Articles Written By Paul Ford
TMN Contributing Writer Paul Ford is the author of Gary Benchley, Rock Star, a novel that was originally serialized here on TMN. He was formerly an editor at Harper’s Magazine, was an occasional commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered, and is now sole proprietor of Ftrain.com (which has a Facebook group).
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The Non-Expert
Heaven Can Wait
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week, advice for a lovelorn atheist who wants to know if a Christian could love him back.
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Personal Essays
The Age of Mechanical Reproduction
When it comes to in-vitro fertilization, nothing is normal. Your world is upside-down. Your doctor compliments your wife on her monkeys. Then, when every dollar and exertion has gone toward a single hour of hope, it begins to snow.
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Behind the Scenes
The Beaver Post-Production
No one knows what will happen to The Beaver, Jodie Foster’s new film starring Mel Gibson, where Gibson plays a suicidal man whose life is changed by a hand puppet.
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The Non-Expert
Just Like Heaven
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we answer that eternal question: What happens after we die?
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Reviews
Six-Word Reviews of 1,302 SXSW Mp3s
In anticipation of the South by Southwest music festival, which begins today in Austin, Texas, more than a thousand acts—almost twice as many as last year—offered an mp3 to showcase their sound. We listened to them all.
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Reviews
Six-Word Reviews of 763 SXSW Mp3s
The South by Southwest music festival begins in Austin, Texas, today. Of the hundreds of acts hoping to break big, 763 have offered an mp3 of their still-unknown sound. We listen to them all, all the way through.
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The Non-Expert
How to Say I Love You
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we pull out all the stops to help a reader say “I love you,” in precisely 100 different ways.
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The Non-Expert
Lawyering
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we address a question thousands of young men and women grapple with each year: To law school or not to law school?
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Music
The Grass Is Blue, by Dolly Parton
I just discovered Dolly Parton's 1999 album The Grass Is Blue, a collection of sincere bluegrass interpretations of country classics. Sneering poseurs might shake their heads at Dolly, but they can...
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Movies
Preview of What Is It?
I have now watched the Quicktime preview to Crispin Glover's self-made, low-budget movie What Is It? at least a dozen times. Crispin is dressed like a chorus member from a...
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Music
No Business
No Business, Negativland's 25-year audiocollage project, soldiers on. Sure, it's familiar now--they're cutting up the music industry's words and putting them back together, going after file-sharing hypocrisy this time--but no...
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Gary Benchley, Rock Star
I Am Gary Benchley
In which the saga is revealed that bred Gary Benchley; inspired a circus of half-loving, half-betrayed fans; landed a book deal; and even—truly—forced a trip to the hospital after Benchley almost gave his author a heart attack.