• Quaeritur: Aber ein Sturm…

    How does a poet write history? I once began with this question. But after several years of focusing on the first part of my questionable query, I find myself now drawn more to the latter half: history–a story we tell… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: Holday Gifts

    The Gift of TravelSaw the new Jason Reitman film (based on the Walter Kirn novel) Up in the Air Tuesday evening at the Plano Angelika with the great unwashed suburban masses. I’m not sure it’s entirely unfair to hate a… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: Rings

    I saved $50 dollars on my senior ring because I had a friend in the town over who had family who ran a jewelry store. All I had to do was pass out fliers for them at my high school… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: New York

    I’ve now been to New York City four times: to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in November 1986, to enjoy spring break of 1989 with my cool friend Linnie, to celebrate my birthday with old (read: even older)… more ›

  • Days for the Dead

    Holiday wishes to all those who celebrate All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day. This is a photograph I took about a year-and-a-half ago in Austin from the Congress Street Bridge. The Mexican fruit bat colony was… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: Words

    I somehow managed to pass the 10,000-word mark on Chapter Two this afternoon. That was my goal when I sat down several weeks ago to work on my dissertation. I figured five chapters of about 40 pages each would put… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: Yoghurt

    While I was visiting Berlin in 1996 after conducting my thesis research, I stayed with Andrew. How did I know the architect Andrew and then manage to meet up with him in Berlin? Well, that’s a long story: he was… more ›

  • Bullet-Point Friday: The Bewitching Hour

    When I still lived in Kansas all those years ago, I would wake up in the middle of the night terrified out of my skin because of the witch sitting in the chair next to the bookcase in the hallway… more ›

  • I Shall Die

    One of the first concerts I attended was a Peter, Paul and Mary reunion tour through Dallas in 1986. I remember listening to them as a child, long after they had already stopped recording together. It seems I’ve always known… more ›

  • Tongues of Fire: Articulations of and against Terror (Part II of IV)

    Question 1 Is terror-power the same in all cases, or is there a qualitative difference between terror-power employed by a state and that employed by a non-state actor? Are there different terror-powers? On Monday, April 17, 2006, twenty-one-year-old Palestinian suicide-bomber… more ›