Archive for April 2008
Tales Of A Third Grade Nothing
It must have been sometime around third grade. My family — Mom, Dad, Chris and I — were in Carmel, California, the small, sea-side town on the Monterey Peninsula known for its famous residents: Clint Eastwood, Ansel Adams, Pebble Beach. We were on one of the few family vacations I can remember, this one as…
Read MoreThe Future Is Ours
I ran for an hour and twenty-four minutes this morning listening to the same two songs over and over and over. Taken together, REM’s “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” and “Man Sized Wreath” clock in at 5:44. Which means that in my ten and a half mile run south along the Hudson, east across…
Read MoreThe Itchy & Scratchy Show
I have a small contingency of friends, colleagues and family members who question my rabid over-involvement. The MTV, the blogs, the documentary, the records and shows, marathons and triathlons. What gives? they ask. Isn’t any one of those things enough? What’s wrong with you? I was reminded the other night that there are stages to…
Read MoreEros, Logos, The Man & The Band
This is funny. Or alarming. Or both. I’ve re-learned an important life lesson in the last few weeks. Remember when you were taught how to write a persuasive essay in grammar school? The form is simple: state your argument in the thesis, and support it with at least three data points. (I’m not sure that’s…
Read MoreA Ghost Of Hearts
Like a lot of guys of my generation, Chris Suchorsky’s mind was blown by “The Empire Strikes Back.” What distinguished Chris most of the rest of us, though, was how geeked out he was by the making-of documentary he saw on HBO. When Chris saw Kevin Smith’s no-budget, 1994 Sundance phenomena, “Clerks,” he wanted in…
Read MoreBlack Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance
“Waking their latest triumph, ‘Penthouse,’ from its mordant and mellow foundation, Wareham and Sean Eden’s wall of swirling, simmering guitars blared a full-tilt, cosmic radio clamor.” That’s my review of Luna’s September 1995 Tramp’s performance. I especially like the phrase “cosmic radio clamor.” I wanted to be Lester Bangs so badly. That concert review was…
Read MoreThe Wonder That’s Keeping The Stars Apart
It was fairly apparent fairly quickly that Abbi and I had something special together. Above all, our relationship was low-key, well-paced, and light on drama. It wasn’t (and isn’t) all sunsets, walks in the park, long runs, and bouquets flowers (though there was all that). There was (and remains) a healthy dose of constructive narrative…
Read MoreHy-Vee Triathlon: 77 Days And Counting…
It was just a week ago this morning that I sent off my application to be a selected to be a member of The Des Moines Register’s Triathlon Team. A week later, the word is in, and the word is good. Congratulations! You have been selected to be a member of The Des Moines Register’s…
Read MoreAmazing Grace – MP3
In U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4 / A shot rings out in the Memphis sky.” Martin Luther King, Jr. was, in fact, assassinated at 6:01 pm on April 4, 1968 — forty years ago this very moment. Bono has since conceded his mistake, and expressed his dissatisfaction…
Read MoreMartin Luther King, Jr. On Turning “I” Into “Thou”
Forty years ago tonight, on the balcony of The Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. The following speech, since referred to as “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop,” was delivered April 3, 1968, at the Church of God in Christ Headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Though King was addressing…
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