A.O. Monk's Blog

There are currently 122 cases of COVID-19 in my home state, including a seven-month-old baby. Three have died. Schools, libraries, post offices, and many private businesses are closed. Drive through restaurants are now drive through only. Children and visitors are barred from many doctor’s offices, which require all patients to fill out questionnaires about their […]

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Why would anyone deliberately spread a deadly disease? Why would a man who knew he had COVID-19 go on a bar crawl in Tokyo? Why would a wedding party in New Jersey hold their wedding despite state orders? Why won’t some put their spring break plans on hold due to the pandemic? Is it so […]

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I last read The Buddha of Suburbia, by Hanif Kureishi, when it was assigned reading in high school. It’s been about fifteen years since then (yes, I’m this old) and I recently picked up another copy. Before I read it, I wanted to record everything I remember from it, through the haze of fifteen years of […]

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I finally got to rewatch Joker in the theater. I’m really glad I did. Some details only reveal themselves on the big screen, especially when you can’t pause, fast-forward, or rewind. There’s something about watching a movie in a theater that changes the experience, and I don’t know why. It took me seeing Sunset Boulevard in […]

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Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s death. The anniversary brought up strong and conflicting emotions in me. Ever since I read Somebody to Love, I’ve tried to avoid thinking about Queen, Freddie Mercury, or the HIV/AIDS epidemic–and failed, on all counts. Reading the book was such a disagreeable experience that it’s colored much […]

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I don’t usually do Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month–when you try to write a 50,000 word novel in November). Despite this, I wanted to help out anyone who is doing it. So I’ve made a couple of Nanowrimo bingo boards. Each bingo space contains a goal, like “Wrote 1,000 words,” “Wrote to music,” “Finished a […]

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Occasionally I’ll get an urge to write an essay of film or literary criticism. But there’s no money or glory in that, and I don’t have time to write one, anyway. Still the inner voice nudges me: “The world really needs another 1,700 words on this obscure teen comedy from 1998!” “Tell everyone your unlearned […]

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Russian Doll is probably Netflix’s best show (that’s actually by them, Dark is better) but it’s carried entirely by the premise and the lead’s charisma. Its seedy nihilism grates when you think about it for ten seconds. All these characters live for themselves and the moment, try to look/act/be cool deep into their 30s and 40s […]

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I’m still thinking about Joker, almost a week after I saw it. It’s an interesting movie, with clear homages to Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, and other moody, gloomy New York pieces from the late 70s and early 80s. It also seems to owe a vague debt to True Detective, especially the first season, which intertwined a done-to-death […]

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Some of these poems were published on my old website.Others I wrote to get a nice round “10” for this post. Most are haikus, but there are a couple of tankas (literally, there are two). Please enjoy. 1. Glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, faint green shapes radio static 2. New word: petrichor The smell of […]

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