The Replacements got together and played a gig last night (Aug. 24, 2013) in Toronto. It was the first time they’d performed together since July of 1991, and for me, though I was not there, it was as if the Beatles got back together. I never thought it’d happen. I’m not the only one who […]
Our slow ejection from the State of California was gradual at first, predicated on a string of unlucky events. My mom’s boss had embezzled from the company she worked for and so everyone there lost their jobs. Due to subsequent mounting bills, my family was kicked out of the Lido (my own personal sanctuary) in […]
Growing up without a male role model, I was forced to turn to the world of television. It was 1980, and I was either looking in the wrong place, or there were not that many viable broadcast options for a 12 going on 13 year old wanna-be-rebellious mama’s boy. I guess I was also a […]
New York’s typically mundane wooden water towers are actually among the most beautiful things in the world (no, c’mon, hear me out now!). Their ubiquity tells a story of tradition and longevity that stretches back over a century. In fact, their very existence is crucial to the needs of Metropolitan residents. Please indulge me while […]
The following should be treated as a cautionary tale by any sci-fi conventioneer During Labor Day Weekend in 2009, my wife Isabelle and I decided to attend a science fiction convention in downtown Atlanta. I knew that since we’d lived in New York, this would probably be a snap (always thought that about doing […]
THIS PICKS UP RIGHT FROM PART 1 August 1st arrived and I arrived at Penn Station. It smelled like retired piss. God I’d missed this place. It was noisy and there was so much to look at you couldn’t focus on any one thing. Luckily I’d stayed in touch with my friend Beau and he […]
I’ve come to believe (mostly through observation) that just about everyone comes to a place in their lives where they do what’s called “taking stock.” That time for me was in May of 1994, where, like a postwar resident of Berlin, I emerged from my (virtual) bunker and said, “what….the….fuck?!” But unlike the urban German […]
Last month my six year old niece turned to me, out of the blue, smiled and said, “Na-tion-wide is on your side!” She sang it, actually, with the perfect little melody that they use in the commercial. Since then (actually since I was about 10 years old), I’ve had commercial jingles and TV show theme […]
The trails ran out behind West 1st Street in West Tulsa, Oklahoma. To get to them on foot or bike you had to wiggle in between the fence separating the Parrish and Ogle houses. Invariably the Parrish’s dog would bark up a storm, day or night, when threading through, which made the trip (short though […]
I ran upstairs because I’d heard the fight was already over. As part of my ongoing effort to get my friend James into sports I had jotted this down on a post-it before I hit the project-concrete stairs of our dorm room at Willoughby: “Tyson knocked him out in 93 seconds! 93!” OK it was […]