Blackout Shoppers were practicing in a small Brooklyn studio. We were having an uneventful rehearsal when someone knocked on the door. We opened the door to find a young hipster couple. The woman spoke up. “I beg your pardon, but we’re trying to dine upstairs, and the music is really loud, especially the bass. If… Read more »
It was the early hours of a Sunday morning, and I was traveling with my band, Blackout Shoppers. We had played the Anarchy at the Arcade Festival at Super Rad Arcade Bar in Lynchburg, Virginia, and shared the stage with some amazing bands. It was great fun, but we had a long drive home and… Read more »
“There are no second acts in American lives.” F. Scott Fitzgerald Fitzgerald scholars are rightly irked that the line about no second acts in American lives is often quoted by itself and attributed to “The Last Tycoon.” The line was first used in a 1932 essay titled “My Lost City,” which documents the resilience of… Read more »
The Northeastern U.S. has become accustomed to mild winters over the last decade. Prior to the latest snow blizzard that pummeled much of the country, online newsreels were commemorating the 30th anniversary of the blizzard of 1996. Now we have a new milestone to mark in the history of the five boroughs’ struggles with snow…. Read more »
I attempted to watch Super Bowl LX on television this past Sunday. As I pay for several subscription services, I assumed that one of them would be able to show me the game, which was broadcast on a national network that one would be able to watch for free if you had a traditional or… Read more »
We are in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, when the days get jumbled and we want to maintain the holiday spirit as much as we can until the real world comes roaring back at us. One of the holiday traditions I look forward to every year is watching holiday movies—both rewatching the… Read more »
Several years ago, my band, Blackout Shoppers, was setting up for our turn to play on the stage at a punk rock show. We were playing with one of my favorite bands of all time, Two Man Advantage. Two Man’s “Captain,” Jeff Kaplan, noted striking similarities between our two musical groups. “We have an intro… Read more »
One evening at Blackout Shoppers’ band rehearsal, our drummer at the time, Mickey Fingers, was recounting a story of his apartment being robbed. He worked in broadcasting at the time and was working midnight shifts. His roommate had been out drinking heavily at bars and had brought home a woman of ill repute with the… Read more »
I was cleaning out my motor vehicle, disposing of a handful of parking meter receipts that accumulate on the dashboards of cars in large American cities. As I deposited my trash in a receptacle, an open book nearby caught my eye. Someone had dropped or thrown a book, and it had landed open against a… Read more »
The Powerball lottery game recently reached a jackpot close to $2 billion. Those jackpots spur people who don’t normally buy lotto tickets to shell out for a big win, and I am guilty of being one of those people. Compared to some of my family and friends, my investment in lotto tickets is pretty low…. Read more »
