Archive for February 2008
Leap Year – MP3
I wrote “Leap Year” fifteen years ago, in the deep, dark winter of 1993. Syracuse winters were brutal. It’s nation’s snowiest metropolitan region, averaging 114.6 inches a year. I happened to be there for three of the top five worst years, the penultimate being the year in question in which 192.1 inches fell. That’s over…
Read MoreCardmember Since, Um, Noon
I’m not gloating. It’s just that it blows my mind that I’m now, officially, the kind of guy who carries a corporate card. “Corporate” has always been a dirty word for me. It makes me think of unethical, hob knobbing straw men in generic suits. It makes me think of greed, uniformity, and homogeneity, anonymous…
Read MoreR.E.M. Accelerate: A First Listen
The day job affords me the occasional perk: random Paramount Picture DVDs, semi-annual trips to Park City, access to Lollapalooza’s scrappy craft services tent. In general, though, mine’s a desk job. I write email all day. Today, though, provided a brief respite from the usual. For fifteen minutes this afternoon, I was fifteen-years-old again. Record…
Read MoreTaking Requests
Ok, so when we spoke last, I was talking about this “Magic Mountain EP” idea of mine. Remember? Right! That five-song, online-only recording I wrote about yesterday. The one Chris Abad and I are going to knock out this weekend somewhere between snowboarding and beer pong. Yeeeaaah! That one. So lemme’ restate the premise: I…
Read MoreComing Soon: The Magic Mountain EP
Magic Mountain Ski Resort near Londonberry, Vermont, is — if my pal, singer/songwriter Chris Abad’s description is correct — “the slacker’s Okemo.” Chris and his wife, Megan, invited Abbi and I to join them there next weekend. “It’s an awesome place for drinking beer, skiing, board games, cooking, writing music, etc,” he said. “Any interest?”…
Read MoreOscar! Oscar! Oscar!
Ok, so we’ve almost made it through Colossal Televised Event season. I live blogged Super Bowl XLII three weeks ago, and the Grammy Awards two weeks ago. Tonight: The Academy Awards. 7:53 – My head literally explodes as Tim Kash — who’s been navigating the Oscar Red Carpet minefield for nearly an hour straight on…
Read MorePrescience
I’m not sure which was the most prescient harbinger: Pedro’s trio of sixes (diamonds, clubs, spades), or my beer pong glove. The new plan hatched somewhere between miles three and four of the NYRR Al Gordon Snowflake 4-Miler. With just thirty-six hours off from work, the original idea — taking in one of the three…
Read MoreAn Open Letter To The Residents Of Des Moines, Iowa
Dear Jason, Stephanie, et all: My trip to The Greatest City In The World is all set! It’s a quick hit, but if last years trip was any indication, thirty-one hours in “The Hartford of the West” should be about all my liver can take. That is, assuming that whole “In like a lion, out…
Read MoreOscar Awesomeness
My day job includes oversight of MTV.com Movies (hence last month’s sojourn to the Sundance Film Festival). Our movies coverage was an outgrowth of our news. Chris Connelly’s “The Big Picture” had long since established MTV News’ presence in the movies space on television in the late ’90s, as MTVNews.com was hitting a stride in…
Read MoreHide & Seek: A Consideration Of REM & U2
In the fall of 1987, two scrappy rock bands stood poised for world domination. REM’s fifth release, “Document,” catapulted the band from college rock staples to mainstream mainstays. The band’s Top 10 hit, “The One I Love,” cracked the top ten. The album went platinum, paving the way for a five-album, $80M Warner Bros. deal.…
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