The previous version of this “about” section was simply a copy-and-paste filmography of actor Patrick Swayze. I was quite fond of it. Soon after its induction however, I was told this was a woefully inadequate (not to mention functionally inept) thing to put on one’s personal website. There’s no information, they said, no means by which hapless passersby should be able — for whatever strange reason — to contact me.

It’s a valid point, I suppose. But after putting in the email link and the perfunctory “home” button, I found there was all this white space I was now expected to fill. So here we are: just filling space.

I’m the editor of O’Dwyer’s magazine in New York. I write about politics and media news for www.odwyerpr.com. I also write a semi-weekly column on writing craft for LitReactor.com. Occasionally my short stories and essays make it into small journals, zines, blogs and news sites you’ve never heard of.

I enjoy writing. I also like reading, politics and collecting old records. I love Indian food and strong coffee. I am fascinated by the uncanny resemblance of third-world dictators to cast members of the Golden Girls.

The purpose of this blog is to write about pretty much whatever I feel like, whenever I feel like it. Some of the articles you’ll find here will be exclusive to this site; others are simply links to articles I’ve had published elsewhere. The purpose of this page, by contrast, is to fill up white space for no other reason than to cast some penumbra of purpose onto this page’s existence. Life then, it could be argued, is somewhat like what you see here: when reconciling the vast space at our disposal and its infinite possibilities, we scramble for centrality, for meaning, worth and purpose, and at a loss for answers attach to it a nonsensical succession of ramblings that soon become our canonized consensus of what greater things lie ahead. Really, aren’t we all just filling space?

Don’t mind me.

— Jon (October 2011)