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Chris and I pulled into the Richmond Airport Hotel & Convention Center just after midnight. We were bone tired from our full day at the Human Kindness Foundation, not to mention our three hour drive up to Richmond. The shoot (click here to read all about it) was intense; a thousand times more difficult than…

I’m not sure I even knew what the summer solstice was until college. My freshman dorm room lacked direct sunlight. It was in the interior of the building, with a window overlooking a ventalation shaft. I’m sure that’s not the sole reason for my near-depression that year, but it didn’t help. I’ve become acutely aware…

The credits had scarcely begun to roll when Kurt asked me, “So whaddya think?” Listen, the guy may be one of three reasons (along with Cameron Crowe and Chris Connelly) that I do what I do, but he clearly didn’t get the memo my Top Five Rules For Movie Screenings: 1) Never go to an…

My parents signed me up for piano lessons when I was about seven-years-old. Lessons were held at a small, Gothic conservatory on Lake Street in Oak Park, Illinois. Chris and I walked the quiet, tree-lined avenues dotted with Frank Lloyd Wright homes after school. The lobby’s white linoleum floors reflected cold, fluorescent lights. I sat…

Perhaps no film better summarizes popular culture’s dueling concept of The Weekend than the new classic, “Old School.” The Bed, Bath & Beyond vs. Mitchapalooza Conundrum, as it’s come be to called in Academia, is revealed in this one, hilarious scene. Frank: I told my wife I wouldn’t drink tonight. I got a big day…

My boss insisted I take the day off. I think his prime motivator was when I told him I’d punched a wall following a phone call with one of my, um, thicker colleagues. “You’re the happiest guy in the building, Ben. If you’re stressed out, I know we’re in trouble.” So I took today off.…

I caught a story on the local news as I pulled on my running shoes this morning about a mother of two from Staten Island who died when her minivan rolled off a cliff at a state park. That story was followed by one about a Brooklyn livery cab driver was killed in when his…

Ask me how I’m doing and I’ll tell you, “Fine.” Ask me again (“No, really, how are you doing?”) and I’ll tell you the truth. I’m feeling kinda lost. My life of late has felt like sound and fury, signifying nothing. My goal was to take this year easy, to stay off the road, play…

It was Family Weekend at Chez Wagner. My cousin Luke arrived from Bangkok Saturday morning. He’d been volunteering in a Bhutanese monestary for the last eighteen months. So his parents flew in from Colorado to greet him. His brother flew in from Chicago, two of his best friends from Los Angeles and Seattle, and with…