Posted on January 25, 2010 by Alex Halpern
He sat on the back porch in a red wooden chair next to his father. The porch was screened in and vines curled around up around the sides. Beyond it was pasture, still green but unfertilized. Byron Whitaker had grown up on this back porch and in that field. Then he’d gone away to war and now he was back.
Continue ReadingPosted on January 25, 2010 by Alex Halpern
I, like a lot of my generation, have an unhealthy fascination with the end of the world. Every generation has its bogeyman, be it vampires, werewolves, ghosts or what have you. For us, it’s the zombie, that massive horde of putrefied flesh, those broken teeth looking to bite and convert an unwilling victim into another mindless drone.
Continue ReadingPosted on January 19, 2010 by Alex Halpern
I’ve been called a murderer and a saint. I don’t know how they found out about me but my tires have been slashed and some assholes from PETA left a pretty terrible note on my windshield. I don’t hate animals, I never have. I’m not a sociopath. I just recognize that life is finite and it doesn’t do much good to lose any sleep over it.
Continue ReadingPosted on January 6, 2010 by Alex Halpern
Some new fiction to start off the new year!
Continue ReadingPosted on December 13, 2009 by Alex Halpern
I did not think a bleaker portrait could be painted of humanity than Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer-winning novel, The Road. Then I saw the movie.
Continue ReadingPosted on December 10, 2009 by Alex Halpern
I live in Northern California for a lot of reasons. One of them is the weather and that’s why this week has been such a rough surprise, what with temperatures in the thirties every night, forcing me to wear closed-toed shoes and a jacket over my sweatshirt.
Continue ReadingPosted on December 1, 2009 by Alex Halpern
Eight years of war for what? For three more years of war? For three more years of death and pointless waste and the rage of the fundamentalists and the antagonism of the Muslim world?
Continue ReadingPosted on November 28, 2009 by Alex Halpern
I was incredibly insulted when I found I was not invited to the State Dinner this last week. A night to honor the historic relationship between the United States and India and I, Alex Halpern, foremost champion of Indo-American relations have been left off the list?
Continue ReadingPosted on November 19, 2009 by Alex Halpern
It is no secret amongst the people close to me that my tastes in music and film run to the saccharine. I am a devotee of ballads and love songs and the kind of romantic comedies for which most men boast their disdain.
Continue ReadingPosted on November 14, 2009 by Alex Halpern
I know people that are unflappable. People that can take any news well, that can weather any storm. When they are fired from a job or hit by a truck they seem to suffer no ill side effects. They treat these things as simple, trivial facts of life. They are enlightened to the utmost. I am not one of these people.
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