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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).

No Time For Love, Doctor Jones

And so begins the madness. First, I'll be performing tonight at Mortified Boston, thanks to the fantastic Ms Lisa McColgan (a co-worker over at the Huntington, as well as a fellow writer on Five By Five Hundred and possibly the world's biggest zombie enthusiast). I'll be singing a hilariously embarrassing song that I originally wrote in high school, so if you want to see me get up and stage and humiliate myself, well, that's the place to be. On a less romantic note, this week's Five By Five Hundred entry recalls an encounter with one of my favorite homeless people on the entire planet (yes, I have more than one favorite homeless person). Singing the praises of a confessed former-gang-banger might not seem like the most topical choice for a Valentines Day post, but, well, in light of recent events *cough*Chris Brown*cough*, it makes some form of sense in my warped mind.

"Joe" on FiveByFiveHundred.com

SuperBeer to the Rescue!

Head on over to the fine folks at Quirk Books and check out my world-famous (read: on the internet) Comic Book & Beer Pairings article on their blog! It's comic books, and beer, together. What more could you possibly want? Also, shout out to Quirk's Marketing & Social Media Coordinator Eric Smith for the fantastic pictures that he scrounged together to accompany each entry. They help make the article extra awesome-worthy.

High Infidelity

In doing research for an article I'm working on for Quirk Books, I pulled out my personal copy of High Fidelity (the novel) by Nick Horny. And what do I find inside?

Handwritten song lyrics. Except, it's not my handwriting. And I'm pretty sure I've never lent this book out to anyone to borrow. Eerie, right? And yet, kind of poetic.

So obviously, I laid claim to it (despite the fact that it's, erm, not very good), and turned into a found poem for Five By Five Hundred (which also worked out well because it's been a busy few days, between taking my poor chinchilla to the hospital with a broken arm, and sitting on the "Tweet This?" panel for Arts In America).

"Sonic Death Monkey" at FiveByFiveHundred.com

In the News!

It's a good week for being me! I opened up a print copy (on newsprint! Gets on your hands!) of Boston's Weekly Dig, only to find that they reprinted my tweet to them about my Haiku Beer Reviews from last week's Beer Summit (for which I had tickets from the Dig), and they even printed one of the haikus (for ZOMBIE KILLER Meade from B.Nektar) in their pages. This marks the second time that the Dig has printed one of my silly poems (the last time being in October, 2010 in their "Oh, Cruel World!" column, wherein I expressed my violent rage about a bicycle accident in verse) which all just makes me think that they should give me a job as "Official Writer of Silly Verse" or something. Vagabond Theatre Group, who is the producing the upcoming reading of my play True Believers, posted a lovely and thoughtful blogpost about my play, and the trend (or lack thereof) of comic book-related stories in theatre. It's a brief but flattering piece, that you should check out if you have the chance!

Coming up: even more news that I can't quite officially announce yet. Hollerr.

Excelsior! Stay Tuned, True Believers!

I'm excited to announce that the lovely people at Vagabond Theatre Group like me so much that they've decided to present a my new full-length play True Believers as the next staged reading/public workshop in their There Will Be Words reading series. I've met with the production team once so far, but they seem incredibly enthusiastic about my work (and impressed me with their own comic book/sci-fi/nerdery knowledge, which is of course very important, especially in a piece like this), so I'm looking forward to presenting the latest draft for a smart Boston audience. The reading will take place Thursday, February 9 at Trident Booksellers & Cafe at 338 Newbury Street in Boston. Admission is free, but for a suggested $2 donation (plus Trident serves delicious food and a great selection of craft beers).

And yes, the Cyborg Head of Stan Lee will be in attendance. Hope to see you there!

WARREN ELLIS: CAPTURED GHOSTS Screening

CAPTURED GHOSTS is a brand new documentary by filmmaker Patrick Meaney about Warren Ellis, the "Internet Jesus" himself and one of my personal favorite writers of all time. I'm putting together a preview screening of the film in Boston on January 7, featuring a Q+A with the director. Here's the official blurb:

The film features the most extensive interview Ellis has ever given, and spans his life, from his first memory watching the moon landing as a child, to his recent cross-media success with the film adaptation of Red. Along the way, Ellis's acerbic wit and core belief in humanity comes across like never before.

Complimenting Ellis's own words are interviews with his artistic collaborators, friends and admirers from across all media, including actress Helen Mirren, Director Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), comedian Patton Oswalt, Adult Film Star Stoya, Musician Claudio Sanchez (of Coheed and Cambria), comics writers Matt Fraction and Antony Johnston, and futurist Jamais Cascio. Ellis's comics collaborators like Marvel Comics CCO Joe Quesada, artists Darick Robertson, Ben Templesmith and Phil Jimenez also provide insight into Ellis's mind and creative workings. The film features numerous ambient interludes that spotlight Ellis's prose and writing from both his online columns and his comics.

And the trailer:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i3ySdq8b6Y&w=500&h=284]

It's a pretty impressive list of celebrity interviews, if I do say so myself. I saw Patrick's last documentary, Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods (which can be streamed in its entirety on Hulu), which was absolutely fantastic. If that's any indication, then this new Warren Ellis film should be particularly awesome.

