Micah Nathan's Blog, page 2

Summer reads, Fall travels

Writer-at-large Jake Halpern recommended Eight Cousins bookstore in Falmouth, MA, and since Jake only recommends the good stuff, I dropped them a line, they dropped one back, and it all led to this: I’ll be part of their “Toast the Author!” series on June 21st. Fun starts at 6, goes until 7 (and a bit [...]

Unfair, Really

  “They (city police) were very courteous and very gentle,” Bowie said. “They’ve been just super.” Quiet and reserved, Bowie answered most of the reporters’ questions with short answers, shaking hands with them when they entered and left. Asked if the arrest would sour him on returning to Rochester, Bowie said “certainly not, absolutely not.” [...]

What Happened.

It was a small reading (since you asked, yes I’ve had smaller) and I don’t believe I sold a single book but there was a photographer and several old friends showed up and one could do much worse than that. So we talked about art, I told some stories (Tanya Roberts may or may not [...]

The Best American Mystery Stories

Last month, Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Bookshop emailed me a letter, announcing acceptance of one of my stories into the 2013 The Best American Mystery Stories. My spam folder swallowed his email whole. Last night he sent a friendly reminder, I confessed total ignorance, he re-sent the letter, and, well…here we are. So the [...]

GIRLS is a terrible show, part 2

from: Frank to: Micah Nathan date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 4:43 PM subject: Sopranos v. Girls and other false competitions Hey Micah, Let’s start with something here. Are you saying you didn’t make it through the first season of The Wire and you’re still ranking it in the upper echelon? And I’m deeply curious what [...]

GIRLS is a terrible show, part 1

I love arguing about art. My students often confuse this with a love for criticizing art, which is entirely different. Criticizing is one-sided; it smacks of lecturing, which is, of course, the unenviable position most professors finds themselves in. Criticizing quickly becomes boring. Better that someone should push back. Hard. Even rudely, if needed. 1 [...]

No, sir.

This might be the kind of post that requires a few drafts but I have a book to work on and my brain is mushy from too many iced teas, so to hell with it. Smoke if you got ‘em, right? The NYT posted this letter today: To the Editor: Re “Shooting in the Dark” [...]

Kelly.

Kelly was my first experience with mortality. I’d experienced death before—grandparents, pets, a beloved babysitter—but Kelly was my age, and we’d been friends in high school, and I was nineteen or so when I visited her in the hospital. I hadn’t seen her since graduation. I’d heard rumors of a brain tumor gone into remission. [...]

Kvetch.

The most telling complaint about The Hobbit is its uneasy mix of adult/childish humor (note the difference between “child” and “childish”). I haven’t seen the movie. I’ll probably wait for Netflix–a long wait, I know–and not because I’m one of those annoying film buffs who refuses to see anything popular. I just don’t have any interest [...]

Game of Thrones, the Keeping of Secrets, and oh yeah–another Glimmer Train piece.

Character A: But I don’t understand. Character B: I cannot tell you now. Character A: You must! Character B: Your father is not who he claims. He is–ACK! ARGGH! Arrow flies into Character B’s neck. Plot twist is artificially extended another week. One of the more annoying aspects of serialized television is the keeping of [...]