Over the last few days I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and last night when I put the book down and went to bed I had about 60 pages remaining until the book's end. Which creates an interesting conundrum: caught in the sweep up to its climax, I want to finish the book as soon as [...]
Dog Parents
Caitlin and I got our first dog, Elly, almost four and a half years ago. Shortly after that - once we had gotten accustomed to the daily trauma that was being Elly's parents - we realized that we actually wanted to have two dogs. Concerns about space, apartment rentals, and money kept us from growing [...]
Her Majesty
There is a certain anxiety inherent to a new release from one of your favorite bands, especially if it's a reunion album. The upside is obvious - you're fairly likely to enjoy a new album from a band that you already like. And yet what if you don't like the new release because it, in no [...]
An Idiot At the Door
Sometimes when I meet strangers I am charming and engaging. Sometimes I am an uncomfortably awkward fool. This is a (true) story about one of those latter instances. ----- On a bright summer day I stood outside of an apartment complex. The building itself was clean and modern, the grass healthy and well manicured. The sun [...]
Grow Up Guilt
I don't think that I feel guilty about any of the media that I enjoy. I'm not ashamed to admit that I still laugh at 'Everybody to the Limit,' for instance. I am aware, however, that I own some albums that I would be expected to feel guilty about. Paramore's self-titled release definitely fits that [...]
This Child Will Be Able
I'm not ashamed to say that I like kids' books. You can say a lot in and with a children's book that's worth saying. Maybe more than anything, the typically simpler language and character arcs of children's literature (and I don't mean that pejoratively) often allow for valuable and rewarding examinations of interpersonal relationships. R. J. Palacio's [...]
A Question of Reality
I've read three books and a couple of stories by Philip K. Dick, most recently The Man In the High Castle, and in each and every one of them there is some debate over what is and is not 'real.' This occurs most famously in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, upon which the film Blade [...]
A Concert Confession
Here's a dirty little secret of mine: unless I really love the band, I'm not particularly crazy about live music. Considering that I played in a number of bands myself for the better part of a decade, that seems almost contradictory or, at the very least, anomalous. And yet it's the truth. If I have [...]
Congratulations and Shame
When we got engaged last year, I felt pretty good about the gesture that I made to Caitlin. I took her on a vacation, to a nice dinner, gave her a beautiful ring - the whole nine yards. Thank God that was last year. Prospective husbands, the bar has been raised. Dramatically. And I'm not [...]
Made for the Screen
I had probably seen The Prince Bride (the movie) about twenty times before I realized that it more than just a brilliant Rob Reiner project and was actually based upon The Princess Bride (the book) by William Goldman. I was an ignorant child. So now, twenty odd years after I first fell in love with the film, [...]
Songs & Stories 