I wrote this August 13, 2013. Mom died exactly two months later. When my brother Eric was here to say goodbye to Mom, he and Tim and I had the most important conversations that the three of us had ever had. I’m very pleased at what an extraordinary man Eric has turned out to be….
It takes more than that to scare me
March 24, 2014
This short film has been getting a lot of buzz. It’s called Lights Out and is only 128 seconds long. Some people have said it’s the most frightening movie ever made. It takes more to scare me, but I’ll let you be the judge. Personally I wasn’t scared at all. I didn’t even flinch. You…
What separates me from my brother Tim
March 24, 2014
I’ve written a lot about my brother Tim. He and my brother Eric are the people to whom I’m closest in the world. Tim designed the covers of all three books in the Ghosts Trilogy. Each cover was one basically “one and we’re done.” We discussed ideas for Ghosts and Ballyhoo, but after that I…
They made movies about my life
March 12, 2014
Well, I don’t mean that someone actually based their movies on me. But there are several films that parallel my experiences so perfectly that it’s eerie. I’m sure you’ve had the same feeling. They made movies about my life, but they made them about yours too. Another caveat is that the two movies I’m going…
Grampa can say anything
March 5, 2014
I have far too many bizarre physical problems to list. Here are the major ones. Three kidneys, three cowlicks, a baby tooth with no permanent tooth under it, no gastrocnemius on my right calf, the longest ear canals in medical history, and Meniere’s disease. The weirdest issue is that when I shave, the skin on…
Seeing only what you want
January 14, 2014
A little followup on the reason why my publicists thought they could scam me without repercussions. It’s a classic case of seeing only what you want. The answer came to me when I reviewed e-mails that an interviewer sent. Writing about the book, your publicist refers to your humility… To me, you come off as…
Falling Down
January 13, 2014
It’s 3:30 a.m. I originally posted this on August 12, 2013. Now I’ll directly address the person I’m going to make famous. You read this and misinterpreted it, you dope. Like that cretin who interviewed me for the long article, you thought I’d become some kind of emasculated, half-assed Buddhist, forgiving all transgressions and plumply…
Fear and discipline
December 4, 2013
One of my favorite films is Soldier, starring Kurt Russell. He plays Sergeant Todd, selected soon after birth to become a soldier. Set sometime in the future, the story is about how people can be trained to repress all emotions. Of course the training methods are absolutely brutal. The end result is soldiers who fight…
Volume Two of the Ghosts Trilogy available
November 22, 2013
Chasing the Last Whale is now available in paperback. It’s Volume Two of the Ghosts Trilogy. An e-book will follow. Maybe several. The Ghosts Trilogy is—as far as I know—a unique literary attempt in that it consists of a memoir, a novel, and a diary that share the same themes and characters. It began with…