In fourth grade, my homeroom teacher conducted a game where every student had a fictional $1,000 to bid on fictional items. Apparently she was preparing us for our futures as eBay bidders. (As I think back on it, this was one of the rare examples of public school teaching me something useful.)
On Tuesday, new albums by Dinosaur Jr. and the Lemonheads came out, as my Facebook friend Matt reported. “It’s like it’s 1996 again,” he happily noted, and I agreed. Last week, I was hanging out with my Minnesota friend Jake and he was reminiscing about getting a KISS cake and a KISS T-shirt for his […]
From the “better late than never” file, Christophe Beck’s “Buffy” score is finally available on CD. It actually came out in 2008, and I just stumbled across it the other day in Best Buy. But 2008 was still five years after the series ended and seven years after Beck left the show. (He now primarily does film […]
1. I notice comedians now apologize for jokes if they offend someone. Can you imagine if musicians had to apologize for bad songs? “Sweet Home Alabama” attacks my eardrums every time I walk into a small-town bar, and I’ve never gotten a letter of apology from Lynyrd Skynyrd. Or what if politicians had to say […]
Like many overly sensitive guys in their (extremely) late 20s, I have a long-distance crush on Camera Obscura lead singer/songwriter Tracyanne Campbell. Yeah, I know I have to get in line, especially after the release of the band’s fourth album, “My Maudlin Career,” which came out in April.
I’m moving to Sedalia, Mo., to start a new job, so I’ll soon be racking up new positive and negative experiences. (Based on my first dalliance with the town and the job, it will be positive, but that’s balanced out by my naturally pessimistic attitude.)
There’s nothing like moving to make a person realize how much stuff he has. I recently unloaded 90 percent of my “Star Wars” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” collection on eBay, and I’m glad I did. (I had enough stuff that I was actually using the term “inventory” rather than “collection.”)
When I’m facing down a 10-hour drive, I like to devise strategies of how to make the trip go faster. New Camera Obscura album? Check. Guide to all the Twins radio affiliates so I can pull in the game as long as possible? Check. (I could actually still hear the Yankton, S.D., station in northern […]
1. I notice there has been a lot of anti-Shia LaBeouf sentiment lately. Geez. What did he ever do to you?
Hollywood has been sucking up to creatures of the night lately. Mirroring the hit “Twilight” franchise, Hollywood is up to its neck in vampires, staking tentpole movies and hyped-up TV shows on the fact that people suddenly seem to dig the bloodsuckers.