Category Archives: Uncategorized

My latest for CiRCE offers nine reasons why quitting social media will make your life better. Use the centrifugal force of a new calendar to help you do so.

“Organized religion” is redundant. Religion is organized by definition. If it’s not organized, it’s something other than religion. Art, perhaps. Or play acting.

Mark Kozalek Sings Christmas Carols is a real piece of work. The former Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon singer performs a bunch of hymns and a handful of pop tunes, but the hymns carry it away. While Kozalek is not a Christian, he seems to have chosen the oldest possible carol texts toContinue reading “What Pleasure Thou Canst Give Me”

Revelers gather in Times Square on December 31, 2019. They welcome 2020, sure to be a year of prosperity, hope, and joyous new beginnings.

Over the last twenty years, it has become fashionable for young men to blame all the problems of the world on “the church,” by which I mean saying things like “Poverty and racism wouldn’t be a problem if the church would just be the church” with an authoritative, I-know-what-the-word-“liturgy”-means kind of tone. My latest forContinue reading “It Is My Fault”

5. It Just Doesn’t Happen, Destroyer 4. Starfall, Salem 3. Texas Sun, Khurangbin & Leon Bridges 2. Inspirit, Julianna Barwick 1.Carousels, Doves

10. 1995, Kruder & Dorfmeister 9. Black Swallow, by Chihei Hatakeyama 8. Green (reissue), Hiroshi Yoshimura 7. 76:14 (box set reissue), Global Communication 6. Another Flower, Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie 5. Una Presencia En La Brisa, Rafael Anton Irisarri & Leandro Fresco 4. Mixing Colours, Roger and Brian Eno 3. Healing Is A Miracle,Continue reading “Top 10 Albums of 2020”

“Simply put, a tradition is the past.” My latest for CiRCE is about Christmas trees in particular and traditions in general. It is a delicate point I try to make in this essay. I have attempted it a few times before, but find it endlessly refinable: there is some sense in which knowing the originContinue reading “O, Christmas Tree”

This week’s episode of Proverbial is about the pursuit of fame and glory. On a personal note, it’s my favorite show since the one where I whined about middle-class people trying to look rich.

Rewatched this one with Sean tonight on his recommendation and it was only the second time I’ve seen it. While I enjoyed the first time around, the second time was better because I had already found the edges. It recalled for me numerous scenes from my twenties: road trips with strangers, sleeping on couches, andContinue reading “Revisited”