“There’s clearly some things going on with our family.” So says Sally, matriarch of the Rayburn clan (Sissy Spacek) in the penultimate episode of the new Netflix drama series Bloodline. Coming at the arguable peak of the dysfunctional family dynamic on display in this mostly compelling new offering from the on-demand service, this plays as quite the amusing understatement. Set […]
With the lengthy establishing act that is DIXIANA already described, we continue the synopsis of the seriocomic Southern literary journey of Roy Earl Pettus, Button Sykes, Christy Beaudock, and all the other characters driving the narrative of DOWN IN DIXIANA, the second volume of this three-novel series for which I’ll soon begin seeking a publishing berth. While book one […]
The Grateful Dead’s Spring Tour 1993 proved to be a time of renewal—the previous December, Jerry Garcia had returned from a canceled fall tour and a(nother) health crisis looking spry, trim (by his standards) and energetic. A happy time to be a Deadhead! March winds were gonna blow all our troubles away. On the 22nd anniversary of […]
Arriving this week at the conclusion of what we’ll remember as the Composition Period that began on May 1, 2013, the fifth and most complete draft of the entire DIXIANA story will soon rest comfortably fresh from its detailed line-edit. DIXIANA… it’s more than fiction, it’s a state of mind, one in which I’ve been immersed […]
In honor of today’s LivePhish archival release of the band’s show from Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, NC on December 16, 1999, here’s a partially tongue-in-cheek review I submitted to the original Phish reviews page, maintained in those days by my good friend and former University of South Carolina Newsfilm Library colleague Dan Schar.
While a close edit of my Southern literary epic DIXIANA is ongoing, the end is in sight, and discussions are beginning with outside candidates to continue the editorial process after the author’s composition period ends on April 30. My thoughts at this time are also turning toward notions of shopping or self-pubbing this literary project, so […]
And it’s an exciting one! On February 17 I completed a close line edit on what’s known as the fifth draft of DIXIANA, or rather, the first of the three volumes. With an April 30 deadline looming for the completion of all three manuscripts, I find myself not only pleased with the work, but well ahead […]
Here at the end of 2014, there’s no greater news I could announce than to make this post trumpeting the completion of the third draft of my three-novel saga entitled DIXIANA, about which I’ve blogged in an extensive and ongoing fashion. Twenty months into a two-year timeframe to completion, with the current version I feel as though I’ve already […]
Somebody pinch me. This may not constitute new news to regular readers of this blog, but today I’m beyond honored and energized to report that I’ve received notification of the scheduling of my appearance promoting and discussing Fellow Traveler at the upcoming Grateful Dead academic conference called So Many Roads: The World in the Grateful Dead! As […]
David Fincher’s most accomplished and entertaining film since Zodiac, this adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s hit novel Gone Girl emerges as one of the more trenchant and often hilarious satires in recent cinematic memory. A work of art that’s equally at home skewering male-female marital relationships, popular news media, celebrity worship, American spending and eating habits, or even suspense […]
