• March (3 Volumes) by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Ayden and Nate Powell. 

A graphic-novel/autobiography of Civil Rights pioneer John Lewis, who was present at the Selma "Bloody Sunday" march in 1965, who worked with Martin Luther King and has served in Congress since 1981. March won both the Eisner Award and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the first graphic novel ever to do so. Illustrated in haunting black and white, told like a great legend from America's past that feels, hauntingly like America's present. 

Similar to: Maus, Persepolis. 
 

• Vow of Celibacy by Erin Judge 

A hilariously joyous debut novel about a woman deciding to forgo sex and how this lines up in her relationship history. The kind of book you find yourself sneaking 3 pages over breakfast because it's so much fun and you feel you are living a grimmer life without it.  

Similar to: Waiting to Exhale if one character manifested the traits of all four friends. 
 

• Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau

Fella in semi-famous 90s indie rock band finds time travel portal in closet that can take you back to the great concerts of your past. Loses best friend in portal. Enlists physicist to help him retrieve friend. Falls in love with physicist. Somehow manages to be a music book, science fiction and a love story. Another book that seems glued open in your hands because you simply cannot stop reading it. 

Similar to: Dr. Who, genders reversed,  meets High Fidelity. 
 

• Harmless Medicine by Justin Chin

2016 began with the death of the great Justin Chin, poet, essayist, a brilliant talent and inspiration to me personally. It had been far too long since I had read any of his seven books so I started over at the beginning: His second collection of poetry Harmless Medicine is my favorite, both political, personal, vulnerable and, as much, just a plain old breathtaking use of the English language. Great for carrying around with you when you need a quick 2 page reminder of just how beautiful words can be. 

Similar to: A Keith Haring mural rendered in text. 
 

• Party of One: A Memoir in 20 Songs by Dave Holmes.

Dave Holmes was an MTV VJ in the 90s. A gay, catholic kid from St. Louis who found his way professionally by representing mainstream pop culture to kids all over America. You may have read Holmes in Esquire or listened to his podcast and know his snappy warm voice from there.

If you don't, start with this book. You'll be reading about the life of someone you definitely want to be your new smartest best friend, one who is eager to share how much he knows about pop culture which will surely be more than you.And you'll want to hear much more.  

Similar to: Dan Savage meets Chuck Klosterman than has lunch with How Stella Got Her Groove Back. 

Tips and tricks for how to love music, movies and book without feeling overwhelmed by them. 

1. Know your method and stick to it. I write best listening to music with an object near my left hand (a pen, a notebook, coffee cup). I never read, listen to or watch two examples of the same artist's work in a row. I don't know why and it doesn't matter. I found out it these methods work to keep me creating and appreciating culture at a steady clip. So I don't ask questions. 

Finding your best methods takes time, effort, experimenting and learning from those experiments. But once you've zeroed in on a way, that's your way. Don't torture yourself over "why."

 2. Catalog only if easy and useful.  I use Goodreads to keep track of my books, Discogs for my vinyl records. Both have kept me from buying something twice and remembering work by artists I admire but haven't checked out yet. Both are dead easy and quick to learn to use.

I don't catalog my DVDs because they fail these two rules: I can't find a need to catalog DVDs nor an easy program to do it. 

Cataloging is not its own reward. Don't make busy work for yourself. Do it if its adds something to your experience with the thing you are cataloguing. 

3. Sit in the back row. Lately when going to the movies, I've been sitting in the back row: low traffic, same visibility (I feel no need for the screen to fill my entire field of view as though its an oncoming train), easy to go to the bathroom and leave quickly at film's end. Try it. 

4. The 4 issue rule. If you have more than 4 issues piled up of a magazine, get rid of it. You won't miss them and having them around is torment you bring upon yourself. And why do that?  

Pop! Hacks! are a feature of my newsletter The Smoke Signal, which comes out twice a month. Subscribe if ya like. 

The last few years at sunrise on New Years Day, I've gotten up at read Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Ring Out, Wild Bells." This time I decided to read it aloud. 

 Setting intentions and whatnot.  

Had I felt about the Civil War as I felt about “Back to the Future,” this was my visit to Fort Sumter, Gettysburg and the Appomattox Courthouse all at once. And it was the first time I realized that although we see movies as distant, expensive objects made the year before by people we will never know, they were often born in the same world that we pass through every day — they weren’t beamed to us from a far-off kingdom, but lived here, among us, in places that belonged to us, too. Their permanence could be on celluloid or server farm, in the culture at large and in our own memory, but also in concrete, soil and steel.

On the occasion of the great movie's 30th birthday, I look at the time I tried to find the real Hill Valley. 

In February of last year, I mentioned I'd started on a new book called Brat Pack America, about locations made famous by 80s teen movies (Shermer Illinois, the Galleria Mall, the Goondocks and so forth). I predicted that book would be out by this fall. In actuality, it will come out next summer. 

That does mean, however, that it's done. At least the initial draft. Written, sent, and being edited as we speak. I'll get it back soon and be revising and editing this summer. 

Much work left to be done but the hard part's over. And I couldn't be happier

I recently spoke to Dave Goelz, the mind, voice and puppet hand behind The Great Gonzo, Zoot the Sax Player, and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew about his history with Jim Henson and his merry band of puppet pranksters.

The interview ran in Salon this past wekeend.  My favorite question:

What is Gonzo?

[laughs] We didn’t know. [Muppet head writer] Jerry Juhl wanted to answer the question, so he wrote “Muppets from Space” (1999), which revealed that Gonzo was an alien. Later, Frank Oz insisted that was just a movie, and we still don’t know what he is.

Read the whole interview.