i am trying to break your heart

i'd be lying if i said it wasn't easy. i am trying to break your heart.

Welcome to Red State Reviews

Greetings. If you're here, you're probably a friend. You may also be a veteran of my first blog, which devolved into self-indulgent nonsense in record time. That ain't going to happen here.

Some background is in order in case you have stumbled on this by accident. My name is Bryan Shelly, and in September I'll begin an appointment as an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Wake Forest University. The purpose of Red State Reviews is for me to have a forum to express some higher order thoughts about the writings, works of art, or events that inspire them. I hope that my motives are good. Too often academics hide in the Ivory Tower and don't make enough of an attempt to engage any part of the public at large. I know writing a blog counts pretty low on the engagement scale, but it's a start.

I'm going to try to write these entries in a style that's accessible without being dumbed down. I tend to be excitable, so you're going to get a fair amount of exageration. I'll call something the best thing I've ever seen or heard at least once a month. I'll use a lot of slang and curse a lot, because I use a lot of slang a curse a lot. I hope to write frequently, or at least as frequently as something inspires me to write. I also hope to be as forthright as possible in my reviews. Nothing bothers me more than somebody who writes of an entire CD because they don't like the single. If I do a review when I've only read half the book, I'll tell you.

Oh, and one other thing. If you're rich, I want to the government to take all your money and give it to unemployed welfare mothers so they can afford both parking spaces for the Mercedes they drive out of the projects each morning and crack for their 11 kids. And if you disagree with me, I think you're a heartless child molester.