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When Winter Never Ends
Wright Thompson, writing for ESPN:
Ichiro is a meticulous man, held in orbit by patterns and attention to detail. This place specializes in beef tongue, slicing it thin by hand and serving it raw alongside hot cast-iron skillets. They do one thing perfectly, which appeals to Ichiro. Tonight he’s got dark jeans rolled up to the calf, each leg even, and a gray T-shirt under a white button-down with a skinny tie. His hair looks darker than in some recent photos, maybe the lighting, maybe a dye job. Either way, not even a 44-year-old future Hall of Famer is immune from the insecurities and diminishments that come with time. This winter is the most insecure and diminished he’s been.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. New merch featuring the Chorus.fm and classic AbsolutePunk.net heart logo are now up: chorus.fm/shop
Liner Notes (April 5th, 2019)
Another week is in the books.
This website turned three years old on Monday and as a thank you to everyone I’ve made this edition of my weekly newsletter free. You’ll find some thoughts on music I listened to this week, my weekly media diet roundup, and some news on the new Chorus.fm shop that will be launching early next week. There’s also a playlist full of ten songs I loved this week. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Liner Notes (March 29th, 2019)
I can’t believe it’s the end of March already.
In this week’s newsletter, I share some early thoughts on the new Bad Religion album and go through some of the albums and songs out this week that I enjoyed. I also go through my usual media diet and share a playlist of ten songs I loved this week. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
New album from The Maine is out tomorrow. (It’s awesome.) Podcast with the band (and me) up on the website now. encore.fm
Liner Notes (March 22nd, 2019)
It’s a lot harder to write when basketball games are going on.
In this week’s roundup, I look at the music I listened to and enjoyed last week, go through my usual thoughts on entertainment, and share a playlist of ten songs I loved. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Liner Notes (March 16th, 2019)
It’s with a heavy heart that I write this week’s newsletter. The news out of New Zealand is absolutely heartbreaking, and I can’t stop thinking about the direction our world is going in. So much hate and anger cheered on by the worst people. My thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy.
My birthday is on Monday (gah, I’m getting older) so I’ve decided to make this edition free for everyone to read this week. A little celebratory gift, from me to you. If you like it, please think about becoming a supporting member of the website, the support from readers makes up the lion’s share of my income, and it’s how I get to keep running this website, and writing things like this, each week.
This week’s newsletter contains first impressions on upcoming albums from The Maine and Charly Bliss, as well as thoughts on other music I listened to this week. It has my usual media diet rundown from the past week, ten songs I loved, and a list of music I sent my sister when she asked about stuff to check out after not paying attention to new music for a few years. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Liner Notes (March 8th, 2019)
Another week down.
In this week’s roundup I share my thoughts on new music out this week, and what I’ve been listening to (Maren Morris, Sigrid, The Get Up Kids), and go through the various movies and TV shows I watched this week (Aquaman, If Beale Street Could Talk, Shoplifters). There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week and a recap of various website improvements I made this week. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
The Optimism of Uncertainty
Howard Zinn, writing in 2016:
I have tried hard to match my friends in their pessimism about the world (is it just my friends?), but I keep encountering people who, in spite of all the evidence of terrible things happening everywhere, give me hope. Especially young people, in whom the future rests. Wherever I go, I find such people. And beyond the handful of activists there seem to be hundreds, thousands, more who are open to unorthodox ideas. But they tend not to know of one another’s existence, and so, while they persist, they do so with the desperate patience of Sisyphus endlessly pushing that boulder up the mountain. I try to tell each group that it is not alone, and that the very people who are disheartened by the absence of a national movement are themselves proof of the potential for such a movement.
Liner Notes (March 1st, 2019)
Oh, hi March.
This week’s roundup looks at what I worked on around the website this week, goes through my thoughts on music (including Marianas Trench, Japanese House, and the new Carly Rae Jepsen songs), and has my usual media diet from the last week. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week, and the supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Liner Notes (February 22nd, 2019)
In this week’s roundup I talk about tackling tweet embedding in the forums, share my thoughts on Into the Spider-Verse during my weekly media diet rundown, and it was a pretty music heavy week this week, so there’s a lot of singles and new albums to discuss. I also share a playlist of ten songs I loved this week and rant about the NCAA. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Liner Notes (February 15th, 2019)
This week sure went by fast.
In this week’s roundup I talk about launching our new Giphy feature and what’s next on my forum to-do list, give some thoughts that have been swirling around in my head about the entire Ryan Adams situation, and then go through quite a bit new music. I tackle how surprised I was by the new Set It Off album, and offer brief thoughts on new records from Betty Who, One Ok Rock, Tyler Hilton, Stand Atlantic, Millencolin, SWMRS, and more. Then I go through my usual weekly media diet (basically two documentaries I loved this week), share ten songs I loved this week, and share my sadness at a brewery I love closing down. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
One of our favorite local breweries is closing. 😥 So many memories here over the last decade.