File 13 »

ON NOT FINISHING BOOKS

Brad Goins February 7, 2014 Comments Off on ON NOT FINISHING BOOKS

I recently stopped reading a book titled Flames Over Tokyo on page 222. It wasn’t that the book was especially boring or anything of that sort. It was just that I figured I’d learned

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EVERYTHING MUST BE SOCIAL

Brad Goins January 23, 2014 Comments Off on EVERYTHING MUST BE SOCIAL

Everything Must Be Social It doesn’t take very keen powers of observation to notice that many people in Lake Charles spend large amounts of time sitting in chairs on their front porches. When I

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VICTORIAN ROMANCE

Brad Goins January 8, 2014 Comments Off on VICTORIAN ROMANCE

In two great mid-20th century novels — Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and Robert Stone’s Hall of Mirrors — characters state that they only feel relief when they hold their lovers. These

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ON STUPID SONGS

Brad Goins December 22, 2013 Comments Off on ON STUPID SONGS

The morning I wrote this essay, I was in my still-dark house preparing to give the dog his first walk of the day. As I did so, I sang an especially stupid song —

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ON LOU REED

Brad Goins December 4, 2013 Comments Off on ON LOU REED

Among the musicians of my time, there were always three that — for me — were predominant in popular music: Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Now one of those three has died,

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THE HIPPIE MENACE

Brad Goins November 20, 2013 Comments Off on THE HIPPIE MENACE

The great catastrophe began on Sept. 28, 1968, when the television show The Mod Squad debuted on the ABC network. Before The Mod Squad, hippies were marginal creatures, who poured lighter fluid on electric guitars

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ON DICTATORS

Brad Goins September 19, 2013 Comments Off on ON DICTATORS

In his most recent comedy, Sasha Baron Cohen plays an especially vile dictator — the murderous Gen. Aladeen, who lords it over the mythical Republic of Wadiya. At one point in the film, one

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On Writing For Lagniappe

Brad Goins September 5, 2013 Comments Off on On Writing For Lagniappe

I started working at Lagniappe on the second day of 2000. On the first day of 2000, I sat in my Lake Charles apartment listening to the news that George Harrison had been stabbed

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On Haters And Hipsters

Brad Goins August 15, 2013 Comments Off on On Haters And Hipsters

I actually don’t read anything, because I feel like the haters really like to hate out loud and that people who love sometimes love quietly. So I don’t really listen or look at anything.

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On Clichés

Brad Goins August 1, 2013 Comments Off on On Clichés

Wazzup? Hey, is it hot enough for you? I think I wrote another File 13 about clichés a long time ago. But I always say, if something is worth saying once, it’s worth saying

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