Email Author Michael Leaverton

2011 Stories by Michael Leaverton

• Proopsian Technology

  published December 28, 2011

  Podcasts — WTF? For years, talk radio hosts were the only people telling us to listen to their podcasts, and we were all, “Suck it,... More >>

• Eating My Religion

  published December 21, 2011

  Kung Pao Kosher Comedy has happened so many times it's practically a religious institution, with its own codes and rituals, even prayers... More >>

• The Church of Start Shopping

  published December 14, 2011

  Consumer spending may stimulate the larger economy, but screw the larger economy. We’d rather stimulate the small, sad economy of someone... More >>

• You Can’t Fight in Here! This Is the War Room!

  published December 7, 2011

  Dark Room Productions has a 50-megaton death wish: It’s presenting Dr. Strangelove: Live! Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to... More >>

• It Was All a Dream

  published November 30, 2011

  Most mysteries, written at the speed of sound, suffer in lazy, cheap, and bad writing, which has its charms, mostly in the fun of spotting all the... More >>

• Pencils Down

  published November 30, 2011

  As National Novel Writing Month draws to a close, some of you are quietly proofreading and rechecking verb tenses, while others are manically... More >>

• Great Expectations of Indulgence

  published November 30, 2011

  Many are having a rough go of it this year -- foreclosed upon, unemployed, tear-gassed. We recommend a hot meat pie, plum pudding if you must,... More >>

• The Old Guard

  published November 23, 2011

  Imagine if the San Francisco Giants won three more championships by the end of the decade. We'd have one of the greatest sports dynasties,... More >>

• The Old Guard

  published November 23, 2011

  Imagine if the San Francisco Giants won three more championships by the end of the decade. We'd have one of the greatest sports dynasties,... More >>

• Eat Your Own Dog Food

  published November 9, 2011

  Quite often, Steve Chiappetti makes a nice chicken burger topped with double-smoked bacon and cheddar cheese, bends over, and gives it to his dog.... More >>

• Ke11y’s Cove

  published November 2, 2011

  Despite San Francisco’s coastal location, most of you have successfully ignored surfing ever since you moved here. This week, that ends. The... More >>

• … Or Die Trying

  published October 26, 2011

  We should all go out as well as William Ellsworth Robinson did: In 1918, the legendary American magician (with the stage name Chung Ling Soo --... More >>

• Clash of the Traditions

  published October 19, 2011

  In 2009, So You Think You Can Dance featured traditional Russian folk dancing (don’t ask us how we know this) and it bombed,... More >>

• Hammer Time

  published October 12, 2011

  Litquake is rife with quality literary events, but organizers understand that sometimes you just want to hold a beer and watch wrestling. Hence:... More >>

• True Grit

  published October 5, 2011

  At today’s live art contest, one noted cinematographer, two noted artists, one noted chef, one noted designer, and one noted arts manager are... More >>

• Now Appearing: Practically Everyone

  published October 5, 2011

  During the run of Litquake, there’s sometimes a tendency (never by us!) to be timid in the early offerings, babying the reserves of... More >>

• Snakes on a Plane, Etc.

  published September 28, 2011

  Last Spring, the screams began, issuing from the playgrounds, the Whole Foods, the preschool drop-off curbs: Someone wrote something called Go... More >>

• The Pencil Is Mightier Than ... ?

  published September 28, 2011

  A lot of artists use Staedtler pencils — the German company Staedtler is legendary in pencil-making, dating back 350 years, with only rival... More >>

• Moving Parts

  published September 21, 2011

  The first time we visited the Cable Car Museum, we expected to see little more than a few dioramas and maybe a ceramic dog — we’d been... More >>

• Dream On

  published September 14, 2011

  Whenever we hear about a new rock novel, we flinch, reliving the misery of Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street anew — what the hell... More >>

• The Outhouse on the Final Frontier

  published September 7, 2011

  If you never want to finish a particular novel, join a book club that’s reading that novel. This isn’t an adage, just a bit of wisdom we... More >>

• Man Up

  published September 7, 2011

  Perhaps you’ve been there: You’re at your girlfriend’s parents’ house, unexpectedly in charge of the grill, incinerating... More >>

• Strange New Worlds

  published August 31, 2011

  In 1969, in one of the final episodes of the original Star Trek series, the writers beamed hippies aboard the Enterprise. Hippies. In... More >>

• Rad as in Radical and Rad as in Badical

  published August 17, 2011

  For some people, having a baby is like climbing into a slingshot aimed toward mainstream culture, which is often a relief: No more foraging for... More >>

• Abby Normal

  published August 17, 2011

  When we first heard about Abigail, the rock opera about the Salem witch trials, we thought, This isn’t already a thing? GTFO!... More >>