As some of you may remember, Animated Meat first came to life in 2008 as a way to document some sights that managed to slip through the cracks of most popular travel websites. You may also remember that the original website was built on Apple's now defunct iWeb. From there, it migrated over to WordPress where it met an untimely demise at the hands of Russian hackers. Many of those old, pre-2012 entries have found a new home here in the Before the Now section. I would consider these posts as my starting place as a writer, probably comparable to a musician's first demo tapes. They are very rough, but I took them all seriously and wrote each one with passion. While I would like to believe that I have matured in my abilities as a writer, it is my hope that I carry this same blind passion into all of my new efforts.

Powell's Books - Originally Published 2008

March 30, 2019

Life is full of moments where a person is dealt a card that serves to change his perspective. I remember once in junior high school hearing one of my friends tell me, “Man, I hate reading”.

Hate reading? He might as well have said that he hated breathing. Unfortunately, I have found out that the non-readers outnumber the readers. Does this spell our doom as a society? Play it out over a couple more generations and then we’ll talk.

In the future, archeologists may sift through the remnants of a place like Powell’s and try to figure out just what we were up to with objects filled with paper and funny shapes printed on the pages. But in the meantime, Powell’s is king. And by king, I mean that they occupy an entire city block and have the distinction of the world’s largest used bookstore.

If you consider yourself a reading enthusiast, I recommend that you stop. The day I went, they didn’t have any Edward Bunker or Charles Bukowski in stock. Such is life.

Bookman - Originally Published 2010

March 1, 2019

The longer I live, the more I realize that HG Wells was right about everything. Case in point: the Eloi. You don’t know who they are? That’s because you don’t read. Here’s a little background. In “The Time Machine” there’s a group of people descended from humans. They lack curiosity and have developed into an alliterate group.

Face it. That’s us in another twenty years. Our children will have no curiosity and will be fatten and eaten by the Morlocks. But don’t distress. That’s still a ways off. In the meantime, head over to Bookman in Orange and try to divert the course of history. Bookman is a great used/new bookstore. They have a great selection and a knowledgeable staff. I cling to this place much like Ishmael clung to Queequeg’s coffin.