THE BLACKENED BLUES, One Poem at a Time: Jake LaMotta’s Rage
Sean MurphyI’m happy to announce that my first poetry collection, The Blackened Blues, is available wherever you buy books (yes, *wherever*, so you don’t have to put more money in Rocket Man’s…
THE BLACKENED BLUES, One Poem at a Time: Captain Ahab’s Oil
I’m happy to announce that my first poetry collection, The Blackened Blues, is available wherever you buy books (yes, *wherever*, so you don’t have to put more money in Rocket Man’s…
I Can Breathe (for George Floyd)
I Can Breathe Of course I can. I’m white. I can breathe. I can also bear arms with impunity, vote in absentia or in person. I can shop without eyes—electronic…
Essay: Backs to the Future
Here's a piece I've returned to several times, since first writing it in 2008. It was inspired by some real-time B.S. involving a true story, and names are withheld to…
How to Kill a Cliché: Celebrating Sam Shepard (One Year Later)
Lee: …That’s stupid. That’s one a’ those?—whadya’ call it? Whadya’ call that? Austin: What? Lee: Whadya’ call it when somethin’s been said a thousand times before. Whadya’ call that? Austin:…
Rebel’s Rebel: RIP Anthony Bourdain
I'm gutted, like seemingly everyone else in the world (for all the right and obvious reasons) by the sudden loss of Anthony Bourdain. In addition to being sad, shocking, and…
50 BULLET POINTS CONCERNING AMERICA’S GUN PSYCHOSIS
Note: It makes me physically ill that this piece, written in 2016, is still not only relevant, but --inconceivably-- a bit outdated. Don't overlook the pathetic fact that the (very)…
Sorry, Charlie (on the Charlie Hebdo Attacks, Three Years Later)
i. OF COURSE RELIGION IS the problem. For anyone who, understandably, would say it’s a political issue and not a religious issue, I aver that so many of our political…
50 BULLET POINTS CONCERNING AMERICA’S GUN PSYCHOSIS
Let’s politicize these acts, if for no other reason because, in America, we politicize everything else. Of course it’s a mental health issue. For starters, the mental handicap of anyone…
Donald Trump: The Man in America’s Mirror
i. Orwell, Again (Obviously) Even before the Reality TV circus American politics and, by extension, American life, degenerated into late last year, George Orwell was the go-to guy for…