• What If The Beatles Had Said Yes?

    Last week was a guest editor week at Kottke. Tim Carmody took over and devoted the week to looking back at where and how the web has evolved over the past decade-plus, and revisiting some of the site’s readers’ favorite parts of the classic web. On Thursday Carmody posted a piece called The Web is a portal to other words,…

  • Bonus Video

    “Starfish and Coffee” – Prince A year ago I was watching this video – one of the few Prince videos available on YouTube at the time – in tears. Still can’t believe he’s gone, especially as we learned about how troubled his final days/years were. I’ve read a couple retrospective pieces about Prince today, and one of them included this…

  • Friday Playlist

    It’s a throwback day around our house today. I’m watching one of my 11-month old nephews for the day. It feels like 2005, 2007, or 2009. So I thought for the Spotify portion of the Friday tunes, I’d pull three songs from those years when I was spending each day with my 11-month-olds. There’s some humorous subtext to at least…

  • Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/6dR7wBdBHV2rmuTS8GN9kg “Dull” – Microwave. Thus crunchy, grungy track sounds a lot like something Manchester Orchestra might have done when they were sussing out their more dramatic sound. “New” – Family Friends. A strong, mid-90s vibe alt-rock radio vibe here. “Stars” – Hum. If I’m sharing songs with one-syllable titles and Clinton-era overtones, I might as well go back to the…

  • Friday Playlist

    A different sort of playlist this week. On our lazy spring break, I roared through the Pearl Jam Twenty book that was released as a companion to the documentary of the same name a few years back. When I picked it up at the library, I expected it to be just a collection of photos and other memories of the…

  • Friday Playlist

    Busy week so low on posts. Still time to share some music, though. https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/7HcpJIx4Zjjb0omsjxLXBr “Please, Let’s Go Away” – Trementina. Today is the first day of our spring break. As we’ve already taken a trip this year, we’ll be staying close to home for the next week. Doesn’t mean we can’t wish we were going somewhere warm, especially since the…

  • Friday Playlist

    A quick playlist since I’m well behind schedule today. https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/5Y45v4RvyVaVZbGanP4FBa “Dundee Man” – Spiral Stairs. I was sure this band was Scottish. Turns out it is actually Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg. I still like the song. “Hope The High Road” – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Drifting more toward the rock side of his alt-country sound, I really like…

  • Friday Playlist

    https://open.spotify.com/user/224aiwksicafjldlua6nnpo4y/playlist/3AB0Mx5E3Si8rzIuz1tH8q “Darling” – WOMPS. Some fine, Frightened Rabbit-approved Scottish rock.“Sentimental and Monday” – Holy Holy. Apparently this song has been around for a couple years, but I just found it thanks to one of my Spotify Discovery playlists. It’s cold, rainy, and bleak in Indy today. This song is perfect for this morning.“Why We Fight” – Fast Romantics. There’s something…

  • Friday Playlist

    Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the release of U2’s The Joshua Tree. I remember buying the cassette shortly after it came out, but I either got a bad copy or let it sit in the sun or my tape player mangled it, because within a couple plays it began sounding terrible. As I was five months from getting my…

  • Review: Ryan Adams, Prisoner

    I’ve had two weeks to soak up the sadness that is Ryan Adams’ new album, Prisoner. Time to share some thoughts. I wasn’t sure how much I would like this album. It wasn’t that I doubted Adams’ ability to write about the end of his marriage to Mandy Moore: he’s been crafting amazing songs about heartbreak his entire career. No,…