When I was a teenager, Thursdays were reserved for summarizing the plot of Wednesday night’s Gossip Girl dramatics to my poor, obliging, older brother. If I didn’t promptly call to update him on Lonely Boy’s adventures in his new series, You, it was only because I knew my brother to be more Team Chuck than Team Dan. Yet, despite a clear lack of…
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Holzkranich: Le Grand Weißwurst Frühstück
After the snow comes the slush—which reminds me of going to the drive-in for slushies with my best pals in high school, except that slushies in the American Southwest are a sweet reprieve from the scorching desert heat while slush in Germany is just a melty, wet, bone-soaking coldness. Silver-linings abound thoug if you know where to look. In other…
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‘Blood Fest’: Is Horror Really Dead?
Every few months since the invention of leisure, some “enlightened” individual or other has grandiosely declared, “horror, my friends, is dead.” In flocks, we assemble to mourn our lost companion, trading drinks for stories of heroes and heroines, of visionaries and heretics. But mourn not my friends, for the truth is that horror will never die. So long as we…
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Hamburgers in Hamburg: Brooklyn Burger Bar
Much like the Mogwai of Gremlins fame, I am governed by three basic rules: don’t expose me direct sunlight, don’t let me get wet, and never, ever forget to feed me before midnight. One false step in these directions and I can assure you that I’m far more Gremlin than human. Recently, I had the pleasure of traveling to Hamburg, and while…
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‘Under the Feet of Jesus’ by Helena María Viramontes: A Sentimental Chicanx Bildungsroman
Helena Maria Viramontes is a widely anthologised Chicanx author and professor of English at Cornell University. A key figure in the literary community, her work is a major feature of the Latinx cannon and widely read in circles outside of the traditional (often color- and gender-washed) vein. Born in East LA in the 1950s, Viramontes’ work is a reflection of the social…
