Blog Posts

This is funny. Or alarming. Or both. I’ve re-learned an important life lesson in the last few weeks. Remember when you were taught how to write a persuasive essay in grammar school? The form is simple: state your argument in the thesis, and support it with at least three data points. (I’m not sure that’s…

Like a lot of guys of my generation, Chris Suchorsky’s mind was blown by “The Empire Strikes Back.” What distinguished Chris most of the rest of us, though, was how geeked out he was by the making-of documentary he saw on HBO. When Chris saw Kevin Smith’s no-budget, 1994 Sundance phenomena, “Clerks,” he wanted in…

“Waking their latest triumph, ‘Penthouse,’ from its mordant and mellow foundation, Wareham and Sean Eden’s wall of swirling, simmering guitars blared a full-tilt, cosmic radio clamor.” That’s my review of Luna’s September 1995 Tramp’s performance. I especially like the phrase “cosmic radio clamor.” I wanted to be Lester Bangs so badly. That concert review was…

It was fairly apparent fairly quickly that Abbi and I had something special together. Above all, our relationship was low-key, well-paced, and light on drama. It wasn’t (and isn’t) all sunsets, walks in the park, long runs, and bouquets flowers (though there was all that). There was (and remains) a healthy dose of constructive narrative…

It was just a week ago this morning that I sent off my application to be a selected to be a member of The Des Moines Register’s Triathlon Team. A week later, the word is in, and the word is good. Congratulations! You have been selected to be a member of The Des Moines Register’s…

In U2’s “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4 / A shot rings out in the Memphis sky.” Martin Luther King, Jr. was, in fact, assassinated at 6:01 pm on April 4, 1968 — forty years ago this very moment. Bono has since conceded his mistake, and expressed his dissatisfaction…