You Just Do: The xx at the Varsity in Minneapolis
With the big acts of my summer concert series set (Simon and Garfunkel, Tom Petty and U2), I was lamenting not jumping immediately at the chance of buying tickets for a smaller show in the form of The xx at…
I Still Really Really Love You…
The sweat is pouring off of me even though the air conditioner is humming away right above my head. It’s the end of July and I’m in Southern Illinois. Murphysboro to be exact. I’m sprawled out on my dad’s couch…
But My Good Friends Is All I Need
For the past few years, I have received many comments which basically come down to one central theme: It’s about time I started acting my age. I am 42 years old. But even when I was in my late thirties,…
Slayed by the Percussion Gun: White Rabbits in Minneapolis
My uncle Jamie is a vocational therapist out in Salem, Oregon. A while back, he related to me the concept of risk and how it relates to developmental wellness. If someone is regularly taking emotional, mental, physical and spiritual risks,…
So Much World Outside The Door…
“I’m going to die.” This is what I was thinking as I drove, barely 40 mph, east on Interstate 94 from my home in the Twin Cities to the party capital of the world. It was last Friday afternoon, October…
A Bloody Rager: Arctic Monkeys at First Avenue
A few years back, a couple of guys on my tennis team were talking. Let’s call them Jim and John. Jim, the older brother of John, was talking about a party that John had recently while their parents were away.…
Shining Still…To Give Us The Will
In the summer of 1980, my father pulled into our driveway. My mom and he had been divorced for just over a year. I had spent the last year missing him terribly. He was living over a half hour away…
Those Three Words: Snow Patrol at the State Theater in Minneapolis
In April of 2004, I walked the cold, snow/rain soaked streets of downtown Minneapolis towards the now defunct music venue The Quest. I was a man obsessed. For the few weeks before this, I had been incessantly playing what has…
Simply Gorgeous
“Their songs start off OK but then it’s all…..ARRRHHHDDDAHHHHHHHRRRRRRARAR.” So says my wife regarding the New York based band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Back in 2003, I dragged her to their first show at First Avenue when they were touring…
Something like that, right? Is that what you want?
“Daddy, what’s stream of consciousness?” My nine year old daughter was in the back seat of our minivan as we were heading home from summer day camp and laid yet another way beyond her age question on me. For a…
