I Don’t Feel Tardy

As quickly as summer break blew in, it’s just as quickly ending. Yes, we are in the midst of first day of school eve. With the oldest two hours south at her new school(she’s been there since August 3rd), my two youngest have picked out their clothes, brushed their teeth, and are making the fateful […]

For The Love Of Kevin Barnes : A Few Words On Of Montreal’s Svengali

I’m sitting in my living room after a couple beers and maybe a shot or two of Johnnie Walker Red and I’m on my second spin of the new Of Montreal long player Innocence Reaches. I’m once again in awe of the mighty and ADD-afflicted Kevin Barnes. This album seems to encapsulate all that is Kevin […]

Marc Maron Acoustic Show At My Mom and Dad’s Driveway

It was pitch black out when I emerged from the woods behind my parents house. I turned the corner and saw Marc Maron standing in the summer darkness with an acoustic guitar strapped around his neck and he was strumming it. I did think it was odd that Maron, the WTF Podcast mastermind and much […]

She’s Leaving Home

Growing up I never liked camp. The thought of it gave me anxiety. For me, I much preferred the comforts of home; the smells that emanated from my mom’s kitchen, the confines of my small but neat bedroom, the cynically pointed yet painfully honest comments that came from my dad after work, and just the […]

Summer’s Almost Gone

As usual the summer seems to be slipping through my fingers like sand. It promised me back in June that it wouldn’t be in a hurry to leave. “Yeah J, I’m sticking around for a bit. I know I blew through last year but this time it’s different”, Summer distinctly told me back at the […]

The Spice of Life

It was nearly two years ago that I happened upon an article about Visions of Dune, an album by a mysterious artist named simply Z that was getting the reissue treatment. Now what caught my eye was that this album was a heavy synth concept album based on Frank Herbert’s Dune. The idea of a […]

Summer Vacation Part Two : Rock And Roll Hall of Fame

July 9th: So last night, after 30 minutes of driving around searching for a decent pizza place to eat in the general area of Vermilion, OH we came across Olde Towne Pizza House in nearby Amherst. It was worth the road trip as the place was perfect. Located in a beautiful old brick building right […]

Pizza, Beer, ‘n Rock and Roll : How I Spent My Summer Vacation

July 8th(Part One) Sitting poolside at the Vermilion, OH Holiday Inn Express and the chlorine is burning my nostrils. All the kids are happily dropping into the 5′ deep water like anvils in a tub of jell-o and they seem to be quite content to do this for the remainder of the day. I’m opting […]

Today’s Headline : ‘Slacker Dad Has Not-So Slacker Daughter’

I was not the best student in high school. Sure I always passed my classes and I never failed, but I did the absolute minimum I needed to do in order to move on to the next level and I never looked back. I didn’t procrastinate. In fact I usually got things done pretty early […]

Corvette ’61

For a time when my dad was between 8 and 15 years old he lived in a small town in Northeast Indiana called Lagrange. That is where his obsession with cars started and where he would become what the car folks call a “gearhead”. The obsession may have started before, but in Lagrange is where […]