The morning I arrived at the Best Western Plus Palm Desert, another plane had fallen out of the sky, and 114 bodies crashed into a horse farm in Kentucky. It was understandable that this had stirred the conference attendees, themselves predisposed to long thoughts about the end. I read that the brace position—legs hugged, head down—was designed by ‘flight chiropractors’ to deliver a quick and painless death, said a man in the lobby. Airlines don’t want paraplegic lawsuits, he punchlined. Everyone else laughed, so I frowned.
All around me were...
This morning, the director said that by six p.m. I must produce a concrete cast of a vole burrow. They film at sunrise tomorrow and need the burrow today, as they have roped in a zoologist who will take the night to evaluate my work. The movie has to do with the endless human striving for satisfaction. Its protagonist is a young woman prone to buying things in attempts to better her life. Recently,...
It was a yakiniku joint in the loosest sense of the term, like no other yakiniku I’d ever seen before. Meat, vegetables, sauces so glistening and perfect they were on a different level than ordinary food, and when I bit in, everything was so good my face went stupid, I just couldn’t help it. And it wasn’t only meat. They had things like uni, salmon roe, truffle eggs over rice. Each grill table was...
