personal history
Thank You, R.E.M.
They weren’t my first favorite band—that honor goes to Queen, and next, the Police—but R.E.M. certainly had the biggest impact on me, from high school into adulthood. How did I find out about them? Rolling Stone magazine, probably. I know I bought the second album, Reckoning, first. I was 15 years old and music was [...]
September Remembered
I don’t get into work real early. I used to, in the early ’90s I guess, but it wasn’t really in my true nature. Anyway, that’s why I wasn’t yet in Manhattan when the towers were struck on September 11, 2001. I was all ready to go in. Showered, shaved. In the mornings I listen [...]
If I Had a Blog in 1992
I guess zines still exist, right? But there would certainly be a lot more if it weren’t for the Interweb, which brought production and distributions costs down to, uh, zero. Anyway, while I worked in Ewing, New Jersey, in 1992, I contributed a couple of essays to a small magazine put together by friends at [...]
Daniel Johnston Day
Yesterday I wore my Daniel Johnston t-shirt. No special reason; it was near the top of my t-shirt drawer. (T-shirt drawer #1, anyway. I have a lot of t-shirts.) I first learned of Daniel Johnston when I was a college DJ at Pittsburgh’s WRCT. The station had a recording of Daniel doing an impromptu over-the-phone [...]
Memorial Day Sense Memory
With mom-and-pop establishments sealed up tight on national holidays, we—the non-food-preparers—must rely on the kindness of chain restaurants. And that’s how I ended up at my local Qdoba Mexican Grill for lunch today. (I don’t know where dinner will be, but Blimpie is on the short list.) For about a month, a sign has been [...]
Dance Hall Days
I don’t know how you counted down to 2011, but I was counting 1-2-3, pause, 5-6-7. It was a pre-midnight salsa lesson at a small club on the Upper West Side. Maybe I was a just a little bit smoother on my feet than my friend Mary Ellen might’ve reasonably expected. The truth was, this [...]
Emails Found on my Old Computer, Episode #3
10/12/03 i was walking out of benny’s [pizzeria], and saw benny sitting outside. “i was looking for you!” he says. “i want you to call this girl.” he pulls out a receipt with a name and number written on it in black Sharpie. “Nice girl,” he says. I ask, “What’s her story? Is she tall? [...]
Memoir I Have No Intention of Writing, Chapter 1
I’ve been astonished by the onslaught of memoirs, in general but also specifically. Why would we as a society care in the slightest about a detailed account of random people’s lives? I suppose it’s tied to the prevalent oversharing that gave birth to the blogosphere (yes, I know where I’m writing this), the realm of [...]
My First Job
Many people might think that I was born at my current place of employment. The truth is, I did have a previous job at a different company for 10 long months. “I can smile about it now, but at the time it was terrible,” as Morrissey once crooned. I’d been hopelessly unemployed the summer after [...]
Strangers on a Plane
5/2/03, 8:13 p.m., America West flight 683, Phoenix to Newark, seat 9C I’m a schmuck in some regards. I dream of sitting next to a beautiful woman on a plane. Now I am. With no foreseeable threat from the kindly ethnic middle-aged fellow on the other side. White t-shirt, glasses hanging from it, jeans. Noticed [...]
Jack Silbert, curator