The Chronicles of Charlie: The Assassin Who’s Not Very Good At His Job
I’m a writer, sometime software consultant, and gadabout living in the dead-center of San Francisco. I’m currently trying to sell a novel; read the introduction if you’re interested. If you want to read something else, click one of the stories to the left. And, of course, there’s a blog. Thanks for stopping by!
Posted By Dan on June 29, 2009
It’s new over there in the Goodreads feed on the right, but I thought I’d elaborate a bit more on just how good Brian Wood’s Local actually is. The idea is that he follows a young wandering woman through twelve years of her life, and twelve towns. Each town was a single comic, and the collection brings them all together.
Kind of. She’s the main character in some of the stories, a supporting player in others, and only hinted at offscreen in one or two. But, it doesn’t matter. Wood creates a tiny, detailed world in every single page, and he manages to surprise the reader every single time. It’s a pretty amazing achievement. He’s now one of my favorite comic writers (I really dig DMZ, as well).
Posted By Dan on June 25, 2009
I was thinking today when I was biking home. I started thinking about people who are famous who died this year, and it suddenly made me sad that David Foster Wallace will never write a long, footnoted biographical article about Michael Jackson. That would be absolutely riveting reading.
Posted By Dan on June 9, 2009
I was cruising around on the Internet today, and I saw an advertisement for Ketel One as “the gentlemen’s vodka.”
Do gentlemen drink vodka in this day and age? And isn’t overpriced gourmet vodka a gimmick of the mid-2000s bling era? Am I writing this into the wilderness of the Internet just because I want to have something new on this site? Probably. I don’t even like vodka, so it’s really not in my bailiwick to comment.
Posted By Dan on May 27, 2009
Living in an apartment building with shared laundry, you expect certain things. You can’t always wash clothes when you want to, you get your stuff out of the dryer right when it’s done…things like that. Tonight, however, took the cake. I put in a load of whites last, hot water, with bleach. My coloreds were in the dryer.
When my coloreds were almost dry, I went to check on them. The washer had twenty minutes left…huh? I opened it and checked. Ah, some colors in there. Someone had come down, seen that my wash was done, added mine to the dryer, and started theirs. Unconventional, but mostly OK. I started the dryer up again, added another 45 minutes, then had dinner.
After dinner I checked on it. All dry, so I emptied the dryer…wait. Where were my whites? None came out of the dryer. I looked in the washer again - it was done. I pulled out a small rug, a mattress pad, and what looked like a blouse. My whites were in the bottom. Someone had just added their laundry to mine, or hadn’t bothered to check what was in there, added theirs, and started it. That, I would say, is over the line. Sigh. I still love the neighborhood; this is just the kind of thing you have to live with.
Rock Bottom: A Novel
Local
Shantaram