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PEOPLE AND PLACES

The Peter Gammons Principle

He's the "Dean of Baseball Journalism." He's the "Unofficial Commissioner of Baseball." This is my "critique" of Gammons from the New York Press.

My Salon story of the boy who hacked his way to stardom on MTV! Archived here, in order to survive Salon's imminent death.

I really wanted to like the XFL. I really did. I normally like anything that irritates people as much as Vince McMahon does. But when I went to a game the XFL irritated me.

An aging English soccer star tries to hold on to his fading dream in the American bush leagues. Originally from Metro. This is the longer version.

I assess one Ronny Santana, actor, male stripper, all-around itinerant. From the Daily Yomiuri,1993.

I lived in Tokyo for 2 1/2 years. Now, benefit from the fruits of my experience! Go there yourself! From the MetroActive Web site.

The Big Dirt Napster

Returning yet again to the L.A. Weekly, I examine the state of stealing -- sorry, sharing -- music on line. Will the once-legendary Napster rise from the dead to lead the music industry into its digital future? (Spoiler Alert! I doubt it.) For that matter, will I even be able to get anyone from Napster on the phone?

They're Young! They're Hip! They're the CIA!

Beware spies bearing cash! Venture capital cash, in particular. In this story for Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly, I infiltrate the Agency's high-tech finance operation. There's also a sidebar.

Another L.A. Weekly piece, ruminating on the crash of the world's only supersonic commercial airliner and the end of the Jetsons era.

From the L.A. Weekly, another ahead-of-its-time story: MP3 and how the Internet will turn the evil, rotten music industry on its butt-ugly head. And it has happened, oh yes, it has.

From the New York Times Magazine: a chronicle co-written with John Whalen of how the TWA 800 "missile theory" made its way through the internet.

Regarding the preponderance of anti-celebrity sites on the Web. From the June, 97 issue of the late, lamented Internet Underground.

In which I become an outlaw by the act of viewing Star Wars: The Phantom Menace on a laptop. I am now on the lam from the Lucas Police.

I talk to the guy who puts the bugs in your system. Or at least the viruses. And he tells me why there's really nothing to worry about.

Dynamic Dialogue With Spectacular Stan

Not once, but twice have I personally conversed, transcribed and pontificated about the force behind such Marvel Comics icons as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk and, well, you know the rest. My 2001 interview is here and my 2000 piece is here. Excelsior!

Comic-book fanboys will recognize this as the infamous Grant Morrison/Fantastic Four "incest" interview. From my "Thwack" column on the dearly departed iFuse.com Web site. Another victim of the dotcom downturn.

After X-Men came out, as part of my duties as comic-book correspondent for iFuse.com, I bravely undertook to view a sampling of super-hero movies past. I did this, so you don't have to. Because that is just the type of human being I am.

One of the great mysteries of life -- solved! Here is what a comic-book script looks like. Except they're usually not written in HTML, but you get the idea. This is the script to the fourth and final issue of my 2003 Vertigo Comics mini-series series about teenage prostitutes, elephant spirituality and tourism gone awry in Bangkok.
 

Another example of how I write a comic-book script. This one's from The Big Book of Grimm, and is more of a traditional narrative story than the O.J. thing. But mercifully short!

And now, here's what a comic that I've written actually looks like once an artist gets his paws on said script. Also from The Big Book of Scandal!

 Votescam 2000

From the New York Press: the real election scandal is the voting machines themselves. I began covering this story 11 years ago.

Remember I said I began covering the voting story 11 years ago? Remember? Well, dammit, here's the story I wrote back then.

The Dope Stuff

The State of California, as of July 1, 2001, will no longer send minor drug criminals to the slammer. Well, that sounds like a good thing, right? Yup. Problem is, there's already a pretty good system for doing just that.

All the stuff THEY don't want you know. "They" would usually include the New York Times, but not this time. Check out this piece from the Sunday magazine.

Head transplant surgery! It's not for everyone. But is it right for you? From Wired magazine.

Six, count 'em six chapters from the smash-hit book. Plus, a never-before-seen bonus piece about the Internet being a tool of Satan and all. In Acrobat Reader ".pdf" format

 ...was killing this story, for reasons that still remain murky, and will forever now that the magazine is no more. The piece ultimately ran in the October, 1999 issue -- of FATE Magazine.

From the late, semi-lamented Web mag, iFuse.com (The "Popculprit" section), my account of Disinfo.Con 2000. I lived it. I was there.

The 1996, IllumiNet edition of Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Crimes deleted the introduction that appeared in earlier editions. Catch up on it here.