Out Of Your Head

I got stoned tonight for the first time since 1998. Ok, not really. But it was definitely a contact high. Those Phish fans, they sure can smoke down, huh? But lemme’ back up… How did the consummate alt.pop singer/songwriter fan end up at a Phish show? Bobbing his head and getting dangerously close to doin’…

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Don’t Be Dick

I am haunted. Everything wrong with my life was floating above me in sleep whispering, “Wake up!” So I did. From my last post I too might wonder what on earth could possibly be wrong with this Benjamin Wagner fellow. I will be the first to concede that all is quite well, in contrast, anyway,…

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Reasons For Being

There is ergonomic beauty in the way a cowboy hat fits just so between one’s thumb and middle finger, and slides gracefully onto one’s head. Still, I felt a little anomalous wearing mine on the final leg of my five-hour, ferry to car to subway commute from Block Island. Our 36-hour adventure began at five…

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Gone Giggin’

T-minus nine hours until The Mighty Reverend Nikoli Volkov points his shiny black Maxima up towards Block Island for a Smith Family performance of epic proportions. (Oh, and I’m playing a solo set too!) We’re aiming to catch the 9AM Port Judith-Block Island Ferry, hence the early departure. Once on island, Kev, Nick ‘n I…

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Goin’ Mobile

I’m gettin’ itchy britches. I’m not entirely sure why — I have my sources of inspiration — but I gotta’ get international, like, soon. Excepting Hawaii (which I think I must, as a) it’s in the U.S., and b) I was there for a wedding), I haven’t left the contiguous United States in some ten…

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I crave full days, the ones with full hearts, full heads, and full experiences. Yesterday was one. Perhaps later I will have the where-with-all to share details. For now, the best I can offer you, Dear Reader, is this brief sketch. 7AM- Wake, Home 930AM- Meeting, MTV News 3PM- Lunch, Green Symphony 6PM- Pitcher Stella,…

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Cinemania

I never thought I be that guy, but there I was, walking into the Beekman Theater to see an advance screening of ‘The Terminal’ with a plastic Toys-R-Us bag in hand. See, here’s the thing: I work in Times Square across the street from the Empire of Toys. In my eight years here, I’ve taken…

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One

In his brief 365 days in the world, Ethan Baruch Wagner has not only mastered “Hi” and “By Bye,” he’s not only begun walking (God help us), but he’s also reminded at least one 32-year-old just how precious and beautiful each moment here on Earth can be. In an effort to honor and appreciate this…

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I want to be eloquent, moving, original, interesting… but I’ve got nothing for you. Well, maybe not nothing, but very little. Every day can’t be poetry, ok? I absolutely ran out of steam today. Maybe it was the run this morning. Maybe it was the hour and a half Video Music Awards meeting (they’re three…

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Blockhead

There’s a framed photo of me on a shelf in my living room. I’m wearing a white t-shirt, a backwards blue baseball cap with silver wings, and a slight smile. I’m holding a pen, and scribbling furiously on a sheet of loose leaf paper. That’s all that is evident from the photo; memory reveals context.…

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