Gordon Highland has done college radio, wedding videos, graphic design, short films, ad copy writing, photography, freelance work as a radio station engineer, commercial scripts, and home recording. He’s directed. He’s been in several bands, most recently the semi-acoustic duo Winebox. Rumor has it he’s been to the moon in a homemade rocket of his own design.
It might be tempting to say Gordon samples the arts as one might sample an hors d’oeuvres tray, but that sort of implies that there is no substance to the experience. On the contrary, …

Justin Nicholes, author of the novel Ash Dogs (Another Sky Press), has set up for himself quite a challenge with this debut offering. His protagonist, former high school football star and current Iraq war veteran, Marcus Green, has returned home from his tour of duty and must assimilate back into domestic life. The novel focuses on Marcus’s attempt at a simple, comfortable existence far removed from the rigors of war, which by design downplays the forward momentum present in most longer fiction works.
Because the novel focuses almost entirely on Marcus’s …

Alkaline Trio, who in 1998 reinvented the scene with their seminal debut, Goddammit, have carved out their own nihilist niche in the dank macabre corner of pungent pop-punk rock, seem more wiling than ever to step into greener pastures with their latest release Agony & Irony. Though much of the initial appeal of Alkaline Trio was their rawness—Matt Skiba’s heart-impaled-with-knives voice, the cleverly chaotic simplicity in Dan Andriano’s melodies—that harkened back to the punk fundamental of a few guys sounding like a wannabe band trying on the fly to figure …