A Day With The Hatchers
I.I'll start with this:Almost ten years ago, I had surgery to remove my tonsils, adenoids, and deviated septum.This was not the first time I was a patient at a hospital.A dear friend of mine has now...
View ArticleBelly Up, Pint Down
"Warm beer and cold women, I just don't fit inevery joint I stumbled into tonightthat's just how it's been"--Tom Waits, "Warm Beer and Cold Women" from Nighthawks at the Dinerdrinking at the bar: an...
View ArticleA Swell Show: The Swell Season at the Lincoln Theatre
First, let me apologize: I've been meaning to post for quite some time, but haven't.The wife and I drove up to D.C. a few weeks ago to see The Swell Season.Months prior, we went with some friends to...
View ArticleBest Albums of 2007
THE USUAL SUSPECTSLet me start by saying that I've decided to never utter "This year was a disappointment," in regards to music, ever again.Not that this year (or any other year) was not rife with...
View ArticleComedia Del Farte: Reflections on Born Standing Up
I don't remember what year it was, only that I was an early teen.For a short stretch of years my family was regularly engaged in the operations of a church in my hometown and, despite my father's deep...
View ArticleRoadkill
I.The year after my father died was pretty rough. Rougher than I thought it would be. After the initial implausibility wore off, things returned to general sense of normalcy—except for occasional,...
View ArticleBrothers Without Arms
First, let me say this is the third blog I've attempted to write in the past three weeks.Hopefully, I will be able to complete this one—which, in turn, should motivate me to finish the...
View ArticleThieves, Thieves, Tramps and Thieves: Part One
Now that the Eliot Spitzer hullabaloo seems to have died down a bit, I want to talk about it.Frankly, the last few weeks have been damn near intolerable media-wise.And, frankly again, this is why I’m...
View ArticleThieves, Thieves, Tramps and Thieves: Addendum
Before I post part two of this blog, I'd like to point out an interesting finding.After posting the first part, I decided to check my blog rating.Some months ago, my dear friend over at Virtual...
View ArticleThieves, Thieves, Tramps and Thieves: Part Two
Keeping the Faith: Marriage and InfidelityI'm not ashamed to admit that Edward Norton's directorial debut, Keeping the Faith, is one of my favorite movies.This little diddy about a priest and a rabbi...
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All Hail The Aporia
In The BeginningSeveral months ago, after a lively panel discussion on postmodernism—a pet project of mine and my esteemed colleagues—I professed to my friend over at Virtual Bourgeois that...
View ArticleDefending Chuck
You're So VainSeveral weeks ago, my wife and I were watching television and she said,"Wait a minute. Rewind that."We have that fancy but outrageously expensive digital cable from Time Warner, so we can...
View ArticleMysteries Revisited: Marriage Two Years In (Part One)
Back in March, I posted a lengthy rumination on marriage (Thieves, Thieves, Tramps and Thieves: Part Two).The impetus for that post was the hullabaloo around Eliot Spitzer's infidelity and the wave of...
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Mysteries Revisited (Part Two)
Where Was I?So part one of my post was all about the service, about the marriage ceremony.And I'll follow up with a few final observations:As a writing teacher, I am constantly aware of my audience.I...
View ArticleThe King Is Dead: A Bit About George Carlin
About twenty-five minutes into George Carlin's 1986 HBO special, Playin' With Your Head, the comic proclaims, "And why is it always the dead? What's this favoritism toward the dead? Fuck the dead." In...
View ArticleRite of Passage Subverted (Part One)
Where It Began: Buffy BackstoryMy next posting (after this one) will be a rumination on episode 46 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This episode, entitled "Helpless," comes from season three of Joss...
View ArticleDirt In The Ground
(I have not had time to finish part two of my previous blog. In the meantime, here's something else...)I was a seventeen year old college freshman in 1992. I turned eighteen two months before the '92...
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Twenty-Five Albums For Twenty-Five Years #19
This morning I was reading a combined review of Replacements re-releases, and decided it was time to return to my Twenty-Five Albums For Twenty-FiveYears project.My last installment, #20, was posted...
View ArticleA Boy And His Bass
A MENAGERIE OF INSTRUMENTSFor the past couple years, I've had a not-so-secret longing.Like a guilty porn addict, I've been stealing glances at websites, lingering around the edges of eBay auctions, all...
View ArticleBurn, Baby, Burn
For Your PreservationEarlier this week, I was driving home from work and heard a bit on NPR about a church burning porn (Florida Church Burns X-Rated Film Reels).The organization in question had...
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