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I first encountered Lu Yang's work in 2023 at the Hirshhorn museum in Washington, DC. "A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China" was an exhibit of 25 artists, and featured Lu Yang's work DOKU the Self : a 36-minute video piece in which the artist's androgynous avatar traverses the six paths of Buddhism and experiences a transcendent breakdown of the self. It's colorful,…
In her essay “Insurrectionary Aunthood,” published in the recent collection No Straight Road Takes You There , author and historian Rebecca Solnit 1 writes that in many areas of thought, like biology, economics, and sociology, we're seeing a shift toward “a more systemic, more interconnected worldview that emphasizes human empathy, sharing, and collaboration.” Its antithesis is what I think of as…
At the end of January, I was concussed by a hard punch to the head. This was a situation I put myself in willingly at my boxing gym. I’m pretty stringent about risk calculation, but as this situation reminded me, mitigation strategies don’t eliminate risk. The first few days post-concussion were marked by hypersomnia. I slept as much as I wanted, about fifteen or sixteen hours per day. I rolled…
In The Substance , Severance , and the just-released film Mickey 17 , protagonists choose to separate one self into two. I hear popular media reflects the anxieties of the times: the lurching zombies of exploding consumerism, the robotic women of networked relationships, and now the splitting self of continued voluntary isolation. The decision to split is, like suicide, a desire to escape one’s…
The below piece was originally published in August 2017 on The Hairpin, a wonderful launchpad for essayists, which is now an A.I. slop link farm. Common L on today's internet! Soon after its publication, I quit boxing and started rock climbing. I've recently returned to my boxing gym after a few years away, as research for a new project about the sport. More exciting updates on that later. For…
The Bear is back! I haven't watched any of season three yet (my attention has been monopolized by vampires ) but the trailer was enough to get me excited. Last week, when I was traveling, my friend and former coworker/boss texted me. "We have a double callout on dish tonight," he wrote, "wanted to see if you have any interest in picking up a shift." I haven't worked in restaurants since 2022. My…
When I first started ghostwriting, I thought my clients would be people who wanted to automate their writing. I figured those who hired a ghostwriter would want the finished product, the book, without having to deal with the drudgery of the writing process. In reality, that’s not usually the case. Most of my authors want to be actively involved in the writing process. We brainstorm together, and…
I’m not a collector. I don’t particularly like having “stuff,” especially stuff that takes up space. I don’t keep a robust book collection, nor do I stock my kitchen with cookware beyond the cast iron. Most of my storage issues are gear issues - the bare minimum of gear for rock climbing is still a fair amount. My one indulgence is scents. I love fragrances: small, wearable works of art, privately…
With the end of the year comes lists. Lots of lists. Lists of lists. I’m not really a list-maker. I’m admittedly an archivist - I keep careful records and media libraries. Ranking things has never quite appealed to me. The closest I get to ranking is perusing my Spotify Wrapped, which is mostly a duplication of my running playlists. At the end of the year, my friends and colleagues often post…
A few months ago, I was thumbing through my old journals from my first year of college. In April 2010, when I had just turned 18, I apparently attended a lecture on the “Arab-Israeli conflict” (my words) given by an anti-Zionist Jewish woman whose name I apparently did not feel the need to record. I expect this was an extra credit opportunity for my Arabic 102 class (a language study I dropped at…