If you're fan of science, comic books, the future, the creative process, or Helen Mirren, I'd encourage you to come check the screening! (and if you're hesitant and not at all familiar with Warren Ellis's body of work, here's a particular powerful scene from a book of his called Doktor Sleepless. That'll give you a taste of the kind of mind this man has)

Tickets here! Get yer tickets!

The Best of All Possible CANDIDEs!

Leonard Bernstein's beautiful score for the Broadway musical Candide was an instant classic — the show itself, based on the novella by Voltaire, was not. Tony Award and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Mary Zimmerman took it upon herself to recreate this musical masterpiece/disasterpiece with a brand new book and a new take on its wonderful music. Following sold out runs at Chicago's Goodman Theatre and Washington, DC's Shakespeare Theatre, Mary Zimmerman's incredible production of Candide officially opens tonight at the Huntington in Boston, and believe me when I say, it is absolutely worth seeing. It's a long show, but it's also one that you'll remember — this is one of those shows that people will be talking about for years to come. Don't believe me? Check this out. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGgq_HZYAs0&w=420&h=315]

CANDIDE runs through October 16 at the BU Theatre on the Avenue of the Arts. Don't miss it!

(5 x 500) x 500 = (7 x 500)

About two and a half years ago, the Internet Jesus himself, Warren Ellis made a post on his website proposing a different approach to (micro)-blogging, flash fiction, and e-publishing. While I'm not sure if the larger project ever took off, it served as a point of inspiration for then-fresh-out-of-college Thom and his need to write with some kind of purpose/frequency/plan. I threw the idea out to on Facebook and Twitter, and gathered a few friends (with some help from Brian McGackin) to begin the first wave of writers and what would become FiveByFiveHundred.com (a name which may or may not have been inspired by one Faith Lehane). Over the last two years, we've gone through a number of different writers (myself and Brian are the only two that remain of the founding quintet), each producing their own unique posts once a week, with the only rule being a 500-word cap. Poetry, flash-fiction, memoirs, serialized fiction; anything and everything (and sometimes very different work by the same writer week to week). We recently hit our milestone 500th post (which Lisa McColgan was not aware of when she submitted a wonderful treatise on her stupid cat, Mephisto, as the 500th post). Around the same time, we lost our Wednesday contributor, Melanie Yarbrough (who is hard at work on larger projects, hence her need to back out), and as we searched for replacements, we realized something: why keep the project limited to five writers? Other than the obvious numeric allusion of the title, we had nothing to lose by adding weekends to our little writing project. The website has received pretty consistent traffic during the week, but more content never hurts, and there are plenty of other talented writers out there who deserve to have their work shown on our humble webspace, plus we had enough interested contributors, so we went with it.

(We toyed for about a minute with upping the word cap to 700, in order to maintain the numeric allusion of the title, but decided to say screw it)

And so, starting this week (well, I suppose, technically starting this past Saturday): Five By Five Hundred now presents seven talented writers, one for each day of the week, each one producing up to 500 words of content on his/her given day. There's lots of great stuff coming out of the site, and with such frequent contributions, there's always something new. So check it out if you haven't already, and enjoy some fantastic flashfiction/poetry/humor/et cetera!

As a jumping off point for you (since there are, well, 500+ posts to weed through already), here are our top 5 (again with the numeric alliteration!) most popular posts:

And here's to five hundred more. People, or posts, I'm not really sure.

(Also this post totally clocked in ~500 words. NATCH. Booyah.)

90s Nostalgia in the Boston Herald

Those of you who've met me are likely aware of my love (obsession) with The Adventures of Pete & Pete. I also may or may not have written a fantastic love song about Ellen Hickle that I will later post (if I can find out) and, as a result, may or may not have almost gone on a date with the actress that portrayed her. But I digress.

I was recently interview by the Boston Herald for an article about 90s TV show nostalgia (specifically, the new "90s Are All That" latenight block on the TeenNick network). But mostly I just riff on my love for Pete & Pete. I mean, seriously — what other childrens' show could get away with naming a math teacher "Ms. Cooter Fingerwood"?! How did that get past the censors in the 90s?

"Teen network blasts back to the '90s" in the Boston Herald

MATT DAMON. Also Ben Affleck. With Breasts!

Would you believe that the script for Good Will Hunting literally fell from the sky (well, the ceiling) and landed right in the laps of two young men in Somerville, Massachusetts? Would you believe that, prior to said script falling from said ceiling, said young men were working (as all young men have done) to adapt The Catcher in the Rye into a screenplay?

Would you believe that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are totally chicks?

