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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).

Rules of the Road

I have a problem with self-loathing. I'm a playwright and a theatre artist, but most "theatre people" drive me nuts. I love comic books, but I think most comic fans are idiots. I listen to a lot of indie music, but find a lot of indie music fans to be judgmental jerks (like me, judging them right now). But, as a bicyclist, there is no group of people I hate more...than bicyclists.

I've been the victim of several bike accidents, and still, nearly every day on my two-wheeled commute to work, I see another fellow bicyclist do something that makes me go, "See? People like that are the reason people like me deserve to get hit." Because karma doesn't always work out quite so evenly, and sometimes you're forced to pay for the sins of other bicyclists.

And so, this week's FiveByFiveHundred is dedicated to anyone who's ever been run over by a bicycle while trying to walk on the damn sidewalk (which is where people are supposed to walk).

"Five Rules for Bicyclists" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Read them. Learn them. Love them.

Bugs Bugs Bugs

I visited my parents' house in Connecticut over the weekend, and enjoyed the blooming of my dad's freshly landscaped backyard while I caught up on some writing. At one point, I looked out to the yard, and never before have I seen so many inchworms in one place at the same time. I can't even tell you what their silk was attached to; I'm pretty sure they were falling straight from the sky, maybe riding on clouds or something. Either way, it was a provocative image, one that inspired this week's post on Five By Five Hundred. Enjoy!

"Inches Away!" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Kitties and Nihilism. Yum.

Better late than never, I have a new review up on DailyGenoshan.com of The Meowmorphosis, the latest literary mash-up from Quirk Books, wherein Gregor Samsa awakens to find that he turned into a giant cockroach giant adorable kitty. From the publisher:

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten.”

The phenomenal success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies inspired a massively popular literary-remix movement. Now Quirk Classics once again charts bold new territory, turning the monster-mash-up formula inside out to infuse Franz Kafka’s horrific masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, with the fuzziest, snuggliest, most adorable creatures possible: kittens!

Meet Gregor Samsa, a humble young man who works as a fabric salesman to support his parents and sister. His life goes strangely awry when he wakes up late for work and finds that, inexplicably, he is now a man-sized baby kitten. His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills piling up? And how can he expect them to serve him meals every day? If Gregor is to survive this bizarre, bewhiskered ordeal, he’ll have to achieve what he never could before — escape from his parents’ house. Complete with haunting illustrations and a provocative biographical exposé of Kafka’s own secret feline life, The Meowmorphosis will take you on a journey deep into the tortured soul of the domestic tabby.

Book Review: The Meowmorphosis by Franz Kafka & Coleridge Cook on DailyGenoshan.com

The Catcall of Cthulhu

Continuing with my theme of bizarrely humorous erotic encounters, my latest post on FiveByFiveHundred.com explores the fine between making love and being consumed by 10th dimensional evil alien pre-human tentacular Lovecraftian beast-Gods. Mostly inspired by this picture:

Hee-hee. Silly HP Lovecraft.

"Cthulhu Do You Love?" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Woke Up New

Does anyone else find it as strange as I do that people like Lady Gaga and Bob Dylan stand up as examples of individualism, and preach about being yourself, et cetera (Gaga more so), while exerting a fairly conscious and contrived effort to be anything but themselves? It's come to my attention that we live in a society where we admire individualism and self as a construct, a world that stresses not just being yourself, but the active creation of the You you want to be.

I swear, I'm not trying to preach anything, or assert any well-formed ideas; I'm just trying to get your braingears moving.

That was pretty much the genesis of the new piece I just put up on FiveByFiveHundred.com, about a boy who longs to grow up and be himself, and the trials he faces along the way.

"How To Be Yourself Without Really Trying" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

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Bang Bang, Shoot Shoot

Happiness comes in many forms. Occasionally, people feel the destruction of public property, or other such violent outbursts, is the only logical way to express these overwhelmingly positive emotions. So today, in light of recent mainstream news, I had a little fun with that idea. Because hey, I'll fully admit — when the Red Sox won their first World Series victory in 86 years my freshman year of college, you can bet your ass I was running around through the streets in Boston in underwear 'till 5am, screaming at the top of my lungs. I just never understood the need for people to smash car windows about it.

(Also I was just getting fed-up with every single person on my Facebook newsfeed feeling the need to EXTREMELY EXPRESS THEIR EXTREME OPINIONS about what happened)

"The Warmest Gun" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giaBe-yXDOY&w=425&h=349]"Did you see the pool?! They flipped the bitch!"

Writing, Writing Everywhere, and Not a Drop To Read

I have to apologize for the radio silence here at ThomDunn.net over the last few weeks. Layne Anderson, a close friend and former roommate of mine, passed away unexpectedly on April 7th, and as much as I've kept up with everything (well, almost everything), time has been rather a blur. I've chronicled the situation as impersonally as possible over at FiveByFiveHundred.com in two posts — Shark Grief, about my own grieving process, and iWake, which as entirely fictional account of a some inappropriate gallows humor inspired by the situation of which Layne would have most certainly approved. Meanwhile, this week's entry steps away from the morbidity and explores the quantum mechanics of one night stands as interpreted through Bell's Theorem, using the Shrödinger's Cat experiment as a proof. Hopefully, that sounds ridiculous (and ridiculously intriguing) enough for you to check out Shrödinger's Cat Call, also over at FiveByFiveHundred.com.

