Archive for August 2006
Greetings From The VMA Red Carpet
I’m holding down the fort at 1515 tonight, but I snuck over to Rockefeller Center an hour before the carpet opened. One word: chaos. Thing about Rock Center — unlike Miami’s American Airlines Arena — is that it’s a functioning office complex with a tourist destination built in. It’s crawling with people on an average…
Read MoreBig Easy
There’s a lot going on: the day job (MTV News), the documentary (“Mister Rogers & Me”), the side project (Buckeye), the family (Bolsters, Wagners), and relationship (Abbi). Still, I can’t stop thinking about the next record. Of course, the occasional email (like the one I got from Lee in London last night — thanks Lee!)…
Read MoreFair Warning
Most days, it takes a special kind of nincompoop to brave the Fairway Supermarket on 75th & Broadway. At the end of a twelve hour day it takes an absolute masochist. It’s not just that Fairway attracts septuagenarians like tornados to trailer parks. Worse, Fairway exerts some kind of stupidity tractor beam. Not only are…
Read MoreIn The Queue For The Lifeboat
“Priorities change,” she said. My father and his wife flew in from Indianapolis yesterday. They tallied exactly six and a half hours on the island Manhattan, six of which were spent in the company of their newest grandson, Edward, and his big brother, Ethan. One gets used to playing second fiddle to the grandkids. It…
Read MoreSandusky
My memory of the 452 miles of interstate between Toledo, Ohio, and Syracuse, New York, is desaturated and brushed with a Gaussian blur: gray concrete, barren trees, and generic hillsides. I drove that stretch dozens of times in college; my father lived in Toledo, my brother lived in Cleveland, and I lived in Syracuse. My…
Read MoreThe Dawn (And All Its Honesty)
“I think we’re going to be friends,” Tim said, looking up from his signature. “I think we are,” I replied. He rose from the small, walnut-laminate desk tucked in the back of Barnes & Noble, and smiled. “Time for that hug shot,” I said? “Time for that hug shot.” Camera and all, Chris got a…
Read MoreSee Where Lookin’ Pretty Good’ll Getcha?
I’ll be honest with you. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off. Sure, we were rehearsed. We knew our roles. We knew the songs. And yeah, Chris is finally clean and sober. Ryan’s kicked his Advil addiction. And Tony’s back from his six-year exploration of Wicka. But it’s been a long, long time since…
Read MoreGo Let It Out
“Are you with the orchestra?” I’m waiting in line at Andy’s Deli on the corner of 80th & Columbus, a slice of broccoli and chicken pizza in one hand, a Newcastle Pale Ale in the other. My guitar is slung over my shoulder. The deli is unusually busy for midnight, on accouont, I deduce, of…
Read MoreStrangeways, Here We Come
I have one of the strangest jobs ever. Today, New Found Glory stumbled by. Later, American Idol Fantasia Barrino passed by (lookin into my office, they always look into my office), followed just a few seconds later by Chris Brown. In the last few weeks, I’ve seen Kate Bosworth, Ashanti, Kevin Smith, and Tom Morello…
Read MoreRun From The Darkness
Chris and I were in the middle of a fifteen mile training run a few weeks ago when he turned to me and asked, “Do you think this is the human version of the hamster wheel?” Abbi and I are knee deep into New York City Marathon training. This week, for example, looks like this:…
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