The Runny Pen

I was going to post a lengthy commentary on George Carlin when he passed. But I didn’t. I figured you could read all those sardonic eulogies within the pages of The New Yorker or Rolling Stone. I loved Carlin more than any other comedian because of his uncanny intelligence, insight, verbal skills and irreverence. That [...]

J.D.
Well let me just end my postings about the new Metallica album here by attempting to describe to you why I am so stoked on DEATH MAGNETIC.
For starters, every metal band out there sounds like they’re riffing a version of Metallica’s sound these days. Which is nothing new (I thought Slayer and Megadeth sounded like Metallica rip-offs [...]

For some reason I always wind up in a 10-plex. Not some prison walled maze of an apartment complex, a 10-plex or an 8-plex is where I land. 
My neighbors are always friendly, intelligent, enjoyers of all the best modern culture priveleges and uncanny debaters. My neighbors drink.
Everyone likes hip-hop or country. Most have an opinion [...]

I would never call myself a disciplined writer. But I do complete works, beginning, middle and end. I put little deadlines on myself and constantly shuffle priority between pieces. But I put absolutely no priority on poetry. I only write the stuff when inspired.
Recently I was organizing some older works.  I looked at poetry from [...]

If you haven’t seen HEAVY METAL IN BAGHDAD grab it from your rental store or add it to your Netflix queue. Bonus if you can pronounce the band’s name. Their name (a black scorpion common to the Iraqi desert) is Latin which is the most metal of all languages.

I’ve loved every incarnation of METALLICA. Many think they became too ‘mainstream’ and just wanted another version of AND JUSTICE FOR ALL forever. Whatever. Name a successful band that has never changed their approach and churned out consistantly great albums…anyway, their new album DEATH MAGNETIC is incredible. I’ve been a huge fan for 25 years now [...]

This pairing of grotesque clowns, McCain/Palin must be stopped. My gut tells me the future of the planet has never hung so precariously on an American presidential election.
I will be voting Democratic in the Fall and I ask that you do too. Just Google the four people asking to run our country. Take twenty minutes [...]

Mattlock killed the engine and The Battletoads exploded from his truck with skateboards in hand. I’d never seen so much energy. Or maybe it’d just been years since I’d had that much energy myself. Callan, Cameron, Tristan and Ryan (actually Ryan wasn’t an official ‘toad’, more their art designer/co-manager) were all leaping over the [...]

Someone close to me reminded me of the word today. And this one seems to be the toughest emotion for humans to generate. Gratitude. It’s beautiful like Brooke Shields in “The Blue Lagoon” but somehow just as exotic and remote. To consciously, consistently harvest this one is not so easy. Especially for me.  If you [...]