Category Archives: arts

How many male novelists does it take to make a joke?

Posted on November 6, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Susie, who has read some of my fiction, sent me a bunch of male-novelist jokes from The Toast, all of them in the “how many” format. Like this: Q: How many male novelists does it take to screw … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, humor | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

‘I’m Waiting for the Man’

Posted on November 5, 2013 by oddmanout215

I’m waiting for my man/Twenty-six dollars in my hand… — Velvet Underground “Twenty-six dollars!” Swamp Rabbit yelled. “That’ll git ya one Oxy from the ice cream man on Staten Island. Maybe two mixed drinks at Death & Co.” He was … Continue reading →

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Was Lou Reed rock ā€™nā€™ roll’s last outsider?

Posted on November 1, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Swamp Rabbit, who only likes bluegrass and Bulgarian folk music, asked me about Lou Reed: “If this guy was an outsider, how come insiders sing his praises?” The rabbit was referring to the subhed of The New York … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, history, mainstream media, police state, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Walter White says bye-bye, ‘Baby Blue’

Posted on September 30, 2013 by oddmanout215

Walter White to his long-suffering wife Skyler in their final scene together: “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.” Breaking Bad was an unusually good TV show … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, economic collapse, fiction, mainstream media, pop music, The New Depression | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stranger than Strangelove

Posted on September 22, 2013 by oddmanout215

I was back at the shack, beside myself with angst, reading to Swamp Rabbit about a catastrophe that almost happened a half-century ago: A secret document, published in declassified form for the first time by the Guardian today, reveals that … Continue reading →

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J.D. Salinger groupie tells all — again!

Posted on September 16, 2013 by oddmanout215

My friend Swamp Rabbit, an autodidact who tries to hide his deep knowledge of American literature, was surprised and appalled by a recent piece in The New York Times by the writer Joyce Maynard. It began: In the 50 years … Continue reading →

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‘The Next Day’ a surprise gift to Bowie fans

Posted on March 31, 2013 by oddmanout215

David Bowie’s low visibility in recent years led to rumors he might be dying, or simply too bored to record again. At some point, he got over his ennui, if that’s what it was, and began working on The Next … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, humor, mainstream media, pop music, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bits and pieces, Oscar night

Posted on February 25, 2013 by oddmanout215

We all know the Academy Awards are more about commerce than art, that the best picture award rarely goes to the film that deserves it. But how is it that a film can win for best picture but not best … Continue reading →

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On the links (Obama and Big Oil)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by oddmanout215

It will be interesting to see how Rachel Maddow and her liberal-lite colleagues at MSNBC spin the story if Barach Obama ends up backing the Keystone XL Pipeline. They speak no evil of the chief, ever. From Common Dreams: So … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, climate change, environmentalism, mainstream media, Obama, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

William Faulkner does Super Bowl XLVII

Posted on February 4, 2013 by oddmanout215

[The Sound and the Fury and the outage:] Through the drapes, between the Jell-O football trays, I could see them hitting. They were up on the picture wall, coming to where the ball was and I was looking in the … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, humor, mainstream media, weasel | 2 Comments