boots can be year round foot wear

Whenever I attempt to go to the shoe store to select summer appropriate footwear I always end up just looking at boots instead. I can't help it, I always prefer a clunky well heeled boot to a delicate sandal. In NYC where it will rain at a moment's notice, where you need to walk miles to a train stop somedays, and where you might need to kick a mugger or creepy guy, boots seem to be the appropriate option--even in 80 degree weather.

Elisabeth Moss on Totally Kids Detective Agency

You know, ever since I started watching Mad Men I have had the feeling that I used to watch Elisabeth Moss a lot as a kid on those FOX PSAs they would play during the after school shows. I looked at her IMDB credits and couldn't find anything listed, so I took to Google and eventually found this on YouTube:



I knew I remembered her! I have a good memory for faces, maybe I should be a detective.

Love Bites, new fall show

NBC's new show Love Bites looks among the most promising for new Fall shows, albeit a little silly from the looks of this preview. Also strange that it features two cast members from "My Boys."

New writing online

Ah writing, I would fall into pits of depression without you. I have been keeping busy this summer honing my skills and improving my craft. In order to do this you need lots of low stakes assignments where you can get a little creative with your reviews/articles and not fear an editor's wrath. So this June I started writing again for The Feminist Review (I believe there are in transition with their name and will be renaming themselves Elevated Differences, though I personally prefer the original moniker.)I have been reviewing theater including the Flea's recent production of Sex in Mommyville.
I also have a review of the memoir Bitch is the New Black in the August/September issue of Bust!
The memoir is pretty funny and worth checking out.

Marina and the Diamonds new video for Shampain

I have been digging Welsh artist Marina and the Diamonds all summer, when it comes to pop stars I making a splash currently, I really consider her to be the best. She manages to produce catchy, fun pop music with enough depth, creativity and skill in terms of lyrics to satisfy those who are turned off by all the prefabricated pop tarts the industry spits out. It is no wonder she sold out her show at Webster Hall in NYC quickly. Here is her latest single, Shampain:

Our grammar and spelling skills keep taking nosedivesWhen

When I walk down the street in Manhattan I become annoyed by all the misspelled signs that catch my eye from bars, restaurants, food carts, and bodegas. It makes me want to rip out a giant red pen and make lots of corrections. Not to mention the terrible grammar. Maybe this is due to the fact that I have been employed in my life as both a copy editor and as an English teacher.

It also bugs me that so many students now write papers and emails in texting speak i.e. U hafta B here 2moro. And don't understand that this is improper English. I wonder what sort of semi literate, misspelled, abbreviated future awaits us as a country. I must be a huge nerd or else so old I am out of it because I never abbreviate anything in my texts and have even on occasion made use of the semi colon key.

New reviews of mine in print

New pieces:

I have a review of "They Is Us" in the February/March issue of Bust,
and a review of "Anthropology of an American Girl" in the May/June issue
of Bust.

Anthropology of an American Girl was a self published novel that received
such a cult following that Random House made an offer.

Music review and review Emily White's memoir "Lonely" in the April issue of
Venus Zine, on newsstands now. The magazine went through a few month hiatus
as they switched owners. The magazine business is a dicey game right now.