Brian Greene's Blog, page 6

Profile Piece on Visual Artist Jeeyoung Lee

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Top Publications "Double Album"

Since 2006, approximately 250 of my short stories, personal essays, and journalistic writings on various arts have been published. My work has appeared in 35 different outlets over this time. Following is a list of 20 of these writings about which I feel the best. I'm presenting these publications like I'm a band putting out a greatest hits collection. And it's a double album. I just wish I had the perfect gatefold sleeve to include.

So here goes:

Side A: Short Fiction and Pieces on Visual Art

Track 1: My short story collection The Notes and Other Stories, 2020


link to listing

Track 2: "The Notes," winner of short story competition held by Jerry Jazz Musician, 2008

link to story
Track 3: Short story "White Summer" for Retreats From Oblivion, 2018

link to story

Track 4: Artist profile piece on sculptor Hein Koh for Widewalls magazine, 2019

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Track 5: Artist profile piece on sculptor Juliette Clovis for Widewalls magazine, 2020

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Side B: Articles on Books and Writers

Track 1: Biographical piece on novelist Pascal Garnier for Criminal Element, 2018

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Track 2: Piece on novelist Malcolm Braly for Literary Hub/Crime Reads, 2016


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Track 3: Feature on novelist John Trinian for hard copy book Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture 1950-1980 (PM Press, 2017) (print only)





link to book listing

Track 4: Piece on novelist Jason Starr for Mystery Scene magazine, 2018 (print only)




Track 5: Feature on novelist Robert Deane Pharr for hard copy book Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980 (PM Press, 2019) (print only)



link to book listing


Side C: Articles on Music
Track 1: Piece on garage bands in the movies for Shindig! magazine special issue, 2009 (print only)




Track 2: Piece on Blackwater Holylight for It's Psychedelic Baby, 2019



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Track 3: Piece on Funkadelic for Shindig! magazine, 2009 (print only)





Track 4: Interview with Susan Jacks for Scram Magazine, 2006

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Track 5: Label profile piece on Light in the Attic for Shindig Magazine, 2011 (print only)



Side D: Articles on Film
Track 1: Piece on Mimsy Farmer for Shindig! magazine, 2010 (print only)






Track 2: Piece on Pam Grier for Crime Reads, 2018

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Track 3: Page-to-Screen piece on the movie Blow-Up and the short story it's based on, for Criminal Element, 2017


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Track 4: Essay on the movie Sarah T.-Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic for Cinema Retro, 2019

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Track 5: Piece on Pinky Violence film genre for Criminal Element, 2016

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Piece on the Novels of Pascal Garnier for Crime Reads

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New Short Story Collection

I have combined my three short story chapbooks into one overall book, The Notes and Other Stories.

The collection contains 12 stories that are all self-contained, yet interconnected. The stories are all told in the first person by a single narrator, and they involve life situations of the narrator's from middle childhood through early-to-middle adulthood. Explored and illuminated in the tales are matters such as: geographical displacement, sexual awakening, karma, teenage delinquency, first love, first experience with grief over the death of someone, uneasy letting go of emotional attachments, complicated friendships that cross boundaries, mental illness and how it can affect a whole family, children growing up in an emotional wilderness, anxiety disorder, primal gratification shadowed by looming dread, quiet desperation, communicating to the outer world in any which way, the problem of helping those who can't be helped, an eternal return, random hostility, and a quiet, patient source of warmth and hope.


link to the listing

Piece on Bollywood Icon Zeenat Aman

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Artist Profile Piece on Sculptor Juliette Clovis

link to the post (click under Biography)

Piece on New Edition of 1971 Cult Horror Film "Let's Scare Jessica to Death"

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New Short Story Chapbook

My new short story chapbook is titled Come Down Softly. It's an e-book that includes four self-contained yet interconnected stories. The tales involve: an emotional connection as needed as it is fleeting, primal gratification, looming dread, quiet desperation that turns loud, anonymous communications, an obsession, an addiction, an eternal return, random hostility, a patient source of warmth, soul love . . .



link to the listing

My Year in Writing in 2019

In 2019 I worked on, and/or had published, my usual variety of writing projects.

For a time, I set aside my journalism efforts and put together two short fiction chapbooks. I made these into e-books and am selling them on Amazon. Each chapbook includes four self-contained yet interconnected short stories. The stories are all told by a first-person narrator and involve episodes from the narrator's life between childhood and early adult years. The situations that arise in the stories involve things like geographical displacement, karma, complicated friendships that cross boundaries, teenage delinquency, first love, sexual awakening, recreational drug use, mental illness, etc.




link to Circles listing

link to Looking for Something listing


Two author profile features that I wrote are included in a new print anthology that came out late in the year. Titled Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction 1950-80, the collection of critical essays was edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre, and published by PM Press. I wrote one piece on the author Robert Deane Pharr, a "black Sinclair Lewis," who authored a handful of unique urban novels in the 1960s and '70s. And my other feature in the book is on Vern E. Smith and his 1974 street lit classic novel The Jones Men; I interviewed Smith for my piece on him.

link to publisher's listing of the book


A one-time assignment I particular enjoyed working on this year was a profile of visual artist Hein Koh. I wrote this for Widewalls, an online art publication.

link to the post

In 2008 my short story "The Notes" won a contest held by Jerry Jazz Musician, an online music/literary/culture publication. In 2019 JJM ran a series of posts celebrating past winners of their contests. They re-published my story and I got the opportunity to reflect back on winning the contest, and to discuss what's happened in my writing career since.


link to the post

I wrote eight new pieces for Criminal Element, Macmillan Publishing's crime fiction/film-oriented site. CE has been my primary outlet for journalism pieces since 2012. The two articles I most liked working on for them in 2019 were a piece on fateful chance encounters in film noir, and a feature celebrating Susan George's acting career in the year 1971.


link to all my posts for Criminal Element


I made four music-related contributions to the It's Psychedelic, Baby blog: a review of a new biography of Lou Reed, a review essay on new releases of Jim Sullivan albums by the Light in the Attic label, and profile features on the current acts Blackwater Holylight and The Saw Range/Eva Lasierra.





link to all my posts for IPB


Finally, I wrote two review essays for Cinema Retro, a print and online publication that celebrates movies from the 1960s and '70s.  My pieces for them were on Sarah T.-Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) and Klute ('71), which were newly released in deluxe editions by Shout! Factory and Criterion Collection, respectively.


link to Sarah T. piece

link to Klute piece

My first project in 2020 will be to release the third volume of my series of short fiction chapbooks. After that, I'll just see what comes up.

Piece on the Music of The Saw Range/Eva Lasierra

link to the post