from new zealand via germany

My friend Amy writes: "Fellow dorks, I have found our king."

dorkismo t-shirts!

Available in S,M,L,XL. They are very cute I must say. $18, or $25 for the soft heather one. Please email me for information on how to order.

a terrific dork r.i.p.

Brendan Mullen died just a few days ago of a stroke. I knew him a little through his lovely companion, Kateri Butler, a dear friend. I was very, very proud and thrilled that he liked Dorkismo ... surprised he'd read it, even, he was such a busy guy. I say a terrific dork because, groovy as he was (c'est à dire, ridiculously,) he really did not give two pins if anyone thought so or not. His enthusiasms were powerful and infectious, and he had the most winning expression of pop-eyed amazement I've ever seen, which would cross his pale, lively, mobile face about five times a minute. I liked him such a lot, and am very sorry he's gone.

A lot of tributes to him have been posted recently, and this is my favorite one.

Yogurt-tub musical splendor.

Captain Kirk is climbing the mountain

(He wants to make love to the mountain.)

steve almond, candydork

Candyfreak : A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Steve Almond is gloriously obsessed with candy, but this book isn't really about candy. It's more like a series of essays about (1) obsessives--really dorky obsessives, actually, which is why I was so attracted to it--and (2) the sad state of our destructive, oppressive corpocracy; it's a very political book. But these topics are sweetened with an absolute ton of candy.

Mr. Almond's style is super modern, self-deprecatingly confessional in the manner of Franzen or Wallace, rather than in the more stand-up, Sedaris way. Those who like this sort of thing will be pleased, and those who don't, won't. I myself love Almond's discursiveness, his candor and hyperbole. He's very funny, as well, and thoughtful; and though one grows rather tired of rants against the Evil Corporation, it can't be denied that the candy industry has been decimated by those very villains, as what hasn't?

The biggest treat here, surprisingly, is Almond's near-miraculous gift for food writing. I'm a cookbook collector and a pretty keen home cook, and for reals, this guy's food writing is quite up to the standard of Jonathan Gold or Ruth Reichl. I am very serious about this. He is so good that I hadn't even finished the book before barreling online to order a ton of the candy he describes, I kid you not. Here's an example:

Her bite was smooth and concerted--there was an obvious density at play here--though interrupted by two muted snaps, both of which caused her a quarter-moment of anguish, followed by a twinge of delight, registered as a flushing upon her cheeks. She moaned. It was a lovely thing to hear.

This reaction was, in my view, restrained [...:] There was caramel, obviously, but also roasted almonds and nuggets of dark chocolate. It was draped in a thin layer of milk chocolate. The interplay of tastes and textures was remarkable: the teeth broke through the milky chocolate shell, sailed through the mild caramel, only to encounter the smoky crunch of the almonds, and finally, the rich tumescence of the dark chocolate [...:] The sweetness of the milk chocolate rushed across the tongue, played against the musky crunch of the nut, then faded. The bite finished with an intense burst of dark chocolate, softened by the buttery dissolution of caramel ...

View all my reviews >>

(another goodreads review ...)

links, reviews and whatnot

articles online

Lethem v. Wood: Whose Fault Is It, Anyway? for The Awl
Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library, for The Awl
The Vicious Trademark Battle Over 'Keep Calm And Carry On', for The Awl
Wikipedia And The Death Of The Expert, for The Awl
Inception review for The Awl
Avatar review for The Awl
well anyway, here is all my stuff for The Awl

"Poster Boys", New York Times, November 2, 2011

How Video Game Deaths Help Us Live, for Kotaku
I Was Long the Terror and Scourge of Mario Land. The Stalin of Marios. for Kotaku

notes on Roberto Bolaño's 2666
The Wonder of wallace-l, for Infinite Summer

with David Roth

Psychotic jest and infinite reactions: How David Foster Wallace didn’t invent the Internet’s voice, for Nieman Journalism Lab
Adam Gopnik And The Bourgeois Guillotine, for The Awl

interviews with maria bustillos

Dorkisma: an interview with Maria Bustillos
Erin Stropes, selfpublishingreview.com

