Writer | Journalist | Storyteller
Since I have been home during the pandemic, which is coming up on a year now, I listen to music for most of the day, on most days. I always listened to music, but on my long drive to the office, I more often listened to podcasts than music, meaning people talking rather than singing. While at work, there were too many distractions and a physical structure that wasn’t all that conducive to public listening, so even though I would at times listen to my headphones, I did not regularly. I have a...
There was a comedian, it may have been Seinfeld, that had a bit about men hitting a style wall at some point in their lives. Some peak moment where they decide, this is as far as I’m going, this is the look I’m going with. Whatever it is. I find a lot of truth in that. For a time, we get drug along with whatever styles and trends come along, often because of availability more than choice, but there is some part of us that resists and prefers to wear what we thought was cool whenever we...
An ongoing series of things I would like to do, but most likely won’t, so I have decided that these would be good things to write about. 6. Produce A Play The stage setup would be fairly stark, a minimalistic expression of the world. It won’t really matter, because no one will remember much about the staging once the actors appear. Tom Waits, Sam Shepherd and Sam Elliot. Shepherd is dead and he’s irreplaceable so I’m going to substitute Nick Offerman. The gravitas of these three voices are...
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 This is a partial list of things I want to do, but probably won’t, so I will write about fictionally so that I’ll feel like I did. Not a complete list but I will continue to add to it as I think of them. 1. a bookstore called LMNO First of all, it needs a lazy cat with no interest in the outside world other than lounging about and being stroked by strangers. It would be a mix of new and used books, but a curated collection of just the best in all sorts of...
JOURNAL 2.01.21 We have a problem in America. It’s probably not what you think it is but is likely derivative of what I think it is, which is that people don’t read. Not that people can’t read, which is a different issue, but that people don’t read. They are no engaged with or inspired by words and language and ideas. A preponderance of America lacks the intelligence, empathy, and curiosity to learn, explore and sympathize, through the simple act of reading. They lack the desire to travel and...
Journal 1/17/21 The feeling comes over me every so often, like a wave. It can happen several times in a week, or once every several weeks. I can even go weeks and months without thinking about it at all. But eventually, it will find me, at the strangest, most inopportune time, unexpectedly and suddenly. An intense moment of sheer panic there is no meaning to life, no lasting point to any of it, and yet somehow I’ve managed to waste most of it so far and am certainly frittering away whatever I...
Journal 12.26.20 People are said to have talents, by which we mean something you are gifted with at birth and which you did not earn. Whereas a skill is something you hone over time, through hard work and determination. Aptitude might be considered the possibility that your talent, if honed, could become a skill. A talent is not always all that impressive. Sometimes it’s more like a party trick, like being able to whistle and hum at the same time, the type of thing you might do at a party...
Journal 12.18.20 I’ve always enjoyed Anne Lamott—ever since that summer day when I discovered her in a tiny, gay bookstore in Cape May, New Jersey and then sat in the park, on a bench, and read these little stories, and laughed and cried and wondered at life, while waiting for my girlfriend to get off work. She was sitting on a shelf, Anne not my girlfriend, just a trade paperback of the sort I used to read a lot of at that time, and I picked it up, read the back and maybe a few pages before...
JOURNAL : 12.16.20 The late, great Louis CK (he’s not dead yet, but I don’t know if we’re allowed to talk about him yet after he admitted to masturbating in front of people that were apparently not into this social abnormality). Anyway, Louis had this bit about how unappreciative we are concerning how amazing all the technology is. He told a story about being on an airplane when WiFi access on planes was first launched and the flight attendant explained to everyone that they had free Wifi...
JOURNAL : 12.15.20 The great thing about the English language is its ability to adapt and evolve over time, incorporating all manner of words and phrases, whether invented or borrowed, and even changing definitions, spelling, uses and meaning over time to fit the culture. People get upset by this, but that’s the entire point. The language doesn’t exist on its own, but is merely a means by which to communicate the culture. As the culture changes, so must our ability to communicate, so therefore...
Writer | Journalist | Storyteller
