Posts Tagged ‘Rock & Roll’
Working On A Dream
Every morning, I walk to work swaddled in headphones. At worst, headphones protect me from the bombast of New York City: horns, sirens, jets and helicopters. At best, though, they deliver me effortlessly to my corporate doorstep. On Friday, those headphones were blaring Bruce Springsteen’s latest title track, “Working On A Dream.” I’m not quite…
Read MoreCome On Up For The Rising
It took less than an hour for my inaugural cynicism to fade. It wasn’t the bunting, the banners, or the red, white and blue. It wasn’t The Mall, the monuments, or the museums. It wasn’t even hope, change, or unity. It was Bruce. My colleague, Gil, and I were walking off lunch with a long…
Read MoreForever & Always
You may recall that one of the “A Holiday Benefit, Vol. II” silent auction items was a “Custom Benjamin Wagner Song.” This was the pitch: “Singer/songwriter will collaborate with YOU on a song. At the end of the process, you’ll get two (2) signed CDs with YOUR song plus original album art. Minimum Bid: $75.”…
Read MoreTop Ten Songs Of 2008
I’ve said it before: music discovery is a young man’s game. Try as I may, I can’t keep up with what’s new. Even with my day job. It all sounds like a rehash of The Strokes to me. I spend all my time listening to This American Life, Fresh Air, and On The Media anyway.…
Read MoreA Special “Holiday” Offer On Behalf Of The Kids
I watch the news. I appreciate that times are tough. And I read the blogs, so I know that few people buy CDs anymore. Still, lemme make one final appeal to you on behalf of kids in Brooklyn who need somewhere safe to go after school, and wanna’ learn how to write (coming from a…
Read MoreThe Band Goes Commando (Or, The 40-Year-Old Virgin’s Laser-Sighted Paintball Gun)
It was an unusual text message, even for 8:41 on a Friday night. “Man up, son!” Ends up Chris Abad’s little bother, Gabe, was celebrating his fifteenth birthday on Saturday by gathering a few friends downwind from a landfill to pepper one other with gunfire. Paintball bullets, but still. “Tony and Jamie are coming,” Chris…
Read More“A Holiday Benefit, Vol. II” Takes Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A few years ago now, I returned to my alma mater, Syracuse University, to speak to students about how to get a job (or, more specifically, how I got my job, and lessons I’ve learned that might be of some valuable to them). It’s a speech I would later give at Emerson College, and have…
Read More“A Holiday Benefit, Vol. II” Release – Photos
“A Holiday Benefit, Vol. II” In Sixty Seconds
Listen, I know I’m prone to hyperbole, but last night’s Rebel Spirit Music Presents: A Holiday Benefit, Vol. II” album release party was hands-down the single-most meaningful, beautiful and excellent artistic and community-oriented thing of which I’ve ever been a part. There wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch. And were I not a) exhausted,…
Read More“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” Video Premiere
I like Christmas well enough, but what I really love are Christmas songs. “Do They Know It’s Christmas” rocked my brace-faced, junior high world. I bought the single, and raced home from Tredyffrin-Easttown Middle School every afternoon to catch the video on MTV. In high school, my brother, Chris, and I used to drive around…
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