Observation. Awareness. Picking up on context clues. These are essential skills for any person, but especially those who identify as artists.
When they write their reportabout this day,they will talk aboutViktor Orbán losing,the decline of authoritarianism,a new hope. There will be no mentionof the boy and the girlin the apartmentoff Merrimack Streetwho cried in each other’s arms,saying goodbye.
What was it like to play guitar loud and fast in a dingy club? I know what it was like to stand in the audience, one of many high school kids trying to explore themselves. The Harmony Grange was a scene in my life for a time, and I miss it. But it was not […]
I just realized that I fell in love with a girl who looked Alanis Morrisette around the same time that the video for “Hands Clean” video debuted. It seems crazy to write it so plainly, because if you know me it becomes painfully clear about whom I’m writing. And I’m left wondering if I can […]
There is a moment when I saw The Adventures of Pete and Pete for the first time, but I have no idea when it was. I know that I saw it as a child, younger than 13 years old – before the dawn of the new millennium. Maybe I saw it during its original run, when I was 8 or 9. Formative years for a human being – but they span a massive amount of time. It’s hard to pinpoint the fulcrum upon which your life changes forever.
If you had a talk show, who would you want to interview?
There’s a quote that I’ve hung in my cubicle at work: “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” It’s from Bryan Stevenson. The paper hanging on my wall is from a page-a-day calendar that I got last Christmas, but I first heard the quote in July 2017. I was attending […]
I found a new favorite song last week. Well, “found” is not quite the correct verb. I didn’t find it, because I wasn’t looking for it. It’s more accurate to say that I was presented with a new favorite song last week. I had been listening to Midwest emo legends The Get Up Kids on […]
Hey friends, Jackie and I just wrapped up our annual Easter tradition: watching the 1973 film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I’ve written about this movie a number of times because it is a foundational text for me. To steal a line from Las Culturistas, it’s the culture that made me say culture is for […]
Sometimes I remember that I used to spend Sunday mornings attending Catholic Mass, and I have to pause. Was I really a member of a parish, a regular churchgoer? What a waste of time and energy! Mass was typically an hour long, but there was also the preparation: taking a shower or a “bird bath,” […]
One day, I’ll be able to tell you how important Gordon, the debut album from Barenaked Ladies, is to me. Fifteen tracks, just under an hour long, the soundtrack to so many essential memories. It wasn’t the first album of theirs that I owned. Like most Americans, I learned of the band from their 1998 […]