Posts by Benjamin
Behind The Music: “Giving Up The Ghost”
I was standing on the 79th Street subway station just a few days prior to the release of “Heartland” in November, 2005, when the phrase “giving up the ghost” came to me. “Somehow,” as I wrote a few years later, “It summarized everything that I was (and still am) going through, specifically, letting go of…
Read MoreHy-Vee Triathlon: 14 Days And Counting…
When I applied for the coveted Hy-Vee Triathlon Des Moines Register Blogger gig, I described myself as a “reluctant weekend warrior.” Warrior might be a bit of a stretch. I’m more knave than night, more corporal than general. But it is fairly apparent that the bulk of my distance training occurs on weekends. Here’s a…
Read MoreDaylight Is Coming (And No One Is Watching But Me)
In 1910, director D.W. Griffith and his acting troop (Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, amongst others) were sent west by the Biograph Company. There, in a small village named after landowner Harvey Wilcox’s summer home, Griffith filmed the first movie ever shot in Hollywood, “In Old California.” Movie-makers began heading west in droves, largely…
Read More“The Invention Of Everything Else” Track Listing
My brand-new CD, “The Invention Of Everything Else,” will be released on Authentic Records on June 18th. The ten track collection (my first LP since 2005’s “Heartland”) is a full-band, mostly-acoustic release, featuring guitarist Chris Abad, bassist Tony Maceli and drummer Ryan Vaughn, plus The Nadas’ guitarist Ross VanderWerf, guest vocalists Jamie Leonhart, Stephanie Walsmith,…
Read MoreThe Screening Of Your Lifelong Dream
The first time I visited Los Angeles, my friend Matt Kinney drove me up high above the Hollywood to Griffith Observatory. There, I sat in on a bench eating an In-N-Out burger as Matt gave me the lay of the land. “There’s Downtown. That’s Century City. Santa Monica is over there…” I remember feeling awed…
Read MoreMTV Movie Awards Go On As Universal Studios Fire Burns
“That chemical smell,” the security guard said, “Is our archives burning.” We assembled in the lobby, then began down the hill. Not surprisingly, Lankershim Boulevard was strewn with orange cones and Los Angeles’ finest. Most of the Universal Studios gates were barricaded. After a short detour (and a few wrong turns) we made to Gate…
Read MoreUniversal Studios Fire Threatens MTV Movie Awards
I woke to the sound of a helicopter swooping what sounded like mere feet overhead. Moving towards the window of my hotel room, a column of black smoke billowed where the mountains used to be, then flattened like an anvil just a few hundred feet overhead. The air was cast a gauzy, grayish-orange. Four helicopters…
Read MoreViva La Vida (Or, Death And All His Friends)
I’m sitting next to Charlize Theron in the fifth row of The Gibson Amphitheater when the string section walks in. Coldplay, a little matchy-match in their quasi-revolutionary, epilette-laden outfits, tear into the hook: four synthy chords and a house-inspired beat. Behind them, naked, desaturated Romanesque soldiers storm an ancient gate. The stage, once cast is…
Read MoreWithout Love It Ain’t Much
Ok, so here’s my super-glamorous life on location at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, part two. It’s 10:27. R.E.M. — my favorite band of, like, all time — is performing exactly 2.4 miles away at The Hollywood Bowl. For a minute, I considered jogging over there (Driving in L.A.? Not so fun.). And then I…
Read MoreGoodnight, Hollywood Boulevard
Invariably, every time an event like the 2008 MTV Movie Awards pops up, I’m on the receiving end of all sorts of comments about how cool, glamourous or sexy my job is. So let me set the record straight. True, I woke to the sun rising over Mountain Wilson. And yes, the air smells like…
Read More