No time to update blog. Somehow, mysteriously, have found work paying Actual Money.

(It turns out it is out there. Who knew? Though of course all the freelance assignments turn up at exactly the same time, on the exact same deadline schedule. At least this way maybe I can take the summer off again.)

In any case, herewith some supplemental reading, courtesy of some far-flung friends and former coworkers. The death of newspapers has sure made for a lot of unemployed critics on the loose. These are some of my faves:

Multiaward-winning music writer (and ace cat-sitter) Monica Kendrick just launched her new blog, Face Fomus, after getting laid off from her job as a Reader staff writer in early January. It’s named, pithily, for an old Appalachian expression  “related to the act of falling on one’s face.”

Brilliantly unhinged proofreader-turned-Classics-scholar Ann Sterzinger has a book out and another (possibly) on the way. Girl Detectives, about, er, “a fledgling private eye and former murder-desk rewrite man for a Chicago daily, [who] descends into the bizarre world of the city’s favorite artsy-cultural alternative weekly paper” is available POD from Amazon.* I just ordered a copy. Nervously. 

Lastly a plug for Liz Tamny, friend and former photo editor, and her wide-ranging, consistently engaging Cahiers du Moment, a blogroll favorite since 2008. She recently got a lot of attention for a letter to Oprah.

All three of these women are some of the most blisteringly creative critical thinkers I have ever met. Get to know ’em.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog silence.

 

* Ann explored similar subject matter in this early short story, published in the Reader’s 2002 fiction issue.