The closing track of the Japandroids’ second album, Celebration Rock, is a song called “Continuous Thunder”. This is one of my favorite love songs in existence. It’s loud, it’s sweet, it’s corny, and it acknowledges that love is a messy reckless endeavor. It’s two people willing to go arm in arm out into a storm, knowing that […]

Samuel Butler’s Hudibras is a 17th century poem parodying the classic hero. It is accredited as one of the earliest works of the mock-heroic genre. When tales of the overzealous savior exhausted the monoculture, satirists began turning hero epics on their head, often putting a fool in the role of hero. Butler’s poem centers around an imbecilic knight […]

Who is the killer? This is the central question to every murder-mystery that’s ever been written. In the endless catalog of whodunits made for TV, the best shows have little concern for the answer. HBO’s latest drama, Sharp Objects, an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name, begins with their version of the […]

The week’s nostalgia continues with the band many of us grew up with. With a new album out on Friday, what is the Dave Matthews Band in 2018?

1998 was a gentle time for rock music. Between the grunge era and the revival of new wave, a smoother, acoustically charged singer-songwriter format dominated the airwaves. This was a great time for sad white men—okay, every era has been a good time for sad white men—but the late 90’s had a surplus of dudes […]

Just like that, Atlanta came back with a literal bang. Donald Glover’s searing FX series returned with an opening scene taking the audience back to a pocket of impoverished America where playing Xbox from your couch is as seamless to your day as violence and death. Things that are commonplace depend very much on what […]

“You yell barracuda, everybody says ‘huh, what?’ You yell ‘shark!’ and we’ve got a panic on our hands…” This is the Mayor of Amity Island, Larry Vaughn, pleading with Chief Brody to consider the consequences of exposing a dangerous truth of their pristine island. Jaws is a monster movie about outsiders defeating a threat in […]

“What are you gonna do with that big bonus check? You’re gonna blow it on yourself, I hope.” “Who me? Heck, no!” This is one of my favorite exchanges from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. When you’ve seen this movie a thousand times, you take pleasure in its more elusive moments. Every December, Christmas Vacation recaptures […]

I just finished a well-written piece on healthcare reform. The author did a brilliant exposition on profit-driven insurance providers and how shareholder value dictates life and death for seriously ill patients. I’m alerting everyone I know to give it a read. I’m also alerting them that it’s fake news. The proliferation of online platforms for […]

There’s a memorable sound bite from this year’s lauded pop-culture hit, The People vs. OJ Simpson, in which Courtney B. Vance’s remarkable portrayal of Johnnie Cochran implores us to “choose a side!” He says it with such disdain for indifference that it draws the definitive line for the rest of the series. You have to be […]

Death and Politics: What dying informed me about our political landscape and the inspiration needed to move forward.

“My dream is of a place and a time where America will join together breakfast and lunch, let’s say around 11:30?” – Abraham Lincoln Okay, that was half a Lincoln quote. But by itself, is it still not accurate? As a working American with limited obligations, I revere a casual brunch. It’s one of the better portmanteaus […]

I applaud Jimmy Buffett.  Music is an art that stirs a catalog of emotions so vast you’re sometimes unable to identify all of them.  A song can make you feel something for the very first time.  It’s as powerful an artistry that has ever existed.  Musicians spend their entire lives trying to propel their music […]

“I really enjoyed (playing sports), but they also easily invited low self-esteem. It was during these prepubescent years that a new source of anxiety developed. My greatest fear had become the decree that a matchup be decided…between shirts and skins.”

