I blog for the Huffington Post about culture, politics, environmental issues, and Brazil (my second country): Chris McGowan at the HuffPost
In the past, I penned articles about culture, the arts, and ecology for the Los Angeles Times, Pulse!, Musician, and the L.A. Reader, among other publications. I was a longtime columnist for Billboard, and their first writer to extensively cover world music and digital media. During that time, I wrote "Entertainment in the Cyber Zone: Exploring the Interactive Universe of Multimedia" (Random House).
I also write about Brazilian music and co-authored the book The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil , which has been translated into French, German and Japanese versions. You can find reviews and ordering information here: The Brazilian Sound .
I recently published a novel, The Big God Network . Here is the book description:"The Big God Network takes America’s culture wars into cyberspace and embeds multiculture in the multiverse, with scenes set in Bali, Tokyo, California, and several virtual worlds. This work of satirical speculative fiction blends the wry humor of Kurt Vonnegut with the cosmic scope of Carl Sagan and the edgy near-future scenarios of William Gibson.
In McGowan’s vision, set in the 2020s, the current growth in the power of the Christian Right has continued unabated, resulting in some less-than-desirable changes in the American political landscape. The United States has been carved up into a handful of politically themed new countries, including liberal Pacifica (the West Coast) and the country's theocratic heartland, known as New America (run by a president obsessed with the Christian rapture).
Against this contentious political backdrop, Baba Ed, the guru of a wealthy UFO cult, seeks contact with extraterrestrial civilizations via the Channel, a breakthrough communications interface with a high “AIQ†that renders the most secure system vulnerable, and threatens the new balance of power. McGowan envisions a dystopic New America ruled by evangelicals who hope to bring Pacifica back into the fold, and the Channel may offer the means to subdue the “secular†region. Or to protect it, if the book’s Pacifican-Brazilian hero Franz Sampaio is successful in his quest."
The novel is on sale here:
The Big God Network (at Amazon.com)
The Big God Network (Amazon U.K.)
The Big God Network (Amazon Canada)
The Big God Network (at Amazon France)
The Big God Network (at Amazon Germany)
The Big God Network (at Amazon Japan)
I also write and perform spoken word, usually of a satirical nature.
More Links:
The Big God Network (Excerpts) at Blogspot