AMERICAN BANDWIDTH (blog posts and essays)
The United States between the 2004 election and the first 100 days of the Obama administration — its knights and knaves, its fears and joys, its new ironies and old habits, its capacity for change and transition — is topic A in this collection of essays and blog posts from a longtime observer of American life, politics and popular culture. A veteran reporter, essayist and critic, Michael E. Ross brings an incisive eye to presidential politics, press ethics and accountability, television news, activism in pop culture, the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and other issues.
In an often funny, always insightful collection of recent writing, the author offers takes on George Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Michael Richards, Apple, Rupert Murdoch, FEMA, Mitt Romney, the GEICO cavemen, Michael Jackson and others in the national life.
Valedictories for James Brown, August Wilson, Hunter Thompson, Norman Mailer, Coretta Scott King, Gerald Ford, Norman Whitfield, Tim Russert and Michael Jackson are spirited salutes to indispensable voices in the public discourse. Throughout, he explores with honesty, empathy and a jagged wit the ways we transform the nation and the ways the nation transforms us. The American bandwidth is wider than it's ever been before. This is how that happened.
"Ross is a former New York Times journalist who has clearly shaken off the restraints of the mainstream point of view to create a sharp perspective, by turns sly, goading, graceful, ruminative and plenary. The inevitable comparison is to Hunter S. Thompson's prescient writing about Jimmy Carter in Rolling Stone during the mid-1970s." — Gil Reavill
>> More on American Bandwidth
Available at authorhouse.com
YOUTUBE BOOK PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
(I wrote script, selected images and supervised editing process)
INTERESTING TIMES (Essays)
America at the turn of the twentieth century and just after is the focus of this collection of essays and nonfiction from a veteran journalist, essayist, critic and observer of American life and popular culture. Venturing from an insider’s perspective of The New York Times to his interviews with black police officers, Michael E. Ross explores a nation evolving dramatically, maybe now more than any other time in its history.
Exploring television, blues, jazz, hip hop, Al Gore, Ralph Nader, Andrew Sullivan, Jayson Blair, the California recall election’s outcome, America’s gun fixation, the nation’s enduring racial disquiet, the use of language under “Bush II,” and his own reckoning with maturity, the author offers a fresh, irreverent, provocative look at a country caught up in wrenching — and redefining — transition.
Available at authorhouse.com
FLAGPOLE DAYS (fiction)
It’s a decade into the 21st century. Warren Graham seeks an informal asylum from America (“the untied states”), Caught up in a singular event that transforms the country, he exits a nation in chaos, a free-fire zone on the verge of ethnic war.
In his travels from London to Amsterdam to north Africa, the young photographer discovers worlds, and truths, outside his own. Warren wanders Europe “duty free,” pleasantly adrift, earning his keep taking photos of the rich and famous for the major coffeetable magazines. He’s not ready for a chance meeting with Jolie Cooper, the woman he left behind, the woman whose love for him he destroyed.
And he can’t be ready for a tableau of violence and murder that sweeps him into circumstances he can neither predict nor prevent. Suddenly he is forced to make choices of love, allegiance and responsibility. In the polyglot of Tangier, he must fight for a future he’d taken for granted.
“ … a tightly written, exciting read, covering a lot of ground, both literally and figuratively … a fascinating study of the African-American expatriate.” -- John A. Williams, author of The Man Who Cried I Am
“ ... a compelling, globe-trotting, near-futuristic thriller ... shows us how racism and its twisted stepchildren might manifest themselves at the dawn of the next millennium ... thanks for the great read.” -- Trey Ellis, author of Platitudes
“Michael Ross’s technical dexterity is noticeable . . . what is even more startling is the insight this gifted young author has into the … chronic disease of racism. A very strong debut by an important writer.” -- Ishmael Reed
"An absorbing, frightening, unforgettable first novel by an enormously talented young writer. His insights into the expatriate experience, both the promise and disillusionment of black American life, consistently ring true." -- Tyler Stovall, author of Paris Noir
Available at authorhouse.com
The United States between the 2004 election and the first 100 days of the Obama administration — its knights and knaves, its fears and joys, its new ironies and old habits, its capacity for change and transition — is topic A in this collection of essays and blog posts from a longtime observer of American life, politics and popular culture. A veteran reporter, essayist and critic, Michael E. Ross brings an incisive eye to presidential politics, press ethics and accountability, television news, activism in pop culture, the impact of Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq and other issues. In an often funny, always insightful collection of recent writing, the author offers takes on George Bush, Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Michael Richards, Apple, Rupert Murdoch, FEMA, Mitt Romney, the GEICO cavemen, Michael Jackson and others in the national life.
Valedictories for James Brown, August Wilson, Hunter Thompson, Norman Mailer, Coretta Scott King, Gerald Ford, Norman Whitfield, Tim Russert and Michael Jackson are spirited salutes to indispensable voices in the public discourse. Throughout, he explores with honesty, empathy and a jagged wit the ways we transform the nation and the ways the nation transforms us. The American bandwidth is wider than it's ever been before. This is how that happened.
"Ross is a former New York Times journalist who has clearly shaken off the restraints of the mainstream point of view to create a sharp perspective, by turns sly, goading, graceful, ruminative and plenary. The inevitable comparison is to Hunter S. Thompson's prescient writing about Jimmy Carter in Rolling Stone during the mid-1970s." — Gil Reavill
>> More on American Bandwidth
Available at authorhouse.com
YOUTUBE BOOK PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
(I wrote script, selected images and supervised editing process)
INTERESTING TIMES (Essays)
Exploring television, blues, jazz, hip hop, Al Gore, Ralph Nader, Andrew Sullivan, Jayson Blair, the California recall election’s outcome, America’s gun fixation, the nation’s enduring racial disquiet, the use of language under “Bush II,” and his own reckoning with maturity, the author offers a fresh, irreverent, provocative look at a country caught up in wrenching — and redefining — transition.
Available at authorhouse.com
FLAGPOLE DAYS (fiction)
It’s a decade into the 21st century. Warren Graham seeks an informal asylum from America (“the untied states”), Caught up in a singular event that transforms the country, he exits a nation in chaos, a free-fire zone on the verge of ethnic war.
And he can’t be ready for a tableau of violence and murder that sweeps him into circumstances he can neither predict nor prevent. Suddenly he is forced to make choices of love, allegiance and responsibility. In the polyglot of Tangier, he must fight for a future he’d taken for granted.
“ … a tightly written, exciting read, covering a lot of ground, both literally and figuratively … a fascinating study of the African-American expatriate.” -- John A. Williams, author of The Man Who Cried I Am
“ ... a compelling, globe-trotting, near-futuristic thriller ... shows us how racism and its twisted stepchildren might manifest themselves at the dawn of the next millennium ... thanks for the great read.” -- Trey Ellis, author of Platitudes
“Michael Ross’s technical dexterity is noticeable . . . what is even more startling is the insight this gifted young author has into the … chronic disease of racism. A very strong debut by an important writer.” -- Ishmael Reed
"An absorbing, frightening, unforgettable first novel by an enormously talented young writer. His insights into the expatriate experience, both the promise and disillusionment of black American life, consistently ring true." -- Tyler Stovall, author of Paris Noir
Available at authorhouse.com
