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Air
Saturday morning’s New York City Marathon training run threw off my entire weekend. It was an absolutely perfect morning. The air was cool and dry. The sky was piercing blue, filled with billowing white clouds. I was underslept, and underprepared, and spent nearly three hours in my head, which was way too much time. Three…
Read MoreShine, Shine, Shine
I gather all the news I need on the weather report. It’s an unusual pleasure when what it feels like is what it actually is. It usually feels much different than it actually is. And there is usually very little evidence or scientific data to weigh what it feels like against what it is. You…
Read MoreCome Down Now (But We’ll Stay)
Got home from work at 8:30, called dad, and unpacked some baggage… From Duane Reade: one bottle (150) daily multivitamins, one bottle (50) generic ibuprofin. From D’Agastino’s: one (1) Mama Celeste Personal Pizza, one (1) 20 oz. Samuel Adams Ale, 1.5 quart Breyer’s All Natural Vanilla, one (1) bag Happy Herbert Oat Bran Pretzels, 8.3…
Read MoreThe Only Living Boy In New York
Dude, I got it. We’ll play a rock show, drink a bunch of PBR, take a wicked long cab ride home from Brooklyn at three in the morning and then — check this out, this is where it gets good — we’ll go to the dentist at 8:00 a.m.!!! F’in’ genius, Wagner. I’m in! Note…
Read MoreAre You In Or Are You Out?
I sorted 42 pounds of laundry into three heaping bags this morning, and hauled it to the Second Wave Laundromat on the corner of 55th & Ninth. It’s the first step in a massive existential house cleaning operation to gear up for what promises to be my biggest Q4 ever. In the simplest terms, and…
Read MoreNew Slang
It was a total nightmare. Everything was going wrong. I couldn’t get my olive-colored army pants on. The zippers on my black suede Smurf boots were sticking. I was wearing a red mesh sleeveless shirt. And sunglasses, always sunglasses: big, brown plastic 70s things. When I finally made it on stage, my band mates were…
Read MoreExit Music (For A Film)
Greetings from the Minneapolis – St. Paul International Airport where, like other points of departure and arrival, there is no joy. It used to be that couples greeted one another with long, emphatic embraces, that families wept openly at their good fortune to be reuned, and that children giggled and skipped in anticipation of their…
Read MoreTimeline
My cursor is blinking as I ponder some summation, understanding, or meaning, from my five days back home in the Middle West. I’m not sure there is any. Except that Waterloo, Iowa, is a long way from New York, New York. If you take a left out of the parking lot of the Country Inn…
Read MoreTop Five Answers
I rode 80 miles today. When I tell you that my ass is sore, I’m talking about a kind of ache that, unless you’ve sat on a bike for six hours a day for two days, you’ll never know. It rained all day. I rode alone. What does one do on a bike for six…
Read MoreThe Hills Of Iowa
There are hills in Iowa. They are rolling ribbons of green and brown topped by rows of soy beans and corn stretching off in every direction. They are capped by an endless sky, and traversed by roads that go on forever. I’m sitting on my cousins’ couch in North Liberty, IA. Inside, three generations of…
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