Author: Jamie

Satan Comes to Oklahoma City
My ailing wife, Amy, had demanded that I take her to a Black Mass, a well-publicized one that would have meant aligning myself with Satan on local television. These people aren’t really Satanists, Amy explained. They’re blue-collar subculture types who’ve grown up and know their rights and want to thumb their noses at the judgy creeps who persecuted them growing up. Amy, who had seen more than her fair share of those creeps in her own youth, wanted to lend her support.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
October 30, 2014
Heavy Heart, Empty Heart
In 1963, back when it was still acceptable for poets to be openly, ferociously competitive, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s whorled Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan was still new and aesthetically suspect, the greatest poet of his day mounted the stage under Wright’s spiral ramp and inaugurated a reading series sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. Robert Lowell, a tall, elegant man of letters from an old New England family, read his own work to the crowd and then introduced a friend, “an underground poet still digging.” On cue, a stooped, heavily bearded, intoxicated man approached the lectern, and, in a peculiar, strangled voice, explained why it was proper for a trick-or-treating tot to use an expletive to curse the chairman of the First National Bank who’d dropped a polished apple into his sack and broke his cookie.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
October 18, 2014
American Outlaws
Hascia, a precocious biochemistry major (class of 1966) and the last person in world you’d ever expect to smuggle drugs, was about to tie the knot and settle down. Enter Barry, an extraordinarily gifted but roguish salesman and engineer who offered her an escape: come with me to Europe and never be bored (but beware, we’ll trample a few toes in the process). Together they left New York for Berlin, then Morocco, then a remote Spanish prison – a trip that would end up being the adventure of a lifetime.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
October 14, 2014
A (Quick) Trip Through Nepal
Like other journalists who have written at times about travel, I get many offers for press junkets from travel agencies. Many of them involve a luxurious stay, often in the Bahamas for some reason. I am not usually tempted.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
October 6, 2014
Wired: Interview with John Hanke
Alternate reality games existed before the iPhone, using email, fake ads, and even faxes to send players on clue hunts. But thanks to the smartphone, games now include geospatial triggers and social media integration, allowing players to seamlessly interact with one another and the world around them.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
July 23, 2014
Dallas Contemporary
Amy McGirk’s work featured on Dallas Contemporary’s tumblr.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
July 12, 2014
Amy McGirk’s Work in Art Focus Oklahoma
An interview with my wife, Amy McGirk, in the latest issue of Art Focus Oklahoma
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
July 1, 2014
The Surprisingly Strong Case for Colonizing Venus
The second planet from the Sun might seem like a nasty place to build a home, with a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead and an atmosphere so dense it would feel like being submerged beneath 3000 feet of water.
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
July 1, 2014
Oklahoma Today
Campfire cooking story in the July/August Oklahoma Today
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
June 30, 2014
WIRED: The Secret Rules of Asking for Money on Kickstarter
Your 3-D-printed, Internet-of-Things-connected, self-driving go-cart idea needs money to move ahead. Behold the formula for a successful crowdfunding campaign
Share this:
Share
Email
Print
Facebook
Twitter
Pocket
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Reddit
Tumblr
June 27, 2014