vainglorious pomposities

Join Daniel Nester, former Saint Rose professor, as he reads from “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” a work-in-progress about his experiences at the end of a long teaching career.

[awesome flyer image here TK] What: Here’s Where The Story Ends: An Evening of ClosuresWho: Daniel Nester + FriendsWhen: Thursday, Nov. 23, 7pmWhere: The Woman’s Club of Albany, 721 Madison Ave., Albany NY 12208Why: What happens after a college shuts its doors, and what does its closing say about the worthiness of teaching, of writing, and a college education? Is there a right way to grieve…

[awesome flyer image here TK] What: Here’s Where The Story Ends: An Evening of ClosuresWho: Daniel Nester + FriendsWhen: Thursday, Nov. 7, 7pmWhere: MopCo Improv Theatre, 10 North Jay St., Schenectady NY 12305Why: What happens after a college shuts its doors, and what does its closing say about the worthiness of teaching, of writing, and a college education? Is there a right way to grieve after…

“The bad guy in every musician’s biopic is the musician himself.” — Zadie Smith “I’m Mr. Bad Guy/Yes I’m everybody’s Mr. Bad Guy.” — Freddie Mercury [Warning: spoiler alerts, yadda yadda yadda] 1. I’ve never cried to “We Are The Champions.” I’ve never cried to “We Are The Champions,” that is, until watching Rami Malek, playing the role of Freddie Mercury, reenact its performance at the 1985…

“The Failed Saratoga Colonic Fable” in the new Bennington Review.

Once there was a man, a man who wanted to get his first colonic.

That man was me.

The colonic did not go well.

And so the man wrote a prose poem.

The prose poem grew up to be published in a literary journal.

That literary journal’s name is Bennington Review.

The issue is out now.

It’s what we writers call a “print journal.”

This print journal posts some of the pieces…

New essay on backyard cabin, up on Trolley.

“Reaching for Fact and Reason from a Cabin in the Suburbs,” reflections on the cabin that we have in our back yard, was just published up on Trolley, which is the online journal associated with the New York State Writers Institute. Thanks to the editors for publishing it.

Read it here.

The issue features loads of local writers reflecting on life amid, in the wake of, or in the age of…

“Ticonderoga’s ‘Star Trek’ Set Tour: Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” just out in Saratoga Living.

Just up on Saratoga Living: “Ticonderoga’s ‘Star Trek’ Set Tour: Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” a profile of Star Trek Original Series Set Tours for their Design issue.

Great photos by my Saint Rose colleague Rob O’Neil and writing by yours truly that’s pretty OK as well.

Read it all here.

Just up on PopMatters: “Midnight Oil’s Time Has Come Again.”

Check out “Midnight Oil’s Time Has Come Again,” just up on PopMatters. I’ve been meaning to write about Midnight Oil for a long time. Then I bought my tickets to see Midnight Oil a couple months ago on their first world tour in 15 years, and it got me thinking about my long history of loving the band’s music, and how particular their music and appeal was back then. Now, of course, with Trump in…

Three disaster movie poems on Barrelhouse.

Three–count ’em three–poems are up on the website of the illustrious literary juggernaut that is Barrelhouse today. It’s part of their National Poetry Month celebration, in which they are running poems each day that are movies- or TV-inspired. The poems, “Rescuing Bobby Brady from a Disaster Movie,” “Jack Lemmon Rewinds His Misanthropic Dialogue from a Disaster Movie,” and “Gleaning Dean Martin’s…

Shadercast Episode 18 Keytars and Open Mic No-No’s

It’s a mixed bag this time out, with a cold open featuring none other than Eric, the UrbanSurfer himself, interviewed out in the wild (i.e., a basement studio in North Jersey). I ask him a question about keytar ownership that just popped into my head. Great interviews work that way sometimes. After that, we feature a 25-year-old field recording of speeches made at a union holiday party in midtown…

Shadercast Episode 17 Lush Life

And we’re back. A good two months have passed, but Shadercast lives on. We have a fascist who elected to be our next president, but stories still need to be told. Do they have to be my stories? Well, dear listeners, that’s all the stories I have. We open with your podcast sharing Eagles small talk as scripted by a student to use on Thanksgiving. The other voice you hear is my uncle’s brother,…

Shadercast Episode 16 Second Thoughts on Notes on The Good Bad Boy

Good Bad Boys, what ya gonna do? This episode centers around Catholicism! Well, a book I read as a wee lad that was steeped in Catholicism called The Good Bad Boy. Featured is an essay written for the National Book Critics Circle’s website that was adapted from a chapter in Shader. Join us in this discussion of Goodness and Badness, as Judge Smails of Caddyshack might put it. There’s also a vocal…

Shadercast Episode 15 Notes on a Prologue with Cameo from Billy Squier

We start at the beginning, or almost the beginning, in this Shadercast, with a reading of Chapter 2 from Shader. Mentioned: my car stereo, Long Island rock festival incompetence, Billy Squier, Geoffrey Wolff’s The Duke of Deception, and how one reacts to getting life-changing news over the phone. There’s also a voicemail message from Todd Colby, and music from UrbanSurfer, written by Eric…

Shadercast Episode 14 Was It Really a Game?

Sit down, grab a Therapist card, and show us you’re With It in this episode of the Shadercast. Our fearless podcast shares with his formidable longread, recently featured up on the literary website The Millions: “Group Therapy: Was It Really a Game?” But before that a snippiet of an interview with one of the game’s co-creators, Phil Ross. So don’t Cop Out–listen. Music provided by UrbanSurfer…