Published in Tell Your Story·PinnedMember-onlyNights Not SpentAt a friend’s house — “Why do they have to spend the night at someone else’s house?” my wife asks in that way she has of trying to translate her great leap of faith from Persian to American culture. “It’s a rite of passage for kids,” I say. “Something that bonds them to each other…Nonfiction8 min readNonfiction8 min read
Published in Tell Your Story·PinnedMember-onlyGender PerfectWhen a writing class reveals certain truths — The four of us — my wife, me, my best friend and his husband — share Japanese deviled eggs, smoky bourbons, curry, and ramen. I don’t remember the street or the name of this place, though it’s on Manhattan’s upper east side. We tell stories of work — of privilege…Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Published in The Riff·PinnedMember-onlyWith Liberty and Justice For AllRemembering certain pledges — Politics and music have always co-existed, and sometimes the bed they sleep in has sagged or even broken. I remember when President Ronald Reagan co-opted Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as if Ronnie would ever listen to, much less understand, that anthem of the working people and how nothing really…Music4 min readMusic4 min read
PinnedMember-onlyThoughts About Club QThe bar, not the lunatic fringe group — Last night as I was still processing yet another mass shooting at a public venue, my wife and I spoke about fear. “It’s all this fear of things we don’t understand,” she said. And while I agreed with her essentially, I nevertheless wondered why it’s so fucking complicated to understand…Transgender6 min readTransgender6 min read
Published in Human Parts·PinnedMember-onlyTehran to Birmingham, South by SouthwestA mixed love story — When I’m a little boy home with the flu, my mother treats me with Campbell’s chicken noodle soup; sometimes it’s chicken with rice. In Birmingham, 1963, when I’m seven years old, a bomb goes off in a downtown Baptist church, killing four. No one I know says much at all…Iran5 min readIran5 min read
19 hours agoMember-onlyBlackboard ResidueClean those erasers — I am not a particularly clean person. I am one of those people who through the pandemic didn’t wash his hands often enough and when he did, did NOT soak them in warm water for at least thirty seconds. And I finally got a mild case of Covid recently, even…History5 min readHistory5 min read
Published in Plethora Of Pop·2 days agoMember-onlyRacing the Road KingsCrossover Country 1965 proves difficult to rate — Some of us, or let me just say I assumed that the #1 song of 1965 according to Billboard Magazine’s Hot 100 would have to be a Beatles song. I’m not precise enough to have guessed which one, but I would have never believed that it would take seven notches…Country Music3 min readCountry Music3 min read
Published in The Riff·3 days agoMember-onlyNot Guilty ListeningLet’s be honest here — Currently I’m reading former Lush and current Piroshka singer/guitarist Miki Berenyi’s music memoir, Fingers Crossed (NineEight Books 2022). I will confess to never knowing anything about Lush, who combatted the BritPop wave of 1990’s western music with rawer indie sounds. Truth be known, I’ve also come very late to the…Music3 min readMusic3 min read
Published in The Riff·6 days agoMember-onlyMy Record Store — A Gun Free ZoneA refuge from insanity — Between hearing crazier antics from George Santos, reading of more declassified documents found in President Biden’s environs, and, of course, being bombarded by the completely un-traumatic mass shootings that dot America’s landscape much as See Rock City signs used to haunt the old barns and trestles on every scenic highway…Music6 min readMusic6 min read
Published in Plethora Of Pop·Jan 22Member-onlySchools, Angels, and the Happiest GirlCrossover Country in 1972 — There are no anomalies in AM Hit Radio, circa my youth (1962–75). There are, however, many jarring juxtapositions. Like the position of two songs on the year-end Hot 100 Billboard charts for 1972. The # 75 song for that year was Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” Think what you want about…Music3 min readMusic3 min read