're excited to share the work of Kim Chinquee, Brian Mihok, and Ted Pelton, who are writers and/or artists and/or publishers based in Buffalo, New York. I asked them to contribute and share their experience of the city because it has been on my mind lately, what with the bankruptcy of Detroit; and because I'm from Western New York, although I haven't been to Buffalo since the &Now conference in 2009; and because it's hot every day here in Austin, and I've … [Read more...] about Things American: An Introduction to Buffalo
Things American: Yeah Science Breaking Bad!
Like many, many others, we dived into the k-hole that is breaking down Breaking Bad. What follows is a series of gchat conversations between Jess Stoner and Carmiel Banasky about the show, its fiction connections, and our obsession.
[We start from the very first scene of "Blood Money"]
CB: I love this intro (I'm rewatching as we chat). It keeps with the pool motif. The pool has become a way to track the passage of time in the series.
JS: I know! It brings you right back to the first … [Read more...] about Things American: Yeah Science Breaking Bad!
What We’re Reading
When our website was still incubating, we used our Tumblr to share what members of our staff had been reading lately. Now that we're up and running in the world, we thought we'd share a few of their summer reads here. Except to change it up a bit, we asked our them to include a GIF that corresponded with their read, in whatever way they wanted. As you can see, the results are surprisingly expressive. Happy reading, pals. Bluets by Maggie Nelson Don't Kiss Me by Lindsay … [Read more...] about What We’re Reading
Things American: How Mad Men & Upstairs Downstairs Negotiate History
Every so often a show comes along that attempts to take stock of and reflect upon the moral predicaments of the last half century—serving as a reminder for how far we’ve come, or how far we have yet to go. The strength of Mad Men—one of many strengths—comes from the show’s use of history not for plot, but for setting. In this way, the show is able to move its characters in and (mostly) out of the line of fire, the larger-than-life events the period is known for, allowing for distance and … [Read more...] about Things American: How Mad Men & Upstairs Downstairs Negotiate History