“Come and have a look at this, Chandlowe,” said the entomologist to the art detective. Chandlowe shuffled over to the library table and the circle of light from the one lightbulb that still worked on the fourth floor. Behind him, in the dimness, library patrons…
Oh god. Middle school. Why is it such a weird time? You move to a small town in upstate New York. You start getting chunky. You have to wear deodorant and shower in gym class. You grow, and later block out the memory of having…
Okay, kids, gather round. Come up close where you can see. Can any of you tell me what this is? No, it’s not an iPhone. Are you kidding? I know it’s about the same size and shape, but look how thick it is. It has…
This story isn’t about 1985. 1985 wasn’t a good year for me. 1984 had been okay, because even though we’d moved away from Florida, the first school I’d really liked and the first girl I’d ever kissed with full romantic intentions (little more than a…
Now it’s time to introduce you to one of the great loves of my life. Maybe not so much these days (I’m preoccupied by other things), and not in 1984 (I was too young), but somewhere maybe just after I hit puberty, the love hit…
I went to three different schools for third grade. One was in South Carolina, where I spent most of my early years; another in upstate New York, not far from where I’d end up going to middle school and high school; and then finally I…
If I’d grown up a decade earlier, I imagine I’d probably have had more achievable dreams as a kid. But my childhood, probably not unlike that of most American kids growing up in the 20th century, was filled with superheroes. So all I really wanted…
And so we arrive at the first entry in this project that discusses music I’m certain I heard in the year it was actually released. I picked you out, I shook you up and turned you around Turned you into someone new I wasn’t working…
I was astonished the first time someone told me they liked Siouxsie and the Banshees better than the Cure. It had never occurred to me to question that the Cure were the more important band — the more serious, the more heartfelt, the more majestic….
XTC versus Adam Ant Content versus form Fighting for their place in rock and roll There is no right or wrong — They Might Be Giants, “XTC vs. Adam Ant” I see what they were driving at, but I think XTC do content and form…