Category: Youngstown

  • Nature and Nurture

    I think people sometimes take for granted the kind of environment they grow up in, and how it plays a part in shaping who they become. Of course we all know that’s a given, that we’re influenced by our environment, but I myself can sometimes get caught up in what-might-have-beens. Usually when people get caught…

  • Happy Things

    1. One of the things I love lately is that when you do a search on “Christopher Barzak” at Amazon.com, the number two listing is Rufus Wainwright’s new album “Release the Stars”.  This makes me ridiculously happy for some reason that, as Amazon says, customers who have pre-ordered my novel have gone on to buy…

  • The Disintegrating City

    John Edward’s is on his poverty tour, and is visiting Youngstown.  NPR just covered it, focusing on our mayor’s new plan to shrink the city rather than grow it, a plan that’s won international awards and has European and Asian nations visiting to see what we’re doing here.  It’s a great piece.  Listen to it…

  • Summer Festival of the Arts

    This weekend was Youngstown’s Summer Festival of the Arts. (Pictures in my flickr, just click on the sidebar pics to see them all). It was held on YSU’s campus. I hadn’t been to the festival in years. Last year I’d been at Readercon in Boston when it was held, and missed it. I was glad…

  • Cafes of Youngstown (Updated)

    During winter I don’t like to leave my apartment unless I have to–I was born a summer child, so although I enjoy the Christmastime mood of the beginning of winter, I prefer warmth and light. So for those winter months, I write at home a lot. In Spring, Summer and Fall, though, I like to…

  • Scaping the Street in Downtown Youngstown

    This Saturday was Streetscape in Youngstown’s downtown. A couple of hundred volunteers from the community came out to plant flowers and to landscape the downtown together. It was a really awesome thing to be a part of, working side by side sometimes with people from your city that you know, and with people from your…

  • Sunday in Millcreek Park

    We went to Millcreek Park today, to enjoy the sun and the flowers and the people who had come out to enjoy it with each other. Even the Amish came into the city today to go to the park. We snapped a shot of them taking pictures also. There was a young guy around my…

  • Subpopular lips

    A few years back, when Christopher Rowe and Gwenda Bond were starting up their question themed zine “Say…” they asked a bunch of writers to respond to the first issue’s question, “Was that a Kiss?” I wrote a story called “Lips” and it was the anchor story for the issue. The story is my homage…

  • Beginnings and endings

    I came across this really good interview with my city’s mayor (click on the February 8th Smart City radio interview under the Broadcasts section), talking about the history of Youngstown and the current situation here, as the community attempts to restructure and revitalize after decades of economic and political disintegration.  It’s a very different story here…

  • Something Awful

    Bob Mackey is funny.  He’s a local internet writer who just graduated from Youngstown State University and will be heading off to graduate school this fall.  In this piece, the world of temping and the world of Youngstown buildings that haven’t been kept up meet and marry like an internet version of Kafka.  Call it The…