July 31, 2004. Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra is traded (indirectly) for shortstop Orlando Cabrera and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz. It was the strangest thing—a large group of us had collected at our friend Hector’s (false name) suburban backyard to celebrate his thirtieth birthday party. The news rolled out fast, someone probably shouting from the […]
Some observations from Sunday’s game before going all Patriots batshit: “Labor uncertainty” is the new “all-important third preseason game.” Please set aside all non-NFL-related uses of this phrase until a labor agreement is reached. How about Ben Roethlisberger? That’s three horrible Super Bowl performances, and finally one the Steelers didn’t win in spite of him. […]
It seems that game three of an NFL’s preseason schedule is never referred to as “game three” or “the third game” or “I lost my thumb and forefinger sneaking a pinch of Chuck Negron’s cocaine so it’s this many games.” It is called “the all-important third preseason game.” Since I’m not one to let such […]
Two nights ago I started writing a few paragraphs to append to what became yesterday’s playlist post. Eventually I realized it wouldn’t work unless it was shoehorned in as an extended parenthetical aside, something I had already done with a never-quite-satisfying Jefferson Airplane rant that has since been severely cut down. So this gets its […]
You know when you keep reading about some album or other, and people are pissing all over themselves to douse the lava-flames of awesomeness that emanate from said album, except they like being engulfed by the overhyped lava so much that they don’t panic when they run out of pee? They just drink more water? […]
Updated: January 10, 2026 In honor of my cat Chloe face-planting on the loveseat and for the purpose of writing about music (about anything, really, following a six-month exile), here are my favorite albums of each year since 19601, as good a year as any to mark the beginning of the modern music age. For […]
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