The Shins. #2 On the Billboard charts this week. The Shins. Castrati-vocals, jangly guitars and all, this preening pop band has managed to defy logic and sell over 100,000 copies of its new albums in its first week of release. One-hundred thousand! It just goes to show that for all the hip posturing “indie” kids [...]

Filling out all these unemployment forms has me feeling contemplative. Or, maybe it’s this Monroe Mustang album…I don’t really know. Either way, checking-off box after box and providing details about my employment history has dredged up a string of childhood memories.
We all had careers or jobs we dreamt of pursuing when we were younger, some [...]

A return to the daily routine. Work-out, shower, go out for lunch, file for unemployment, call Santa Monica to contest a parking ticket. And that’s all I’ve done today. The remainder of this afternoon will be spent sending out e-mails to potential literary agents, and potential employers. Sure, it all sounds glorious, but really [...]

This evening, my humble little page had it’s 100,000th unique visitor. Just think about it: 1/10th of a million people are so tragically bored, they’re willing to suffer through my long, rambling prose. Either that or they performed a Google Image Search search for Charles Manson, and this page was the top result. (Seriously – [...]

As promised, here is the MP3 (it’s long—fifteen minutes long) Ilya and I recorded Thursday night. A true magician never tells exactly how he gets his famed guitar tone, but I’ll be generous and give you two little hints: bubble wrap and Q-tips.
Also as promised, here is an excerpt from an overheard conversation at a [...]

I’m home, now. The hardest part of reacquainting myself will be turning off the slacker drawl and acting like a fast-paced East Coast asshole again. Not for long, thankfully. Also, some malodorous aura attached itself to me on the airplane. Either that or I’m just remarkably dirty.
Here are a series of photos snapped with my [...]

“I was up this morning blues walking like a man.” Okay, so I wasn’t exactly feeling blue, and not exactly walking–it was more like up this morning sleepily driving Ilya to work after a late night and early wake-up. Instead of returning to my couch bed following the morning commute, I decided to hang around [...]