Yeah, me too. Which means you should probably check out Matt & Ben, the hilarious genderswapped "true" story behind the breakout success of those two Cambridge lads and the script that made them both into stars. Written by Mindy Kaling (like, from The office) and Brenda Withers and directed by my superawesomelytalented girlfriend, Ms M. Bevin O'Gara, this fantastic bromantic comedy opens today and runs through the end of the month at the Central Square Theater in, well, Central Square — right where it all started, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But seriously, go see this show, because even I weren't biased (which, I mean, I'm not), I would still tell you to see it, because it is that entertaining. Also I'm pretty sure the set dressing was modeled after my bedroom, even though my girlfriend totally denies it.

So check it out! Because, you know. Matt Damon.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PajyQrpu26I&w=425&h=349]

Broetry: Poetry, for Dudes!

Congratulations to my good friend (and fellow FiveByFiveHundred co-founder and Daily Genoshan founder) Brian McGackin, whose first book, Broetry, is available today from the lovely folks at Quirk Books! Broetry is one of the those things that, when Brian first told me about the idea, I kind of wanted to punch him in the teeth, because of how stupidly brilliant and simple it is. It is quite literally poetry, but written for, well, dudes. There's no waxing philosophical about flowers in the spring, but there is plenty of Mama Celeste Frozen Pizzas, comic books, X-Box 360, and HaiKougars to go around. I've been close to this project from its earliest moments, and can honestly say that it is every bit as fantastic as it sounds, and I encourage everyone to pick up a copy (because I guarantee you will find something in it that you enjoy). Also, as an added bonus, my name is in the book, so that's cool, right?

In case you're (somehow) still not convinced, here are a few samplings from the book that I think you might enjoy:

Homebrewing the Future!

Over the last 2 months (basically, over the time it took to make my Blood Orange Hefeweizen), I've been the subject of an interactive "magazine" article about homebrewing. From what I understand, the idea of the magazine is "Old is New" — that is, to present old-fashioned or time honored practices, traditions, and hobbies in a brand new light, with the aid of new media. The completed project is intend for view on an iPad, and should be released on the iTunes store in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's the first part of the project, a short video focusing on me and my brewing exploits. Part Two to come....whenever I see it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otuW_3-3Fg8&w=480&h=390]

Thanks to Nick and Braden for this! (and to Brittany Burke for lending her hands & help to the bottling process)

Theater & Social Media

Anna Westendorf, a Journalism/Theatre student at Northeastern University, has been working on a project about theatre & new media, with a focus on the Huntington Theatre Company. We spoke a few times, since, well, that's the whole point of what I do here at the Huntington. It's not my most eloquent, seeing as I hadn't slept in about five days at that point (Thom no talk good on no sleep), but still, it's something. Thanks to Anna for taking the time to speak with us!

Read More

Burning Words

It was the first day back from winter break. As the first period bell rang, we begrudgingly sidled into Ms. Nitkin’s 11th grade double-period American Studies class. Nitkin was a feisty old Jewish lesbian from Cheshire, who had long since cemented her reputation as both the hardest and greatest teacher at the school. She didn’t take any bullshit (as she so eloquently told me when she handed back my very first essay with a big fat “D” sprawled across the page), but she made her teaching worthwhile, and always pushed you to your very best. She had given us the week between Christmas and New Years to read Huckleberry Finn, by native Nutmegger Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. Being assigned an entire novel to read over winter break always seemed cruel and unfair, but we did as we were told, and came to that first period class ready to discuss the book and bear Nitkin’s sardonic, witty wrath.

Once we’d all settled down — a good five minutes after the late bell rang — Ms. Nitkin stood up from her desk, hardly taller than she was when sitting down, and made her first declaration to the class: “Nigger. There, I said. Now that that’s out of the way, I hope you all read Huck Finn,” and proceeded with her usual four-question verbal quiz, just to make sure we actually read the book, instead of skimming SparkNotes.

After the quiz, Ms. Nitkin told us a bit of the history of the book’s censorship, as a means of launching us off into a class discussion. Almost immediately, and with much less arguing and shouting than was typically expected of us, the class came to several unanimous decisions: yes, the book uses the word “Nigger,” no, it’s not a very nice word to use, and yes, it was still historically accurate. This set us off on our debate — was Jim the true hero of the book, despite the fact that he was a “nigger?”

The lone black girl in the class — technically Jamaican-American, not African — raised her hand for the first time. Ms. Nitkin called on her to speak, and with seething vitriol she declared her disgust for that word and the shame it brought upon her people. Once again, the rest of the class agreed, and genuinely sympathized as best we could.

But she carried on, spewing vile about how terrible it was for Jim to be called such a thing. Still we all continued to agree, just as we had at the start of the class. She insulted Mark Twain’s worth as an author, and the educational and historical value of the book because of this. Ms. Nitkin tried several times to change the topic, re-iterating that, although the rest of us were white, we were still on her side.

The girl continued her rant, or argument, or declaration, or whatever else it may have been, well into the middle of the second period of the class, interfering with the instructional time allotted to another teacher. The next day, Ms. Nitkin brought in an entirely new book for us to read — this time with only three days to do it. In her final year as a teacher before retirement, Ms. Nitkin changed her curriculum for the first and only time, in effort to satiate the outraged student.

I can’t remember anything about that book we read next, but I sure as hell remember Huck Finn.