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On ‘Intent On St. Paul’
I had an afternoon to kill in Chapel Hill during last fall’s Summer’s Gone Tour, so I found the local coffee shop. I met Lisa behind the counter. We got to talking about music (she was playing The Pixies), painting, books and such, and she mentioned that she was working on a novel called ‘Intent…
Read MoreCalifornia Slips Away
I spent a good part of last year working in Los Angeles. I fell in love with the place: the beach, the mountains, the desert. I fell in love with the dream: the celluloid, the sunshine, the spotlight. And I fell in love with a girl. She lived in West Hollywood. We met at a…
Read MoreHiding Out
My iTunes is always set to shuffle. Wilco comes on a lot, and always seems to match the mood. Right now, ‘The Lonely One’ is playing… for the third time. It’s not just that it fits lyrically. Moreover, I’m an acoustic guitar, pedal steel, piano and violin kinda’ lonesome. The absence of work, a race…
Read MoreAbout five years ago, my buddy Rob won a trip for two to Aruba in a contest. He has two twin brothers, so he couldn’t take just one. So he took me. On our taxi ride from the airport to our villa, the driver was effusive about her 16-year-old daughter who had just been voted…
Read MoreRecording “Shiver”
I started the day at Food Emporium’s Coin Star. Being in financial dire straits, as I am, I finally dragged my bag of quarters, dimes, and such down there for redemption. I was hoping for enough cash to make it through Tuesday (pay day). Instead, I found myself with… $63.74. In New York, that’ll get…
Read MoreBethesda
I passed a Nike poster hyping the NYC Marathon tonight and wondered, ‘How am I going to finish?’ I stared at the studio calendar and wondered, ‘How are we going to finish?’ But that’s just because I’m shredded at the moment, here in the desk lamp half-light, now, at 12:18 on a school night. I…
Read MoreI needed a shot in the arm. I got Michael Stipe. And I feel fine. I got a phone call around four o’clock. “If you’re fanatical enough to see REM two nights in a row, I just came across a pair of tickets for tonight.” Ends up, I am fanatical enough. So I hitched a…
Read MoreWe Are Made To Persist
I was out the door at 6:45 this morning. It was 42 degrees. I watched the sun rise over Sheep’s Meadow waiting for my running partner. The sky was clear. Everything was still. She overslept, so I ran alone. And while it was a bit of a chore, I felt so much better for the…
Read MoreMost mornings, I walk east on 47th Street. The sun rarely fails to greet me there, squinting through the trees. And though it fades away earlier now, for that moment, all is right with the world, even if it isn’t.
Read MoreOk, Why I have a non-sexual crush on cellist Julia Kent, and why I’m wearing a knight’s helmut (click click), in 100 words or less… She comes in, expecting to play on ‘California,’ ‘New York,’ ‘Shiver,’ and ‘Hollywood Arms.’ She nails three parts — melody, harmony, plus solo — on ‘Shiver,’ elevating melencholy to melen-muthafuckin’-choly.…
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