Posts Tagged ‘Truth & Beauty’
The Hurt Locker
A few months after September 11th, the Department of Homeland Security launched a website called ready.gov. The site’s initial incarnation was ostensibly a series of updated ’50s brochures: what to do in the event of nuclear blast (duck and run), what to do in the event of building collapse (duck), etc. (It’s since been significantly…
Read MoreThe Hagley Fireworks (Or, In Consideration Of Teflon, Kevlar & The Apollo Space Program)
All I knew was that Abbi signed us up for “The Fireworks” back home in Wilmington, Delaware, and that the tailgating started early so I had to catch an early train out of the city and wear nice pants. “The Fireworks,” it ends up, are an annual tradition at The Hagley Museum in Greenville, Delaware,…
Read MoreSurrender
By the time I finally powered up my PC precisely 267 hours after logging off for vacation, I’d accrued 1887 emails, 19 voice mails, and 12 Facebook requests. Four hours later, I’d whittled down those various missives to a crucial total of thirty-two. Yesterday morning, less than twelve hours after my eight hour GCM-MIA-LGA commute,…
Read MoreRun, Part II (Or, Know Your Enemy)
Who needs the self help section at Barnes & Noble? I have an iPod. I don’t need to tell you that last week was a motherf*cker. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. Ask John Edwards, Manny Ramirez, or Allison Iraheta. They all had tough weeks. Heck, ask anyone on Earth these days: economic meltdown,…
Read MoreBroken Glass
Sunday afternoon, long after the hangover recovery run, the ham, egg and cheese sandwich, the last cup of coffee and final page of The Sunday New York Times, Abbi and I sat on the couch channel surfing. In my experience, asking my wife if she wants to watch a documentary tends towards a gentle “No…
Read MoreThe Death Of The Hero
The first time I played a proper rock ‘n roll venue was in the fall of 1991. Before the audience, the amps, the lights — before anything, really — the first thing I noticed stepping onto that dismal, sticky, black-box Lost Horizon stage (don’t look for it; it’s not there) was a hand-made sign reading…
Read MoreThe Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust (1871–1922), the French essayist and novelist who believed that in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. Since July 1993, Vanity Fair has devoted the back page of its magazine to the Proust Questionnaire,…
Read MoreThe Place That We Are In
I’ll admit that I was self-consciously aware of my solitude there in the woods adjacent to Chris and Meg’s Andover, Vermont, weekend house. I knew the silence was to be relished, stored away for safe keeping when I needed it. And so I relished the swish of the snow beneath my shoes, the twitter of…
Read MoreWhen I Look At The Stars
The trick to growing up, I think, is retaining enthusiasm. I’m not talking about relinquishing one’s critical faculties, I’m talking about retaining an appreciation of all things. We live in a soundbite-fueled, 24-hour, wide-screen, Technicolor Gotcha! Culture. Mean girls, hipsters, red carpet takedowns, partisan bickering, magazine snarking — it all adds up to something awful.…
Read MoreTop Ten Stories Of 2008
What with getting engaged, then promoted, and then married — not to mention honeymooning on the other side of the world and releasing a few albums — it didn’t seem possible that this year could possibly top 2007. And nothing will ever top that happy day last October. Still, 2008 gave it the old college…
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