Hereby Resolved: I Will Pay Closer Attention to My Language in 2019
I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions. They seem a recipe for failure. And why New Year’s anyway? It’s just a date. There’s no more reason to make resolutions on […]
Top 100 Albums of 2018: Who I Listened to in 2018 – The Complete List
I am, as I write this, finishing my top 100 albums for 2018. It was a record year for me as I listened to 324 new albums! It remains to be determined which of these will make the final cut, but just to tease my top 100, here is the complete […]
Out of My Shell: Why Travel Is So Important to Me
Not a world traveler It was 1983. I was 19, but a young 19: emotionally immature, extremely sensitive, inexperienced of the world with my knowledge and outlook shaped by the […]
It’s Complicated: 49 Hours, 4 Flights, 5 Taxis, 4 Trains, 2 Walks, and 2 Beaches
49 hours from Mindelo on the island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde to Brilon, Germany—and, yes, the cockpit door swung open during one takeoff…
Short Story: The Plague Ship 2.0
We’ve been on this airplane for two and a half years. Fourteen months quarantined on a military base. Sixteen months jetting around the continent as disaster tourists. It adds up. “Talk about a flight delay,” we say and crack thin smiles.
Hiking the Transylvanian Alps
We were three hours up the river valley, soaked to the skin from a combination of constant rain and sweat generated by the effort of clambering up steep, crumbling stream […]
Short Story: Decisions Decisions
Nick is catatonic. He rocks on his feet like an inflatable clown, hands twisting against his skull as if trying to squeeze the images out of his head. He does […]
Best Albums of 2017: #25-1 (with commentary)
#25: Bjork, Utopia More ethereal fairy music from the Icelandic pixie. (And I don’t use “fairy” lightly: just listen to the title track and tell me the flutes and strings don’t […]
Best Albums of 2017: #50-26 (with commentary)
#50: King Krule, The OOZ To understand this album, just imagine stoned jazz. Very stoned jazz, with a lower-class English accent. You can see him holding a mic and not […]
Best Albums of 2017: #100-51
Granddaddy, Last Place Jessica Lea Mayfield, Sorry Is Gone Diet Cig, Swear I’m Good at This Austra, Future Politics Slowdive, self-titled White Reaper, The World’s Best American Band Pile, A […]