Illinoise

March 9, 2024
Sufjan Stevens is amazing. I was mesmerized when I first heard "Michigan" 20 years ago, and again a few years later when "Illinois" was released. Then in 2007, I saw what I still consider to be the best show I've ever seen, "The BQE" at BAM; incorporating triptych video of the elevated expressway through my borough while hula hoopers twirled and spun to the orchestrated concept album. Follow-up audiovisual experiences "Planetarium" and "Round-Up" solidified his esteemed standing on my personal ranking of most interesting and exciting artists. When I received a mailer announcing a dance interpretation of "Illinoise" I was…

Stereophonic

December 13, 2023
I met Alaina in 1999(!) and fell in love. Circumstances forced us into a long-distance relationship soon after and, when I disappeared to West Africa for a few months in 2001, we ended it. In my grieving, I found solace in Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album; the songs captured so many of the emotions that I was feeling, love, loss, longing despair, hope, resignation and freedom. I knew that the band members had been experiencing intense relationship trauma while recording the album and somehow managed to navigate the emotional minefield to produce one of the greatest records of all-time. It is…

Sleep No More To Be No More

December 9, 2023
A few weeks ago, hanging out late with friends and discussing the impending closure of one of the most interesting art works I've ever seen, we purchased tickets to see Sleep No More one last time. I went when it opened in 2011 and loved it; the event involves wandering around a hotel in plain white masks watching performers in various scenes referencing Shakespeare's Scottish Play, MacBeth. Each floor of the six story hotel is a maze of installations that periodically come to life as performance venues while the ghostly audience follows the actors, at times sprinting up and down…

Summer 2023

June 22, 2023
We passed the solstice yesterday and officially crossed into Summer, when my work obligations shift from five days a week to two, and my cherished free time blossoms. I celebrated last night with The Cure at MSG and am eagerly anticipating Dead & Company tonight at Citi Field. I have seen some other great outdoor shows already this season including Taj Mahal at Prospect Park and Dave Matthews Band at Forest Hills and have another MSG jaunt next week with Tears For Fears before returning in August for a couple of Phish shows. I was thoroughly entertained by Shucked and…

Renewal

June 17, 2021
Last night, we had a movie date: dinner and "In The Heights" at the local Nitehawk Cinema. We have watched countless movies at home during the pandemic, but returning to a theater was monumental! Sharing the experience with strangers, laughing and cheering while being served delicious food and beverages, felt like a real return to the community that I love and missed over the past 15 months; I look forward to more concerts and theatre in the near future! I have shifted into summer mode, with reduced work schedule and expanded travel plans. Vaccination rates are high and COVID levels…

Old Year/New Year

January 10, 2018
It's been a fantastic month for the author. I threw myself a "surprise" 40th birthday party and played music and shared videos with some of the most important people in the world to me. It was the best birthday I've ever celebrated and I am truly excited about my forties! I feel like it will be a great decade for me and I look forward to looking back on it at 50! We celebrated Christmas in Warwick, cutting down a 30 foot tree to serve as our centerpiece, then attended the annual Land Gang party in Westfield. I skied with…

Basement Studio

October 25, 2017
  Ever since Miles moved into the room formerly known as my music room, I have been pushing forward on a plan to build a soundproof studio in the basement. It has taken me about 18 months of very slow progress to construct a floor and walls and I am currently in the drywall phase. With great thanks to Land Bandmates Seth and Erik, I transported 24 sheets of 5/8" drywall (probably 2000 lbs) to my front porch (full sheets won't fit down the basement stairs), where it has been cut and attached to the wood and metal staggered stud…

Doing What I Love To Do

June 6, 2016
  These Summer weekends are extraordinarily delightful! Friday night was a rare mommy & daddy date night, seeing a musical we have been anticipating for years, Anais Mitchell's "Hadestown", which delivered a powerful and haunting score to accompany the myth of Orpheus' journey to the Underworld to save his love, Eurydice. Amazing performances and universal themes always make great art. Saturday morning we headed out to Bellport for some high-quality R&R with family and friends. Farm strolling, pool swimming, sailing, beaching, BBQ, and civil discussions about politics and futurism are all excellent ways to while away my weekends and I…

Labor Day

September 5, 2015
What a Summer for this guy! I currently sit in one of my favorite spots in the known universe: Eventide Cabin on Mt. Desert Island. Acadia is a personal paradise and spending time here with my wife, child and parents is very high on my who/what/where triangulation rankings. I have been consistently scoring very well this Summer, packed with fantastic weekends around the Northeast: The Land, Bellport, Osterville, Vermont, Maine, and even a few in Brooklyn; Ivy and I rolled all over town on my bike and explored beaches and amusement parks (Coney Island!), swimming pools and water playgrounds (Sunset…

Here’s Hoover

December 13, 2014
Sometimes I do things now that remind me of how different life was before Ivy. Last night, Alaina and I did something incredibly rare that we did frequently until 16 months ago. Seeing a show together involves many more calculations now but occasionally we make it happen. We hired a baby sitter and went to see Les Freres Corbusier's new production, "Here's Hoover!" at the Abrons Art Center. It was a blast: Herbert Hoover's Comeback Special as a rock star dead set on re-telling his legacy and escaping the pack of below average presidents. It is fun and ridiculous with…