Also in the last two weeks, we've officially opened Sons of the Prophet at the Huntington, which is then moving to the Roundabout Theatre Company Off-Broadway in the Fall. Plus, I did some filming for Art & Design of the 20th & 21st Centuries and the Boston Print Fair, did a small reading of my new play, True Believers (which is set at a Comic Book Convention and features a cameo by the Cyborg Head of Stan Lee, among other things), and started rehearsals and arrangements for my (wait for it) all-male hard rock Lady Gaga tribute band, Alejandro & the Fame, which is going to be every bit as ridiculous as it sounds. Come check us out on May 20th at the afterparty for Propeller Theatre Company's all-male production of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors at the Huntington's B.U. Theatre.

Woo. Okay. I think that's it. Tune in next week for your regularly scheduled programming.

Time Travel! Murder! Philadelphia! OH EM GEE!

Most people who know me can vouch for the fact that I love just about anything involving (a) time travel, or (b) noir tropes. Fortunately, Expiration Date, the latest novel from Philadelphia genre master Duane Swierczynski, features both (along with some great beer and records. Even better!), and you can read my full review over at DailyGenoshan.com. Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

Recently unemployed journalist Mickey Wade lucked into a rent-free apartment — his sick grandfather's place. The only problem: it's in a lousy neighborhood — the one where Mickey grew up, in fact. The one he was so desperate to escape.

But now he's back. Dead broke. And just when he thinks he's reacher rock bottom, Mickey wakes up in the past. Literally.

At first he thinks it's a dream. All of the stores he remembered from his childhood, the cars, the rumbles of the elevated train. But as he digs deeper into the past, searching for answers about the grandfather he hardly knows, Mickey meets the twelve-year-old kid who lives in the apartment below.

The kid who will grow up to someday murder Mickey's father.

Book Review: “Expiration Date” by Duane Swierczynski on DailyGenoshan.com

How Are You?

On Thursday, March 25th, Mitchell Dubey was murdered in his home in New Haven. I never knew Mitchell myself, but he touched the lives of countless people whom I've known, and left a lasting, positive impact on these people and the community of which they are a part. Last night, his friends put together a benefit concert for Mitchell's family, who has suffered a great deal in the past year, and successfully raised over $23,000, and completely sold out Toad's Place, a famous music venue in New Haven. It was a glorious sight to behold, a celebration of his life and the things he loved. (And yes, that is a GIANT photo of me getting a wristband from the doorman at the concert. Embarrassing. I wish they could have featured someone else who knew Mitchell personally. But, I'll take it.)

I feel strange that I never had the chance to meet Mitchell, but he touched the lives of so many people that I've known a long time, and left a lasting, positive impact on a community that I care greatly for, even though I don't live there anymore. I don't want to rob my grief from those that actually knew Mitchell and were so greatly affected by this loss, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of love on display last night. Mitchell Dubey left a mark on the lives of so many people that I have known, and so, by extension, his life has affected mine, and I think that is the very definition of community.

This week's post on Five By Five Hundred is dedicated to Mitchell. It was inspired by an interaction that I had at the show with my old friend Jerry Morgan. We haven't seen each other in a long time, and have never done well keeping in touch, but I think we were both happy to see each other, barring the circumstances. Jerry knew Mitchell through the bicyclist and vegan communities in New Haven, as well as the music scene, and when we both asked each other how we "were," we both understand what it meant — what has your life been like since we last spoke, excepting the detail of your friend's gruesome murder. Fortunately Jerry always remains positive, and took our "How are you?"s in good humor, and it sparked a conversation.

Before I link you selfishly to my writing, here's a video of Mitchell taken by a complete stranger in California several years ago. It only makes me wish I knew him more.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmh9FBDAvwo&w=425&h=349]



Check out "Three Words" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

69 Love Songs

Check out my latest piece over at FiveByFivehundred.com, about a Morning After that she may or may not regret. Complete with an overbearing 20-something male playing bad love songs on an acoustic guitar who is in no way, shape, or form intended as analog for myself. Seriously.

"69 Love Songs" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

Review: The Nightly News

The VOICE says: When killing activists, never shoot for the head, always aim for the heart."

Over at DailyGenoshan.com, I've posted my review of Jonathan Hickman's debut book The Nightly News, which combines contemporary graphic design, infographics, prose, photorenderings, and comic book dialogue with a gazillion conflicting narratives to tell the story of a domestic terrorist cult determined to take down the American news media. In case that sentence wasn't clear, it's absolutely nuts. Check it out.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Especially When There's Time Travel Involved

It’s hard to stay together once you’ve watched your partner die. Katie never understood this. She thought I was being irrational. “Everyone dies,” she said. Or will say, I’m not sure if she’s actually said it yet. “It’s something that happens. But you and I, we’ll always be together, at least somewhen in time."

Check out my latest piece, Not Dead Yet, at FiveByFiveHundred.com!

Domestic Violence and the Weather at FiveByFiveHundred.com

This week at Five By Five Hundred, I wrote a short new poem about living in New England, because with the way the weather changes here, I sometimes feel like I'm in an abusive relationship. Every time it makes me miserable, there's a beautiful sunny day to make me remember why I love it here. And then it snows again. AARGH!

Anyway, enjoy!

"My City is a Fickle Mistress" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

The Bible Vs. Superman

If you've ever wondered about the connection between the original Biblical murder and issue #1 of SUPERMAN IN ACTION COMICS, then Brad Meltzer's got your ticket in The Book of Lies, a labyrinthine conspiracy thriller that's kind of like The Da Vinci Code for comic book fans, except good. Read my full review over at DailyGenoshan.com!

The Future of the Emerson College Public Safety Video

My fellow Emerson alum are all too aware that the ATM is possibly the greatest invention ever. This week, over at FiveByFiveHundred.com, my newest piece of speculative flash-fiction explores the future of the ATM, and the possible ramifications of artificial intelligence as it spreads to more pedestrian technologies. Also, because sassy robots are just plain funny. And that's what really matters. Enjoy!