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).
I recently did an interview with Vagabond Theatre Group, who will be producing a staged reading of my play TRUE BELIEVERS in just a few weeks. As to be expected, I am incredibly charming and witty throughout. Check it out!
Look, Ma! I'm in a comic book!
So apparently there are some people out there who are absolutely disgusted by the sight of attached earlobes. (I assume that these are the same people that experience actual physical revulsion at the sound of the word "moist") (you know who you are) Still, it got me thinking a bit about bigotry, and the features that people are born with that lead to discrimination. Thus, instead of stooping to making fun of Jeph Loeb again, I decided to write a short fiction piece about a world in which those with attached earlobes suffer from the same kind of humiliation, discrimination, and hate as some of the more persecuted minority groups today. I guess what I'm trying to say is, attached earlobes is the new Black. I mean, not that — I don't mean like — I'm not a racist, but — oh, forget it.
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!
It's been a busy week 'round this here parts, so no brand new post over at Five By Five Hundred. Instead, and in honor of James Joyce's body of work becoming public domain, I've shared an oldie-but-goodie that I wrote about 5 years ago, inspired by the first and last lines of Joyce's magnum opus, Finnegans Wake (no, I haven't read the whole think, but I've read some of it). It's a little avant-garde, but it's one I'm pretty proud of from back in the day.
Here's a new teaser trailer I put together for our upcoming production of GOD OF CARNAGE at the Huntington. The show won the Tony and Olivier Awards in New York last year for Best Comedy, and it's definitely something worth something. It's a quick, 70 minute romp of chaos about two couples in Brooklyn who come together after their children get in a fight on a playground. Hilarity ensues. (There's also a film version, directed by Roman Polanski, simply called "Carnage" that's playing at some small arthouse cinemas around the country right now) The show is directed by Danny Goldstein, who most recently directed the Godspell revival that's currently playing on Broadway, so that's cool, too. Previews start this Friday (when we also have our totally awesome 35 Below after party with booze and a live band and all sorts of fun stuff) and runs through February 5. Anyway, here's the video. Woof Woof.
I started homebrewing hard cider when I found out that my good friend and drinking buddy Charles had an allergy to hops (which I still assert is the most ridiculous allergy on the planet, even moreso than peanuts. Hops literally are not used for anything except for beer and the occasional tea! But I digress). Of course it was just a matter of time before another drinking partner of mine came forth with a different problem: celiac disease. Meaning no gluten. Meaning no beer.
Okay, yes, sure, gluten-free beers do exist, but unfortunately, they're not very good. And so, my good friend Jeff Marcus enlisted in my aid to help him create a homebrewed gluten-free beer that was exactly good! Something hopefully more hoppy and full-bodied (gluten-free beers are notoriously sweet and light-bodied), possibly even eventually something darker like a porter or stout (but that's not for a while).
It's currently way too early to deduce if our wild experiment was actually successful, but I'll keep you updated as the fermentation process moves along. In any case, here's the recipe for our Gluten-free HoneyHop Pale Ale (which is the name I just came up with right now and isn't very good).
That's "Happy New Years" in the Irish. Or, more literally, it's kind of "A Prosperous Year Upon All Of You" but it's the same gesture. Anyway, here we are. 2012. You know what that means. I encourage you to live every day like it's volume 3 of The Invisibles.
(...you *have* read The Invisibles, yes?)
Today on FiveByFiveHundred.com, I weave a fantastical tale about a New Years romance gone horribly, horribly awry, a yarn which may or may not be based on someone whom I actually met at a party this weekend and may or may not have wanted to inflict violence upon because of the incredibly douche-tastic things that s/he may or may have said ("Like, you can totally just tell like a lot about someone if they smoke like American Spirits, right?" OH MY GOD SHUT UP).
Okay. That's it. I feel better now. I swear.
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:
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)
It's that time of year again, when every website and blog and news outlet dials up their completely arbitrary criterium and publishes their "Top 10" lists for the year. This year I finally pulled off something I've been meaning to do for a while: a Top 10 list of "Top 10" lists of the year. A comprehensive list of the best of the best of the "Best Of" lists. ME SO META.
