Observation. Awareness. Picking up on context clues. These are essential skills for any person, but especially those who identify as artists.
I was a Catholic schoolboy when I got my first CD, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Greatest Hits. My mom bought it for me and my brother James from Bert’s Tapes and Compact Discs on Concord Pike. Bert was a friend of my mom from her days as a bartender at The Buggy Tavern. Whenever Bert walked […]
I remember standing on a windowsill in a dorm room in 2011 and watching everyone in the room dance and sway to this song. I remember Hulk hands and drinking. I remember realizing that I missed out on so many opportunities to have these kinds of dance parties with my brother and his coterie by […]
Oh, we live in such perilous times. Our leaders tell us to fear the unknown, to distrust the things that we can‘t see. We appeal to you, Klasky-Csupo, Nickelodeon, Peter Gaffney, muses and sages all. Tell us the tale of Tommy the Brave, whose adventures in the playpen and garage may inspire us to face […]
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 […]