Lightning In A Bottle
If life is a collection of moments, all strung together and played back in contrast and context to one another, then the defining moment from last summer's trip to Nantucket was that of a lone cottage against a wide, evening sky.
The photo was taken from a narrow, wooden bridge on the western edge of Madaket's Hither Creek. The shutter of my Canon Rebel XT's lens was flung wide to capture dusk's fleeting light. The sky was clear. The water was still. And while the clapboard house, framed by open water and empty sky, was splendid in its ...
ACK ‘08
Over the years, I've invested a lot in the restorative powers of Nantucket.
For me, for better or worse, true or false, the island has provided significant counterpoint to this island.
Still, the place was something of an acquired taste.
I first visited Nantucket just a few months after moving to Manhattan. I was living with my brother, surviving on hot dogs and generic Tang paid for by the $5/hour I was earning keeping the Men's Journal equipment closet.
My mother, perhaps sensing a post-collegiate slump, invited me to crash on ...
The Brickyard 400 (Or, My Days Of Thunder)
This is it: The Fall of Rome.
And this is how it goes: blue sky, 85 degrees, 300,000 people, 42 modified stock cars hurtling around a two and a half mile track at 170 mile per hour, and lots and lots of beer.
This is the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, aka The Brickyard 400.
It's Death Race, Gladiator, and The Running Man. The MPHs and RPMs are impressive, but we're here for the five-car pile up: crushed steel, shattered plastic, frayed rubber.
We hatched the plan at my bachelor party. Ten months later, here we care: high school ...
Cool It Off Before You Burn It Out
In the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Syracuse University, I drove from Philadelphia to San Diego and back, camping and crashing at friend's and family's homes in Chicago, Iowa City, Minneapolis, Denver, and points in-between (including an ill-fated layover in Darwin, Minnesota where
Comic-Con Reconsidered (Or, The Triumph Of The Nerds)
Prevailing wisdom about San Diego's Comic-Con is that it's an assembly of misfits, nerds, freaks and geeks salivating over B-listers, back issues, and collectibles.
In fact, I traded in that very same simplistic, diminishing description as recently as just last night.
Tonight, though, I counter with a new thesis.
Comic-Con is an inspirational gathering of apparently disparate peoples: young and old, physically capable and challenged, thin and not-so. It is a safe space for difference, where the one's unique offering is rewarded and ...
Wasting Away Again At Comic-Con
This isn't the first time I've put in an 18-hour day in a generic conference room in a beautiful city. Last week I put in a few days in San Francisco, and I've suffered through Las Vegas and Los Angeles numerous times.
But this one takes the cake.
Inside, it's Comic-Con, the annual confab of superheros, superstars, and supernerds.
Outside, it's San Diego: blue skies, sparkling waters, and billowing spinnakers.
Today is day one of my five-day journey into uber-fandom: San Diego Comic-Con (comic book geeks) Thursday and Friday, ...
The Morning Fog May Chill The Air, I Don’t Care
As I've said before, my favorite part about travel is running in a new town. This morning, that town was San Francisco. In fact, a good run had more than a little bit to do with my being here.
My primary raison d'etre for this sojourn was the Y-Pulse Mash Up, a conference for teen/tween-centric media and marketing types. It was great (as conferences go) if you're into things like, say, incentivizing user generated content (which I am). And the oatmeal raisin cookies were top notch.
But I won't front: I wanted to spend a few days in ...
On The Air: KPTL’s Live From Studio C With Deeya
If you like hearing me talk then today's your lucky day.
As I told KPTL DJ Daniel Boseman after we wrapped our 45-minute interview, I've been the interviewer far more frequently than the interviewee.
See, I talk a lot. Which, I know from all my years at The MTV, is not necessarily the best thing for radio and television. We live in a sound byte world, after all. If you can't say it in ten seconds, you probably ought not to try.
Luckily, Des Moines is not New York, and KPTL is not MTV. When Daniel and I went long Saturday afternoon ...
Download Authentic Records Flood Relief Benefit Bootleg Now!
Authentic Records' artists She Swings She Sways, Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth (of The Nadas), Will Petersen and Jim Stockberger (of Fat Andy), Andy Fleming (of Brother Trucker), Benjamin Wagner, Stephanie Walsmith, Tony Bohnenkamp and Josh Davis performed Sunday night to raise funds for Iowa flood relief.
Donations, silent auction bids plus CD proceeds netted nearly $3000 for United Way of Central Iowa and Governor Chet Culver's fund for disaster and flood relief.
The AK O'Connors Beaverdale event was hosted by Capitol 106.3's ...
