• Another Year Trapped in Amber

    I was try­ing to find the right way to describe how 2021 felt and then I read this: For Niko­las Tsamouta­l­idis, an assis­tant prin­ci­pal, the most vivid image of the post-pan­dem­ic stu­dent body was at lunch this year, when he saw ninth graders — whose last full year in school was sev­enth grade — prepar­ing to…

  • The Endless Fight Against the Infinite Scroll

    I first wrote about how to com­bat the infi­nite scroll — since dubbed doom­scrolling — back in 2018, bor­row­ing from the updates Jason Kot­tke makes about his media diet. It’s still all about inten­tion­al­i­ty, right? It still is and I try not to stare at the screen in search of some­thing that nev­er mate­ri­al­izes, but…

  • My Year in Music

    It’s Decem­ber 30th, I’ve sub­mit­ted my for­mal fake P&J bal­lot and I’m lis­ten­ing to the new Emma Swift album and hav­ing regrets. A music crit­ic’s work is nev­er done! It’s been a hard year but I was per­son­al­ly soothed by all the great music that came out this year. For the first time in my expe­ri­ence…

  • 2020: An Update

    Ok, so like usu­al I promised to write more and haven’t. Like every­one, 2020 has been a year. So, with that in mind, I want­ed to drop in for a quick update before I lost track of time yet again. Let’s revis­it the Before Times briefly.: I start­ed a new job in March! Yes, after being…

  • We Don’t Deserve The New Pornographers

    I wrote this about the New Pornog­ra­phers in 2017. It still holds up. Their new record is fab­u­lous. You should lis­ten to it if you haven’t already! I’m still wrestling with why I ever took a break from them in the first place. A big part of why I tuned out on the New Pornog­ra­phers was…