My first professional work, for many years, was in journalism. I was the film critic for the alt-weekly Nightlife for well over a decade, the editor of The Carbondale Times for a few years, and a contributor to City Pages for another decade. Most of what I wrote for those first 20 years has vanished into the Internet, debatably for better or worse, but I still have plenty of non-fiction floating around the virtual newsstand. I write a lot about movies and books, but also about sports, opera, and whatever interests me in the moment. Below is a very non-comprehensive list of my non-fiction work, the vast majority of which is available to read for free.

John Dillinger Keeps Dying At Chicago’s Biograph Theater (Bright Wall/Dark Room)

Ask Dad, He Knows: It’s A Wonderful Life’s Legacy of Failure and Fatherhood (Bright Wall/Dark Room)

Why is the opera singer who partly inspired a character in Citizen Kane buried in a Minneapolis cemetery? (Star Tribune)

The Things He’s Carried (Minnesota Monthly)

Goodbye, Poor White Trash: Hollywood Heck In A Small Town (In the Mood)

Minnesota’s Drive-In Theaters Are Hanging On (Minnesota Monthly)

To Fool Or Not to (April) Fool? (Minnesota Monthly)

The Guilt Of the Magi (Minnesota Monthly)

Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ As An Opera (Bloody Disgusting)

The Minnesota Vikings’ Stars Defined Themselves By Their Turkey-Eating Styles (Zone Coverage)