• It’s all been swell, Miss Carousel

    “You know a lot of alcoholics,” a friend observed after she sat through several recent, woeful tales starring those in my orbit. From her perspective, an accurate statement. From mine, there’s a bit more nuance. Alcoholism and mental illness have… Read more

  • Guitars, Cadillacs, freshly cut grass

    16% of my childhood transpired in rural Maryland circa 1986–1989. Our split-foyer home was in a small development built during the previous decade. Lacking central air, we used box fans in the summer and the one-two punch of a wood-burning… Read more

  • A cliché, cinematic song that brings me to tears

    Last week, I fell down a rabbit hole of melancholy nostalgia that I’d successfully avoided for two decades. It can be surprisingly easy to steer clear of such places when you’re young and preoccupied with a new city, a burgeoning… Read more

  • Thank you for that question, councilwoman

    For the greater part of my adult life, I’ve been reluctant to disclose my pop-punk roots to friends and acquaintances. At best, I would be met with a blank stare. At worst, a knowing smirk about an overhyped, juvenile genre… Read more

  • You & Me at Coles Corner

    Once upon a late aughts summer, a friend and I rode our bikes around Brooklyn — a rite of passage for certain people living in said borough at the time. As we pedaled past leafy trees and brownstone walk-ups… Read more

  • Is this what adults listen to?

    1997 marked my first stab at a college education. Age 18, I left home, moved into my aunt’s house in the blue collar town of Coraopolis, PA, and enrolled in the Graphic Design program at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.… Read more

  • PUP: cheaper than therapy

    The primary reasons I started this blog are to disclose and discuss: 1) the break-in at my old apartment on October 2, 2021 and 2) the fact that PUP probably saved my life after that and at bare minimum kept… Read more