WRITING
My most recent book The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas (Fall 2016) is about the folklore, history, and current practice of the Krampus tradition. The LA Times described it as “gleefully erudite,” remarking that it “deserves to become a classic,” so that’s nice. (See book video trailer below). More: Amazon Author Page.
My other book, Offbeat Food, Adventures in an Omnivorous World, documents strange foods, culinary customs and culinary history. Nice things were said about it too. The San Francisco Chronicle mentioned the writer’s “gift for warped humor.” I was also a contributing writer for Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society, a chronicle of the sister lodge of our Los Angeles Cacophony Society.
The work I’ve done as a journalist likewise angled in on fringy cultural territory. You can find some articles for magazines such as Maxim, FHM, and Juxtapoz here and for The Los Angeles Times here. I had an occasional column for the now defunct New Times LA, which also covered local curiosities. More recently, my writing has appeared on websites such as Boing Boing, Atlas Obscura, and Laughing Squid.