“So tired. So very, very tired.” It was all she could say as she faded from this world in an overturned hovercraft. more ›

Here are the notes from Professor X’s last lecture: Paris and the Intersections of Urbanity and Humanity Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 New Wave film À bout de souffle (Breathless) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s 2003 The Dreamers are populated by characters who self-consciously… more ›

Jan Kropka, having just finished Don Bleu’s latest masterpiece, The Duchamp Code, and, at the same time having polished off the last of a bottle of cheap red wine, lies prostrate on the davenport staring absent-mindedly into the bowl of… more ›

Barbara Mandrell the mandrill is deep asleep thanks to the anesthesia administered by Dr. Janet Slowo in a makeshift operating table outside a truck stop on a deserted road from Vegas to nowhere. Dr. Slowo makes an incision, and the… more ›

Max attended a performance by the new music ensemble this afternoon; they were debuting a new work by Philip Glass. Half-way through the first movement, Max saw Sam. He caught his eye and smiled. Sam returned the smile. During intermission… more ›

Tom and Lupita had an understanding: they would never be together for more than 18 months at a time. Tom, after all, already had a relationship with Janet. A home in Oslo. And Lupita had her husband Effe. And a… more ›

When Maya Dupa was a young girl growing up on the outskirts of Warsaw, she wrote political love songs while walking to the gymnasium every morning. Here are the lyrics to something she wrote a long time ago. Originally, it… more ›

Fumbling with his coattails, Jimi was feeling very uncomfortable at the post-opera soiree, but he wanted to try to meet the infamous Dr. Slowo. It was claimed that she could heal whatever linguistic ailment afflicted you, be it st-st-stuttering, or… more ›

When Jimi was a small boy, he heard one day on theThe important thing is not, or not only, to legitimateplayground that the world would end in fire. Goddenotative utterances pertaining to the truth, suchhad already, it was understood, destroyed… more ›

There was that one restaurant—a café, really—that we used to frequent when we were students. I forget the name. But the waiter was blond and always wore bleu jeans. And looked like he just got out of the shower. I… more ›