Archive for July 2007
My Better Half
I told Abbi that my suede bucks, seersucker pants, white oxford, pink and blue striped tie and blue blazer were so over-the-top Preppy that they were rock ‘n roll. Then I looked in the mirror. I have a new t-shirt that I love. It’s a thin, soft, dark blueberry American Apparel with banana lettering that…
Read MoreHalf The Story
I guess the most suprising thing about meeting seventy-five of your fiance’s closest friends and family in one three-hour period is that it was pretty darn fun. Now, I won’t front: I was anxious. Fortunately, they day started easy. Well, easy-ish. Abbi, her sister Pembry and I set out on our first of many marathon…
Read MoreTechnicolor Dreamcoats
Saturday marks t-minus ten weeks until Abbi and my wedding. Tomorrow evening, we drive back to Abbi’s hometown for the second of three engagement parties. I still need to pick up a shirt and tie to go with my seersucker pants, blue blazer, and suede bucks. I’m thinking white oxford and pink tie. Pretty rockin’,…
Read More2:43:27
There’s a smile on my face in almost every photo of me competing in Sunday’s New York City Triathlon. Which is kind of miraculous, as the race was neither painless, nor easy. In the moments just after my finish, there beneath a canopy of leaves just above Central Park’s Sheep’s Meadow, I said to Chris,…
Read MoreDo, Or Do Not
“Hello this is an automated message from the Accenture Triathlon Alerting System. Your athlete Benjamin Wagner has finished the race at 2 hours 43 minutes 27 seconds.”
Read MoreTry
In exactly forty-eight hours, I’m diving into the Hudson River, and paddling like hell. Sunday morning is my sixth Nautica New York City Triathlon. My wave — the most sizeable demographic, 35-40 males, and hence the last — begins the 1500 meter (about one mile) swim at 98th Street at 8:15. From the transition on…
Read MoreRising Like A Discotheque
Rolling Stone Editor Sid Holt broke my heart. I was twenty-four-years-old. I’d moved to New York City just a few months prior with two goals: to snag a record deal, and write for Rolling Stone magazine. I wasn’t much for networking. Still, I knew well enough to canvas the Syracuse University Alumni Center for names.…
Read MoreCharles In Charge
My first pair was purple. I purchased my first pair of Converse All Stars for twenty bucks at Connelly’s Discount Clothes in Wayne, Pennsylvania. I was fifteen-years-old, and had recently formed my first band, Neoteric Youth. The fact that my father had played three years of high school basketball in the exact same archless, black…
Read MoreSummer Song
Amtrak 2295 is running fifteen minutes late. Outside, the sun is dipping behind a bank of billowing storm clouds. Inside, the air is cool and dry. I lean back in my seat, rapping my arms around my t-shirted chest to keep warm. All around me, passengers prattle into their cell phones, revealing slivers of their…
Read MoreSugar, Baby
Authenticity and enthusiasm comes at a premium in New York City. It figures, then, that I had to go to Brooklyn to see a brand-new Philly band to get my dose of both. I was pretty short on moxie on Sunday afternoon. My fifteen hour Saturday in East Rutherford was punctuated by a three hour…
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