Archive for November 2005
The Best Of Times
I’ve spent a lot of time in headphones. Not the hip, white Ipod ear buds. I’m talking about the clunky, heavy ones that lock the world out, and keep the music in. My earliest experience with music was via a powder blue Fischer Price record player. Later, my grandparents bought me a bright pink Radio…
Read MoreWork It
I’m gonna call it harbinger. Cuz I need a sign, a prophecy, an omen… anything. A couple of hours ago now, Chris, Walker, Tony and I are rehearsing for Tuesday’s big ‘Heartland’ CD release show. We’re at a middle-of-the-road space called Ultrasound on 30th Street. It’s not the best space (thirty bucks an hour), or…
Read MoreThe Blueprint
I woke up well before normal this morning, and lie there on my back a while looking up at the cloudless blue sky, worrying. By lunchtime I was sweating. By dinner, I was nauseous. Right now I am, well, too tired to feel much at all. I released my debut CD, “Bloom,” in 1994. I…
Read MoreYour Legs Grow
It’s not very rock n’ roll, I suppose, to want to be a college professor. But it’s on my short list of things to do, right there next to South By Southwest, the cover of Rolling Stone, the Nantucket Film Festival, and The New York Times Best Seller List. Oh, and Mt. Everest. I took…
Read MoreBirth Of Words
At the time, opening for The Samples seemed like a pretty big deal. The year was 1990. I was a 19-year-old junior at Syracuse University. In its first year, my band, Smokey Junglefrog, had already made something of a mark (primarily because we bombed the campus with posters, but whatever). We had released our debut…
Read MoreJust Read Your Blog…
This just in from my Smith Family cousin/brother Scott Cunningham, who overcame a slew of injuries to finish his first New York City Marathon in an astonishing 4:10:51. Buck up Wagner! You ran in the top half of all finishers! And only 1 of 3 that recorded music during the training period (ok, that I…
Read MoreGoing Through The Motions
My Aunt Marden wore a lot of orange and brown back in the day. Even in the late seventies, when I was still in single digits, it didn’t seem like much of a color combination. She was one of those not-really-your-aunt aunts. In fact, she was my mom’s roommate at the College of St. Theresa…
Read MoreDone With It
Disappointment with my marathon time notwithstanding, yesterday was my real finish line. And it felt pretty good. I managed to think about virtually nothing from 11-12 as my unbelievably named Oasis Day Spa masseuse, Miles Golden, kneaded and pounded knots out of me. Somewhat surprisingly, the bulk of the damage is above my waist. Apparently,…
Read MoreMine, Yours, Ours
I don’t really want to talk about it. But I will. Because it’s what I do here. And because so many of you were so kind in sending me you well-wishes via email, text message, and carrier pigeon. Bottom line: I finished the New York City Marathon in 4:30:49. My sixth marathon was my worst.…
Read MoreThe Fall
These are, to be sure, the days. There’s something strangely cruel about the fall. Nature’s finest foreworks — thunderstorms notwithstanding — are reserved for these final days of warm weather. Outside my window, the trees are brilliant with reds and yellows and oranges. It’s beautiful. But it’s fleeting. In a few days, it’ll be over.…
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