I’ve really been enjoying photographer Noah Kalina’s YouTube videos, where he talks about his work, his life, and the world. In particular, I like his hotline show, where people call in and ask questions. I’ve called in twice, including for the most recent hotline episode, “The Hotline Show XII.” One reason I like Noah’s rhetoric around art is that he doesn’t try to tie everything up into a neat bow. Art is messy and chaotic and unpredictable. In any case, I usually learn something about my own practice from his thoughts, so check out his work.
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I’m a big fan of the “Real Housewives” franchise, fashion icon Jenna Lyons, and superchick Julia Fox, so when Bravo mastermind Andy Cohen posted a call on Twitter asking for questions that would be posed to Jenna and / or Julia on an upcoming episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” I shared a question I had for Julia about the time she spent working as a dominatrix. Find out what I asked and what Julia said here.
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As I was watching last week’s episode of “The Idol,” in which the main characters have sex in a Valentino dressing room, I thought: Is this for real? It was a brand partnership involving couture and cum, it seemed. (If you’ve seen the scene, you know what I mean.) I wrote about it for Forbes.com, including a trip to Beverly Hills to eyeball the dressing room of the Valentino boutique where the scene was shot (apparently). Read it.
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“Possessor” isn’t a good movie. Which is too bad. Because it has some interesting ideas and some interesting imagery. Basically, it’s set in a future in which people use technology to inhabit other people’s bodies. In this case, Tasya is a hitwoman who occupies other people’s bodies to kill other people for reasons that are financially motivated. Andrea Riseborough does a fine / creepy job with the role of Tasya, and it’s interesting to watch the body-hijackings take place. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays her super-creepy boss, Girder. And Christopher Abbott does a forgettable job as the main story line’s victim. The most interesting sequence in the film is a CGI representation of Tasya melting into her victim’s psyche; bodies turn liquid and boundaries go fluid. But the film falls apart on the plot level, leaving us wondering why we should care. Even the hyper-gruesome gore murder parts come across as more of an aesthetic exercise than something we should care about. The ending is super grim, but a curious twist. In any case, I guess when the director is the son of David Cronenberg, happy endings aren’t on the menu.
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Here’s my advice on writing a memoir:
Write about something more than just yourself. Navel gazing is boring.
Expand the genre. Incorporate narrative nonfiction, investigative journalism, images, drawings, experimental prose, data analyses, etc.
Divide it into pieces. Every brick wall was laid brick by brick.
Ignore gender stereotypes. Eat Pray Love is pablum. Angela’s Ashes is steak.
Good may be the enemy of great, but who wants to settle for good?
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When winning takes everything, what are you left with? The Queen's Gambit follows a young chess prodigy's rise from an orphanage to the world stage. But geni...
For an upcoming series on HILOBROW, I’ll be writing about “The Oblongs.” I’ll post a link to the essay when it’s live on the site. In the meantime, here’s my last one.
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Check out the trailer for “Mank,” forthcoming from David Fincher by way of Netflix.
“1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.”
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If you’re not watching “Lovecraft Country,” you’re missing the best show on TV. Last Sunday’s episode featured a mind-blowing vivisection of race in America. It starred Ruby in a shape-shifting scene that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
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All my life I want money and power
Respect my mind or die from lead shower
I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower
So I can fuck the world for seventy-two hours
— Kendrick Lamar’s “Backseat Freestyle”
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