WRITING & MONOLOGUES
“ODD SALON” LECTURES
Odd Salon is a regular confabulation of short, entertaining presentations on science, art, history, and other Things That Are Interesting. I’ve been honored to give three. My most recent (November 2020) was on the replica-town of Antioch built by conquering Persian Emperor Khosrow I, to humiliate the kidnapped citizens of the real Antioch. Previously (October 2020) I spoke about the dangerous science of Trofim Lysenko, under the auspices of the San Francisco Exploratorium’s Thursday night “After Dark” event series. Earlier, I spoke in March 2019 about Heracleion, a north-Egyptian city that long ago slipped into the sea.
Trolltown:
Or, How Khosrow I Set a Gold Standard for Humiliation
Lysenkoism:
The Once (and Future?) Crackpot Science
The (Re)Discovery of Heracleion
An Entire City Lost at Sea
BRACING FOR THE JOY
A one-man show written and performed for the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September 2016 (my daughter was born in December). As I put it in the program guide:
“A middle-aged man confronts his own fertility. Over 40, some things seem behind you: weeklong parties, BASE jumping, becoming a first-time parent. But every now and then, a spouse comes along with other ideas. Is this a wonderful growth opportunity, or - more like just a growth?”
THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE ADDRESS
Again at the San Francisco Fringe Festival - this time in 2000 - I did a one-man show about the Emperor Norton. This 45-second clip is probably as much a taste of my bad costuming job (but, I would contend, passable writing job!) as we need to see.
BOOKS
PIECES, ITEMS, & SUNDRY SHORTS
Pieces, Items, and Sundry Shorts collects 75+ terse works and brief bits - like a blow-by-blow parody of world literature, a reconstructed ’90s zine, and a 19th-century children’s book, with dozens of original comics, illustrations, and doctored photos on the way. The book’s contents have been road-tested for amusement value by the author in 20 hard years’ work of amusing surly drunk people during readings in bars.
PLATITUDES FOR A LIFE IN HELL
Savor the little things in life: they're all you'll ever have.
Money may not buy you love, but at least it makes you better than everybody else.
The future's so bright, we are evidently in hell.
Let's waste no time on false modesty: this book will utterly transform your life - possibly even for the better. Yes, Platitudes for a Life in Hell offers you the golden key to self-actualization in your career, relationships, and criminal enterprises. By teaching you the art of selfish conceit - as well as a hearty distaste for one's fellow humans - the stories, aphorisms, comics, and life-coaching tips collected in these pages will enable you to become far more insufferably cynical than you already are. A dose of pettiness - well, it’s not as good as money in the bank, but it’s about equal to change in your pocket.
BLOGS
APOCALYPSE THEN: TODAY’S DATE IN APOCALYPSE HISTORY
was an almost-daily project I carried on in 2012. At the time, as you may remember, the end of the world was going to be coming in December, on the 21st? Each entry that I wrote chronicled an incorrect end-times mania from history. It was fun! Click through to a fully-linked index of the hundreds of weird topics I tackled (seriously, there are north of 250 short entries here, good for random sampling).
BIBLE FUN FACTS
…in which I blog the Bible
