Video: "You Are Not Going to Be Famous"

On November 11, 2008, the topic of Adult Education—the Brooklyn-based "useless lecture series" I help curate—was "Lies and Liars." I tried to debunk America's Big Lie by arguing—in part with statistics—that fame will ultimately elude us all. I'm as disappointed as you are. You can also view my previous Adult Ed talk—"On Metatourism"—from the January 2008 program.

Fiction

THE ARAB BANK
A short story set in Cannes that I serialized during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. I posted installments—with notifications via email, RSS, Twitter, and Facebook—each day from May 13 to May 24, 2009. You can read the entire story online (with Google Maps and Street View integration, or you can download it as an ebook at feedbooks.com. You can also access each installment from this map. U.K. author and blogger Adrian Graham was nice enough to interview me about the whole project.

JULY 4: EASTER
A short story.
Twelve Stories [Nov 2008]

THE GUEST
Another, older short story.
Fence [Winter/Spring 2007]

SINGLE
A free ebook—which I like to think of as a "fiction single"—that features two previously published short stories, "Miss Tennessee" and "The Cryerer." These originally appeared in The Land-Grant College Review and One Story, respectively.
Download from feedbooks.com

NOSE
Some flash fiction from way back.
Bridge [Spring/Summer 2001]

THE ADVENTURES OF BAD BADGER
This issue now goes for $75, but not because I am in it.
McSweeney's [#3, 1999]

Selected Non-Fiction

AND THAT'S THE WAY IT ISN'T
Have fake news graphics taken over the role of the political cartoon? We report. You decide.
PRINT [Oct 2008]

THE BUBBLE BOY
Josh Harris was the golden boy of the dot-com boom. $100 million later, he's plotting his comeback
Radar [Feb 2008]

GEORGE SAUNDERS, AMERICAN
An interview with the author of In Persuasion Nation.
Stay Free! [6.14.07]

CLOG JAM
How hideous rubber shoes became summer's most unfortunate fad.
Radar Online [9.15.06]

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS
It took him three months and $20,000 to film two amorous armchairs making love on a Manhattan rooftop. Four years later, PES is still discovering the madness of household objects.
PRINT [Sept/Oct 2006]

Commissioned Hilarity

THE GAWKER GUIDE TO CONQUERING ALL MEDIA
I contributed a few charticles to this snarky guide to the media- entertainment complex. Here are two of them.
Sub Standards and Fight Club [2007]

SPACE INVADER
Rupert Mudoch's MySpace page.
Slate [7.04.06]

DO GOODIES
This Sunday, MTV will lure celebs to Miami with boatloads of swag. How many water buffaloes can fit in those gift bags?
Radar Online [8.25.05]

Blog Posts I Still Like (Mostly)

THE BABY NAME SHORTAGE
[4.24.06]

THE STORY DOESN'T CARE:
AN INTERVIEW WITH SEAN STEWART
[1.25.06]

MORE FAMOUS LITERARY LIARS
[1.10.06]

SPOOFING TRUTH
[9.15.05]

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO TOOTHING?
[4.04.05]

Miscellaneous Activities

ON METATOURISM [video]
A talk I gave about my photoblog, "Shiny, Pointy & Tall," at Adult Education, a "useless lecture series" I help curate from time to time.
[1.22.08]

BORING BORING: A DIRECTORY OF DULL THINGS
This parody of Boing Boing cracked the top ten at both Daypop and Blogdex.(Created with Francis Heaney and Deborah Levinson.)
[4.01.05]

SHINY, POINTY & TALL
A photoblog of people taking pictures of the Chrysler Building.
[2004-2005]