Happy New Year! We’re in the first week of 2016. Most of us are back at work reflecting on a turbulent, but memorable holiday season. Your pre-holiday events were spirited. Your Christmas was joyful. And your New Year’s Eve was…meh. For the young and optimistic, I have to ask, your New Year’s Eve plans didn’t […]

Starbucks is always jumping the gun. They’re that guy who aggressively starts rocking shorts in March. Easy does it, fella. It’s 53 degrees out. If there’s an approaching equinox or solstice, Starbucks is going to remind you well in advance. It’s a smart move by the coffee giant and it makes a lot of sense. […]

NFL pregame shows are the worst things on television and I can’t stop watching them. Countless hours of my life have been spent sitting in my living room thrown into fits of frustration, bewilderment, and at times utter disgust. I have never once said the words “good point” without drenching it in an ice bath […]

There’s no time for cake. Wait, I take that back. That was an absurd comment I just made. Put a slice at my table and I’ll get to it when I can. This band is too busy conquering my soul right now. The bride and groom’s $1,500 dessert they spent days picking out will have […]

Sometimes I feel sorry for Valentine’s Day. It sits smack dab in the middle of the worst month of the winter and the mere mention of it is proceeded with rolling eyeballs. It’s become the punching bag of holidays the same way Chris Berman has become the punching bag of sports journalism. Only one of […]

2014 was a rough year for pop music. At the end of October there had not been a single album to sell a million copies. Sluggish sales and the growing prominence of streaming services have encouraged even reputable artists to be persuaded into gimmicking their album releases (U2’s intrusive iPhone 6 fiasco suddenly made Bono […]

I was the most neurotic child you’d ever meet. I’ve had anxiety for as long as I can remember. It was particularly manifested each and every October. There was a decision to be made of significant measure. The stress would get to me. It drove me to the bottle – mostly Squeeze-its and Sunny D. […]

At some point I thought this was a good idea. I need them. It has them. A match of supply and demand affirmed the plan. Saturday afternoon I was going to the mall to buy pants. This was a classic case of playing something out in your head far better than it will in reality […]

Here are a basket of fun facts for the Easter holiday, suitable for the whole family except for the kids. Please stay tuned for a new blog post next week, but for now — Happy Easter everyone. Sales of pleated khakis and pastel colored polos skyrocket the week of Easter. Easter Brunch is a popular […]

I recently took part in my first Opening Day festivities for our Cincinnati Reds in beautiful downtown Cincinnati. It was 70 degrees, sunny, and the middle of a Monday. Our brutal winter was extinguished with an early spring day of long awaited warm weather. I’m definitely not letting bygones be bygones with Mother Nature as […]

It’s Sunday morning. The clouds are out, but not especially. You’re exhausted from a week of work and a Saturday night of one too many. There’s nothing on the docket for today and you can already feel the slight dread of the impending Monday morning alarm clock and the obligations that come with it. The […]

Winter’s typically a rough time for me. The cold temperatures and shorter days make me restless, but also leave me plenty of time to stress over a full range of spontaneous and ridiculous thoughts. I lie awake at night trying to fall asleep, but these thoughts race through my mind and keep me up far […]

  There’s something about assigning a crisp, articulate and apt “Douchebag” to a worthy candidate. It’s not nearly as profane as the long list of alternative insulting labels you can dole out to someone, but it sure does pack a punch. People know being a Douchebag entails a vast array of unattractive characteristics stirred together […]

It’s the middle of July so it’s that time of the year for network news to report that it’s hot. This is their top story. The production team gathered in a room to discuss the lineup and of all the pressing matters laid out before them they’ve gone with No. 1: It’s hot outside. Later in […]

The NSA is tracking my phone…and I really don’t care. You can call me naive or ignorant on matters relating to our government’s intrusion of privacy, but there are far fewer things I concern myself with than the NSA knowing I placed a call to my sister to wish her a happy birthday or that […]

I’ve decided to table my attempt to be funny (emphasis on the word attempt) to write about something that happened in the news this week that really strikes a chord with me. It wasn’t NFL free agency, Pope Watch 2013, or the excitement behind watching Justin Bieber take his first steps into the inevitable child […]

My Dad is always proclaiming that he’s reached an age where he stopped caring what other people think of him in public. It’s a bit of a source of humor in our family, as he is many years away from being considered an old man, but his next step is reaching a point where you […]