Well so like I had this totally awesome for my writing project today right? But then I somehow wound up with this vicious stomach bug and spent the last 48 hours either (a) on the toilet, (b) with my head in a bucket, or (c) both (not to the mention the awful fever and chills that came along with it). So you'll forgive me for my lack of progress. (I'm feeling better now, thanks)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAwf6wnNNBw&w=420&h=315]
Just a fun little haiku this week, a silly little visual that came up in conversation while driving through DC. And ya know, 'cause...ninjas...haiku...it all makes sense.
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition for high school students, encouraging them to explore and perform poetry. The Education department at the Huntington Theatre Company moderates the Massachusetts State Competition (the winner of which go on to the National Finals in DC). Here's a little video I put together about the program: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYqA6Ls5pxs&w=500&h=284]
This weekend, I had the pleasure of accompanying Cosmic Banditos on their first gig in Baltimore, Maryland. I filled in on Woodrow and lap steel for a set at the annual Music4Change concert. Here's some video (more after the break) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRGWssnIdbk]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZxpVI8KTg]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwE-XiN3UYE]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOIlFYzeKMk]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vbrKYkE7mA]
Continuing my tradition of free selfless services on FiveByFiveHundred.com, this week I help you write your cover letter for your new job/internship/girlfriend/whatever! You're welcome, by the way.
Drinking! Family! Revelry! Tryptophan! All the things that make Thanksgiving such a wonderful holiday! But then — what comes after? The barren wasteland full of angry zombies, near-comatose after having gorged on too much flesh and blood. So basically, after dinner time, Thanksgiving becomes kind of a post-apocalyptic landscape, the kind you see in Zombie films or Mad Max. You can figure out where this is going, can't you?
We're two-thirds of the way through the annual National Novel Writing Month, and over at Five By Five Hundred, I've decided to offer you a little help in finishing your novel. Don't worry, you don't have to thank me. I did it all out of the kindness of my heart. This 500-word novel excerpt will fit into any and everyone's great book-to-be, regardless of the genre or subject matter. Seriously. No one will even notice that all of you have the exact same three paragraphs somewhere in the book. Go ahead. Take it. It's all yours.
The second video feature that I produced based on Evan M. Wiener's Captors, which is currently having its world premiere at the Huntington (before a highly-likely Broadway production). This one focuses on the personal history of Adolf Eichmann, "the architect of the Holocaust," and his relationship with Peter Malkin, the Israeli Mossad agent who captured him in Argentina. It's kind of like a frenemy-bromance, between a Nazi and an Israel. Don't believe me? Check out the video below. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhGgFWUrNG4&w=500&h=284]
Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to do #NaNaWriMo, but sadly, I never get very far. November is always an incredibly busy time of year me, and it's not like I'm not writing or working on other things; it's just a difficult time to focus on cranking out those 50,000 words. Still, I use the time I would otherwise dedicate to #NaNoWriMo to work on any of those other projects, including those kind of horror-punk-rock-young-adult story I've been throwing around (tentatively titled "Last Caress" after my favorite song by The Misfits). Over at Five By Five Hundred, I've included a small excerpt, comparing the local punk rock scene to the creation of a living Frankenstein-esque monster (yes, I realize that Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster, but it would sound kind of ridiculous if I called it a 'Frankenstein's monster-esque monster,' right?)
(side note, "Last Caress" by the Misfits is also, without competition, the single greatest pop song ever written about killing babies. Just, uh, just sayin')
The first in a series of short behind-the-scenes videos I made, focusing on the world premiere of Captors by Evan M. Wiener. Captors tells the true(-ish) story of the capture of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann by a group of Israeli secret agents in Buenos Aires in 1960. And, well, everything else you need to know, you can probably find out by watching the video! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZACW2FH1Qyk&w=500&h=284]
Captors plays November 11 — December 11 at the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue, with plans to move to Broadway sometime later. Check it out!
In a tradition that began back in January at the Winter Beer Jubilee in Boston, I recently posted the second iteration of my "Haiku Beer Review" series, which is precisely what it sounds like — beer reviews, in haiku form (I also try to tweet Haiku Beer Reviews whenever I try a new brew at a bar). These reviews began as voice memos that were taken by my friends and I at the Mass Brewer’s Fest at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston on September 2, 2011, but I only just got around to compiling the voice memos and turning them into haikus. Anyway, if you like beer and/or poetry and/or drinking, I'd advise you check it out (along with, hopefully, some new beers)!