And how we told a boy from a girl — Whatever else might be true, I LOVE this song beyond both reason and emotion: I haven’t heard a version of it that I don’t find stirring, cathartic even, but somehow this is the version that kicks me the hardest, that makes me want to cry and I don’t know…

Well-built with care — That’s my new stereo cabinet/record cabinet above. It’s made of pine with an early American stain and satin finish. Eventually, my turntable will sit on top, and beneath, I’ll file my very favorite albums — the ones I can’t live without, representing all genres and periods. I can’t quite estimate…

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the good times — One of the biggest and most unlikely pop hits of 1970 was Kris Kristofferson’s country standard, “For the Good Times.” Ray Price, basically a country singer who had already scored multiple hits on both the Country and Pop charts back in the late ’50s and early '60s, delivered this adult-themed…

As the past, present, and future become one — “I only miss you here every now and then Like the soft breeze Blowin up from the Caribbean’ Most Novembers I break down and cry But I can’t remember If we said goodbye…” — Steve Earle How is it possible to miss deeply what’s still there? It’s possible because I…

Looking back at Daft Punk — I might as well begin with this: We’re in New York, my friends Jacob and David and me. Jacob lives in the city and David and I are visiting. Jacob is gay, David and I aren’t, and so as we try to come up with what to do on this…

In an integrated town — Like most southern towns, Bessemer was not always integrated. I could have said “not ever integrated,” or I could have said “never really segregated.” Each has its truths depending on the public/private way we see our worldly and not-so-exclusive spheres. Once, in 1972, I was asked to volunteer time at…

Remembering certain Sundays — “Why can’t I face it? Am I too blind to see?” I remember that Sunday night, riding in the back seat with my brother as my father drove us home from visiting our grandmother, my father’s mother. The argument escalated before I understood its basis, the source of it all. …

From Whitman to Dickinson to now — It was fifth grade, a time when minds are awakening to so many hormonal and non-hormonal urges. I remember arguing with a friend, Mark, about whether Russia and the Soviet Union were the same entity. That was pretty heady of us. I remember my friend Randy quarterbacking our class to…

Getting lost in Prague — In episode 7 of the Hulu/FX series The Bear (“Forks”), Chef Terry (Olivia Colman) tells Richie about how she came to own the three-star restaurant where he’s working as a “stage.” She was down and out; her phone had died; and life just got too depressing since her earlier business…