I’ve written about The Carpenters before, focusing on the underlying darkness I always perceived in their music. Todd Haynes’ shadowy, subversive Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (in which his idiosyncratic choice to use Barbie dolls instead of actors actually amplifies the biopic’s emotional impact), as well as Sonic Youth’s hazy, nihilistic cover of “Superstar”, stand... Continue Reading →
Boston Common, Solar Eclipse 4/8/2024
It won’t happen again till I am “old”Yet instead of proper eyewear I chase down street art coordinatesI fall into an unexpected bookshop and buy an anthology of May SartonAnd when I cross the public park in sunlight grown suddenly strange My impulse - somehow - is never to look skywardBut to turn around and... Continue Reading →
Knowledge I Don’t Know What to Do with.
Last night, in the Faneuil Hall Hyatt in Boston, full of too much espresso martini from a neighborhood bar… I read an obituary that made me cry. I had only a very indirect, long-obsolete association with the departed. My partner was planning where to sightsee the next day. I cried silently in the bathroom for... Continue Reading →
Whistle Stop (or, My 15-Year Workiversary)
The department-wide message announcing my fifteen-year anniversary with my company went out on the first workday of 2024. My head ached vaguely from having had two varieties of libation the night before. I was on about three hours of sleep. And, as I have done for nearly four years, I had de-activated an 8:15 alarm... Continue Reading →
Wherein Your Humble Narrator Fills in Some Blanks (+ thoughts on adult friendship)
2023 saw a lot of me writing about a thing without writing about it. That is what felt right at the time. Now that some time has passed, I think I can say what I’m about to. You see, last summer there was a birthday. A birthday I might’ve been embarrassed to have even remembered.... Continue Reading →
84 is the new 27 (my last entry of 2023)
Earlier this month, I strayed back again to the Beacon, that old renovated theater near my hometown - the same one that stood witness to my odd, post-travel storm of ambivalence last spring - to see one of my formative influences, Judy Collins. She is 84 and still touring. I heard about the show only... Continue Reading →
Dangerous Speculations.
As an Intro to Creative Writing college student back in ‘00/‘01, influenced by certain assigned readings, I developed a thing for writing dramatic monologues. Even before that, as a little school kid, I’d occasionally try writing from the point of view of people I found frustratingly inscrutable. I’ve always felt a bit smarmy doing it... Continue Reading →
Insufferable Born Performers Stricken with Pre-Pubescent Neurosis Unite!
This past weekend, the weekend of my forty-first birthday, I took myself out to see the Joan Baez documentary I Am A Noise. The experience might best be summed up by a conversation I overheard between an usher and a senior citizen on the way out of the theater: Usher: How was it? Senior Citizen:... Continue Reading →
On Lost and Replacement Homes (or, alternately: My COVID Vacation)
My last entry already feels like a sharply different era. After the recent abandonment of some ancient musty daydreams, and the onset of something close to resignation… …of course I finally got COVID. My improbable years-long wellness streak couldn’t go on forever, especially with my making a conscious effort to get out on the local... Continue Reading →
“Make Your Name Like A Ghost”
I’ve spent the past few days exploring the cybertunnels of the subreddit r/limerence. There, folks spanning at least three generations attempt to publicly process their obsessive, unrequited feelings for other individuals. Feelings for happily married high school exes that symptomize a late-onset existentialism. Feelings for senior workplace colleagues with whom a relationship would be career... Continue Reading →
The Sold Kingdom 