Month: September 2026

  • Earworm Wednesday: You know, That Music They Play, the “Curb” Theme

    Not to get too political, but has anyone seen that video of Katie Britt, the Senator from Alabama, where they zoom in on her face as she figures out that they made a huge, embarrassing mistake in trying to “trap” Jack Smith over an Atlanta Hawks game he never attended? Its this video:

    Ever since I saw that video, I’ve had the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme playing in my head on repeat.

  • Three Days of Rain (Unedited)

    The news sure did make a big deal of the Nor’easter that we got up here this weekend. I’m not making light of the people who did lose power, and experienced flooding. For those of us in Upper Manhattan, Harlem especially, it was just rain, for three days. And it wasn’t a heavy downpour of rain. More like a steady drizzle, with occasional light rain. The wind, on the other hand, was gusty, with an added howl for character.

    What I would have enjoyed was to stay inside while the storm raged around us. Wasn’t that lucky, though. No, this was the weekend that I had to go out in it; to run the errands, drop the kid off, pick the kid up, get dinner, get school supplies, buy the last-minute school clothes, and of course walk the dog.

    I was damp for three days.

    With everything going on, I didn’t have the ability to enjoy the best part of a constant rain storm; which is to lay in bed and listen to it. Maybe read a book, possibly take a nap, but I just wanted to be lazy and listen to it come falling down and ping/prattle off my fire escape.

    Early Autumn rain is moody, and low key dramatic. It needs to be appreciated and valued for the sulky atmosphere it creates.

  • The Day Went Sideways

    But for a good reason.

    Enjoy your weekend.

    Talk to you on Monday.

  • Personal Review: “Jesus’ Son” by Denis Johnson

    Up until a couple of months ago, I hadn’t ever heard of Denis Johnson. (And yes, the rock I live under is very comfortable.) I found out about him from a review of Ted Geltner’s biography of Johnson, Flagrant, Self-Destructive Gestures. From that article, I was intrigued and put Johnson’s Jesus’ Son on my reading list.

    If I had pushed myself, I could have read the book in a day, but spreading it out over three seemed more appropriate. A couple of things jumped out at me, besides the fact that it was a quick read. First, this book of short stories just oozed 90’s literature, which is strange as most of the stories take place in the 70’s, while the stories themselves were written in the 80’s, and only published in 1992. I can’t fully say why it felt so 90’s, but it Gen-X despondent seemed to be lurking in corners. The second idea the book presented to me is that the drunk/addict poet or writer is rather cliché now. Maybe not as drunken muscled as Hemmingway, Kerouac, or Burkowski, but the stories in the volume ran in the same vein. Here, we are presented with pretty much the same first-person character from story to story, who is too poetic to be a regular run of the mill drunk. No, this is the tragic drunk writer whose writing is their only salvation – the thing that keeps them going.

    That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. No, I was struck at how simple, and effortless everything in the stories felt. It carried such weight but drifted on the air. The destruction of a character’s life never felt so beautiful and fragile. No, I get why Jesus’ Son is placed on best of short story collection lists, year after year. Johnson’s stories and writing style has clearly been influential. I was about half way through “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” when it dawned on me how many flash writers must consider Denis Johnson a primary source, with his books lovingly squirreled away on their shelves.

    The final thought that I had while reading this book was that these stories felt like they were fun to write. Some books can feel laborious – not to read that is – such as writing it took time, work, dedication, perseverance to deliver the story exactly the way the writer wanted to tell it. Jesus’ Son felt like it was a blast to write. Either making it all up, or using real life situations, or maybe combining it all together, the end result was a book that felt like it was just as entertaining to write as it was to read.

    Having said all of this, I must now return to my home under the rock. There, I will toss this book up on the shelf, with all the other collections of short stories that I own and wonder how did I miss out on Denis Johnson when he was alive?

  • Earworm Wednesday: Popped in My Head

    I have no real story with the song “Brother Louie.” It just popped into my head on Monday, and has been there ever since. It’s the chorus that keeps replaying. I don’t hate the song, but I don’t think I have it on a playlist, or anything.

    Just random…