My Seinfeld Script: “The Cold”

Today I’m unveiling my big creative quarantine project: I’ve spent parts of the past 10 weeks or so writing a Seinfeld script.

Pandemic Positivity #4: A little silhouetto of a man/A Little Bit Alexis

What did I do yesterday? Did yesterday happen? Sometimes it’s hard to remember these days. Um, I went to the grocery store, I know that, and I can’t say it brought too many smiles to my face. But some things did, most of which are piano-centric.

Pandemic Positivity #3: Stolen Days

I gotta say, yesterday was a pretty good day for socially distant smiles.

Pandemic Positivity #2: Hingle McCringleberry

Against all odds, here’s what made me happy over the past 24 hours or so…

Pandemic Positivity #1: Radiate

“Pandemic Positivity?” you ask? Nope, I’m not happy there’s a pandemic. It scares me and saddens me and frustrates me. But I’ve been thinking a lot about the good that there is to be extracted from this bizarre and all too often tragic time. I know that the fear and tragedy and isolation has had a really intense effect on people who already had mental health struggles before this madness began, so I think it’s more important now than ever to spread positivity. And I want to try to use my blog to do that in my own way.

Review: The Beaches at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, February 28, 2020

Tonight I realized that The Beaches are my favorite band. There was a moment. And that’s what this review (if you want to call it that, because I can promise you it will not be impartial) is going to be about: moments. Including the moment I realized The Beaches are my favorite band.

Whitney Matheson: Her Shuffled Life

During the first decade and a half of the millennium, I have to think that to discover Whitney Matheson’s Pop Candy blog on USAtoday.com, was to fall in love with it. That was totally the case for me. I discovered it around 2004-05 for her (and her readers’) Lost theories, and I stayed for the love of R.E.M., Andy Warhol, Chucks, banjo, Buffy, and honesty.

10 songs that made me happy in 2019

I’m the first to admit my year-end lists are not conventional. Not because I think I’m some cool indie rock hipster. It’s actually the opposite. Those guys tend to close their minds to anything outside what they think is cool. But I kinda think all music is cool. That doesn’t mean I love it all, just that I try to be open to most of it, and that coolness is subjective.

Review: Wide Mouth Mason at The Dakota Tavern in Toronto, November 12, 2019

A long time ago, in a tavern far, far way….

A dark force arose. It was white, and it was cold and it was an all-around pain in the ass. Indeed, a sudden, deep freeze overtook the land. But a hero arose from the frost and slush: an unassuming droid they called SV-PO.

42. “Trademark,” Eric Johnson

I’ll just start off by apologizing to the guitar nerds out there, of which I am indisputably one, for the relative lack of guitar geekery you’ll read here.* Because Eric Johnson is like the god that guitar nerds bow down to. But when I hear this song, I’m not reminded of guitar geekery, I’m reminded of the early ‘90s Toronto Blue Jays.