When you disappoint Don Cheadle on Twitter.
Read moreTiny Music… Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop Turns 20
The intro here talks about how consumed everyone was with “authenticity” and detached irony in 1990s music. It’s 100% spot on and makes me reflect on how much of a complicated pain in the ass talking about music was then. I think such an approach to music was a smaller thread of a larger overall dynamic about fearing positivity and genuine feeling that in certain respects crippled my generation and in many ways continues to do so, both culturally and with respect to our larger lives.
One of the things I’ve worked on in the past few years – not always successfully, but dammit I try – is to try to experience things for what they are and to try to find joy in them first before looking for flaws and seeking to denigrate the experience. No, not everything is for me, but learning that it’s enough to simply say “eh, not my bag” and moving on rather than excoriating things and those who love them is profoundly liberating.
Blackout
It’s 3-2 in the fifth inning of Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. I have no idea how the runs scored. I’m supposed to be paying attention to this but instead I’m watching myself watch the game from about two feet to the left of myself and a foot or so back. The man […]
Read moreBlackout
It’s 3-2 in the fifth inning of Game 7 of the 2011 World Series. I have no idea how the runs scored. I’m supposed to be paying attention to this but instead I’m watching myself watch the game from about two feet to the left of myself and a foot or so back. The man […]
Read moreApple reinvents the iPhone 5
There’s a story I heard years ago when I lived in Michigan. It was told by someone lamenting the state of General Motors in the 1980s. I assume it was apocryphal because it’s a bit too pat, but as is the case with a lot of apocryphal stories, its seeming plausibility says a lot about […]
Read moreNot all heroes wear capes
Yesterday, as is the case with most days, I got into an argument with some random person on Twitter over something I wrote. I rarely if ever make such arguments personal and this wasn’t a pitched battle. No one got super angry. I took some issue with the argument style of the other guy – […]
Read moreCarl’s Jr.’s CEO and his Contempt for Human Beings
Andy Puzder, the CEO of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, is quoted in this article complimenting the idea of a fully-automated fast food restaurant. Clearly coveting it, in fact. The technology which would go into such automation is probably pretty cool and it could be useful to think about what it might mean for our future […]
Read moreSolitary rooting
I was interviewed today by someone doing some academic research about how mass media and the Internet impacts cultural preferences. His specific inquiry was how sports fandom has been transformed by cable television, the web and stuff like that. He chose me to interview because he stumbled across some things I wrote about how I […]
Read moreThe Cactus League
Last night in Arizona before heading home. This is my seventh spring training trip. Two of them were to Florida (2010, 2014) and five to Arizona (2011-13, 2015-16). They’re all wonderful trips. It’s baseball. Beyond that there’s warmth and renewal to be found. In the past few years, as I’ve battled some depression, these trips […]
Read moreHow to grow old without being a jackass
I wrote this as part of a baseball post at NBC yesterday but figure it’s worth extracting for more general application here. The world has been going to hell in a hand basket, a generation at a time, since the beginning of time. It’s amazing it hasn’t gotten there yet, but surely it will soon. […]
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