Writing Archive

• The New Luddites

  October 8, 2005 • Los Angeles, California

  An older, non-travel piece about Google's plan to scan all the world's books and Luddite-like response from many authors. Let's see, someone wants to make your book easier to find, searchable and indexable and you're opposed to it? You're a fucking idiot. Read it »

• One Nation Under a Groove

  March 25, 2005 • Northampton, Massachusetts

  The sky is falling! The iPod! It's ruining our culture! Or, uh, maybe it's just like the Walkman, but better. And since, so far as I can tell, the world did not collapse with the introduction of the Walkman and headphones, it probably isn't going to fall apart just because the storage format for our music has changed. [Photo to the right via Flickr] Read it »

• Farewell Mr. Hunter H Thompson

  February 24, 2005 • Northampton, Massachusetts

  Hunter S. Thompson departs on a journey to the western lands. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas delivered the penultimate eulogy for the dreams of the 1960's, one that mourned, but also tried to lay the empty idealism to rest. Read it »

• The Art of the Essay

  October 10, 2004 • Northampton, Massachusetts

  I generally ignore internet debates, they never go anywhere, so why bother. But we all have our weak points and when programmer Paul Graham posted what might be the dumbest essay on writing that's ever been written, I just couldn't help myuself. Read it »

• Farewell Mr. Cash

  September 12, 2003 • Northampton, Massachusetts

  Johnny Cash heads for the western lands. Read it »