The Art of Love with Lucia, regarding Act Like a Gentleman, Think Like a Woman

Chariots of the Pods? appearance on the Sarcastic Voyage Podcast

An Interview with Maria Bustillos
Marie Mundaca, hipsterbookclub.com

reviews of dorkismo: the macho of the dork

"[...] written with such delightful exuberance, familiar chattiness and obvious love for all things dork, you just want to eat it up with a spoon. Dorkismo celebrates the dorks among us, and the dork in all of us; and if you've never been a dork, you will so wish to be one, after reading this charming book. Maria Bustillos welcomes everyone under the vast and open-hearted dork umbrella."
Christie Mellor, author of The Three-Martini Playdate

"Dorkismo: the Macho of the Dork is pure gold. Don't just grab it for the David Foster Wallace chapter (good as it is) but for the celebration of everything that is dork."
Nick Maniatis, The Howling Fantods

"I'm a big ol' dork. Have been since childhood. But never really knew what a badge of honor the title was. Maria Bustillos's brilliant Dorkismo has convinced me once and for all to stop hiding my dork light under a bushel. The book is by turns serious and hysterical, and all the while engagingly written and with an important point to make: the beauty of the dork is her ability to be herself even in the face of what everyone else thinks -- and if we had a little more of that in the world, we'd all be better off. Two dork thumbs, way up."
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, author of The Anxiety of Obsolescence: The American Novel in the Age of Television

"Like the best American intellectuals (e.g., Tony Kushner or Mark Twain), Bustillos is less impressed by how smart she is (very!) than by how entertaining it is to think and say. Dorkismo is an intelligent, passionate and witty celebration of open-hearted goofiness (what Henry Fielding might call "benevolence"). In Bustillos' world view, the nemesis of "dorkismo" is crippling self-consciousness of the hip variety. If you've ever experienced such a thing (I could name my own name), then this book is your ticket to liberation, that is to say, self-acceptance. She wants us to love the things we love, without embarrassment, and get our kicks in joy instead of judgment. I say: Read it!"
Michael Mullen, The Size Queens

grandma's boy

This irresistible story of the invincibility of an open heart is marred only by the viewer's doubts that you could still be cogent even if smoking that much weed. Otherwise the dialogue is gorgeous, and what awe-inspiring performances from everybody from Shirley Jones (buh-whaa!?) to the extraordinary Nick Swardson and Joel David Moore!!!! It got terrible reviews from almost everybody except AO Scott! Okay it is horribly vulgar, and dumb on purpose. And it is beautiful, charming, funny and inspiring, no lie.



(How much do clothes cost in the Matrix!? Snort.)

Please go and Netflix this movie forthwith.

about . contact

Hello there. I am Maria Bustillos, the author of Act Like a Gentleman, Think Like a Woman and Dorkismo, the Macho of the Dork. I can be found hither and yon all over the Internets.

email Maria Bustillos

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Looking for ebook versions of my books?--please try Smashwords

Dorkisma: interview in Self-Publishing Review

YAY and thank you to Erin Stropes for this really fun interview. I quite like "Dorkisma" as a nickname, heh.

hilarious commentary on the 1980s

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Bdling!

will cuppy rules.

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled by Will Cuppy



If only this hilariously droll send-up of historical figures were used as a middle-school textbook, every kid would adore history and go on to become a genius. Cuppy worked on it for sixteen years; the history is meticulously researched, though his treatment of it is far from stuffy. The book was published posthumously in 1950, so you'd think the humor would be dated. Not so. It holds up spectacularly well. "Egypt has been called the Gift of the Nile," he begins. "Once every year the river overflows its banks, depositing a layer of rich alluvial soil on the parched ground. Then it recedes and soon the whole countryside, as far as the eye can reach, is covered with Egyptologists."

View all my reviews >>

(This is my first goodreads review. Kind of fun.)

nobody believed her.

Well I guess we believe you NOW.