Category: Writing & Translation
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Flash Fiction Experiment: Paradigm Shift
Why are we running? Oh yeah. I keep hearing that Trainspotting song, the opening track in the movie. You know, na na na, na na nana nana… It’s quite uplifting for a few seconds, the excitement, the soundtrack in my head, until the cold reality sets in and I feel the very real burn in […]
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Happy Halloween
Wrote this back in 2008 (it’s not very good). I was thinking of death a great deal at the time. I blame Poe. Nota: I have nothing against the elderly, only the utmost respect. Just scared of growing old, I guess. I blame the Media. ***** AGED AND APPROACHING I see them all varicose, all […]
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Roman Wisdom
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.” – Lucius Anaeus Seneca –
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Redbull gives Felix wings, rips off everyone else
I watched the live feed of the Redbull Stratos live freefall with everyone else, that Sunday night, glued to the screen as Felix probably had an itch on his nose. Couldn’t stop thinking about that, what do you do if it itches? I dislike Redbull intensely, except with vodka, then it makes sense. Like medicine. […]
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Decoding the philosophical subtext in financial translation segments
Sometimes, at work, I find meaning in the strangest places. Then again, maybe I put it there myself. In translation, especially when you use software that chops up text into bite-size nuggets in disorder, “segments” are interesting because they are isolated, taken out of context and, honestly, could mean anything. If you play around with […]
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A review of Ellis’s Imperial Bedrooms
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis My rating: 4 of 5 stars A dark and fascinating follow-up to Less than Zero, taking up the same themes but it’s not a rehash, it’s a work in itself, and a pretty damn good one. The protagonist is horrific on so many levels (maybe not as bad as […]
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History-logging and fallen timber
Below is one of my more recent poems, now a facebook note, in other words a piece of under-appreciated “public property.” Recently I’ve been trying to group my poetry into themes, that could potentially represent sections or chapters in a poetry collection. This one would go into the “Rants” chapter. I have quite a few […]
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A super short story about arachnids
The prompt on Peirene Press’s short story contest post on FB was to write a short story in 3 sentences, under 30 words, inspired by the following image. This was me: “I a Redback, she a Wolf – there are laws, but for love. She’ll bite off my head, liquefy me; no matter. I will […]
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A review of Geoff Dyer’s Paris Trance
Paris Trance by Geoff Dyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars Paris Trance is a romance, it says so on the cover. It’s not chick-lit, nor a harlequin, and definitely not erotic fiction (though some of the sex scenes will have you holding your breath with their simple, evocative rawness). I started out thinking “oh […]
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A review of Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen My rating: 5 of 5 stars There are few characters in this novel I can truly relate to, one or two at the most. The middle-class America of this story is a world away from me. Yet I found I care about all of them, Patty and her cold son, the […]
Yann Rousselot 