DISCLAIMER The following is an exercise, one shared with fellow blogger (and awesome girlfriend) KillerB (see her post on the matter...

It starts with the screen door slam. Not in a sun's going down, the kids coming inside, summer fun kind of way. No, there are no visions...

I recall sitting in my mother's bedroom at the far end of my childhood home.  Big picture windows flooded sunlight down on a cardboard...

The intimate concert hall was mostly dark.  The first performer, Erland (amazing, check them out), was lighting the room from the front...

The Avett Brothers have a way with lyrics, always managing to achieve something poetic and emotionally impacting without coming off as...

"You never know these days." An often uttered, rarely accurate line indicating that, indeed, the entire world is going to hell.  That no...

Who has the time to stay involved, what with the kids and the work and the new season of Game of Thrones (Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!)? It can...

November 14th, 2008 I admit, going into the show, to having little interest in The Hold Steady. In spite of years of discovering...

The entire affair was my responsibility. As of late, it had occurred, there had not been enough nights out. Enough letting loose....

It was the era of sitting on the floor of my childhood bedroom, a room covered in movie posters and concert bills, an ancient laptop...

Japandroids. Let's put aside that they've got the best band name ever (though, really, why would you?). The House The Heaven Built is an...

Author's note: this piece was originally written in July of 2009.  I'm posting this here for the first time in Anywhere The Needle Drops...

678. To make negative statements about an individual for attempting to expand their profession (for example, an actor giving a try to...

"I want to climb that hill." We left the restaurant, after enjoying an evening of  food and drink in a send off to Kyle, who was leaving...

I'm reading Tim Wise's recently updated edition of White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son.  Within, Wise recounts a...

We are not getting a rabbit. Why do we need a rabbit? We have two cats.  We're busy.  And our apartment is tiny.  Where would we put a...

A skinny white guy from rural Michigan reviews a hip-hop album. I haven't enjoyed one this much since Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted...

With three hours, thirty minutes and a handful of seconds past, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band wrapped up the first of two...

Last night, with ten years since I last saw their show, I stood before the Mighty Mighty Bosstones performing live. I made the two-hour...

It would be stupid to try and tell you that the music you’re listening to is like nothing you’ve ever heard before. The songs on the...