Something Good #19: A Gustatory Odyssey
For as long back as I can remember, my favourite film has been Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (well, The Neverending Story filled that role for a...
Something Good #18: How the Seltzer Is Made
I used to be pretty into tap water. A cold glass of the stuff, straight from the city pipes, was my favourite thing in the world to drink, more than wine,...
Something Good #17: Four More Lives
Often when reading, researching or procrastinating, I come across a real-life character whose story fascinates or touches me in some deep way. When I can’t...
Something Good #16: Sacred MP3s With Cadence Weapon
One of my inspirations when I started Something Good was Rollie Pemberton’s Cadence Weapon newsletter, which is also the name he’s been producing music under...
Something Good #15: Unstuck in Time
Paul Nash, “The Menin Road” (1919) PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake, which I am pretty confident saying is my favourite album of the 21st Century so far, is now...
Something Good #14: Requiem for a Strip Club
I had never stepped into Bar EXXXotica, but I was always happy it was there. Situated on a pretty normal block on Avenue du Parc, alongside a bank, a couple...
Something Good #13: A Couple of Things That I Thought About for a Long Time
I have this habit of hearing about something interesting, or coming up with a good idea, and then not pursuing the topic for a long time. Eventually, I...
Something Good #12: The Institute for the Study of 3:32pm, April 10, 1954
I had been feeling guilty about having watched so few movies during 12 months of confinement so the other night I put on 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. I...
Something Good #11: No Jackets Required
What you’re about to read may shock you. I don’t know how many books I have. Certainly in the hundreds. I like owning books! I always have more than I can...
Something Good #10: The Potato Chip Professor
Recently I interviewed flavour historian Nadia Berenstein for an upcoming podcast episode about the science of snacking. She said something about chips that...
Something Good #9: The Elevator Lobbies of the Hotel Thermal
I was once unexpectedly invited to attend the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in my then-role as the film section editor of an alternative weekly. I...
Something Good #8: So Speaks Galactus
I tore through Abraham Josie Riesman’s True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee in a nonstop marathon weekend reading session. At 400-some-odd pages, the...
Something Good #7: Dolores
“By the author of Pnin” I first came across comedian and writer Jamie Loftus when a friend recommended her podcast My Year in Mensa. Loftus joined the brainy...
Something Good #6: How to Travel Through Time
Hey. Time travel is possible. Allow me to show you how. There are actually a few different methods, some of which you’re already using. First, you are (most...
Something Good #5: Four Lives
Often when reading, researching or procrastinating, I come across a real-life character whose story fascinates or touches me in some deep way. When I can’t...
Something Good #4: Candles and a Crossword
(See below.) It had been a long and shitty week. I was going on nearly a year without having entered a cinema, a restaurant, or even a friend’s home. The big...
Something Good #3: Various Fireplaces, With Commentary
“You always said you wanted to live in a palace.” I have lately become obsessed with fireplaces, none of them my own. In the heart of a grim COVID winter,...
Something Good #2: Escapes
“The Pier With Chains,” Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1749-1750 “The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?”- Ursula K....
Something Good #1: A Good Spy
I had a friend who prized anonymity and used his unremarkable appearance to do wonderful things. I thought of him this week as I watched the topic of this...