Forty years ago this month, my parents took me and my brothers and my friend Mike to see Return of the Jedi on opening night. This is an edited version of the chapter “What You Take With You,” from my book Collect All 21! I think it’s important to note that I wrote this yearsContinue reading “What You Take With You: A “Return of the Jedi” Opening Night Remembrance”
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Me in ’83 – Bee Season
The Thirty-Seventh Regional Grand Final Spelling Bee sponsored by The Repository was forty years ago today, at 1:30 p.m., in the auditorium of the former GlenOak High School East Campus. I was there. I was in sixth grade, and I had Bee Fever, man. The year before, I had won the Lake Elementary fifth grade spelling bee, earningContinue reading “Me in ’83 – Bee Season”
Me in ’83 – Winter, Western New York
My family began 1983 with a trip to western New York to visit my Uncle Rob and his family. That’s me in the middle, and my brothers, who are on skis. My glasses were of the oh-so-cool-automatically-darkening-outside variety. I don’t remember if this was in Olean or Portville, although there are photos of us eatingContinue reading “Me in ’83 – Winter, Western New York”
This is Me in ’83 – The 40-Year Edition
Back in 2013, I wrote a series of essays about my middle-school life 30 years prior, in 1983. Since it’s 10 years later, I figured why not revisit them now? The original Star Wars trilogy concluded four decades ago this year. So did “M*A*S*H”. Jaws 3-D and A Christmas Story both came out. I wasn’tContinue reading “This is Me in ’83 – The 40-Year Edition”
They Might Be Giants: Flood at 30…ish
I don’t have a solid origin story for my TMBG fandom. I remember seeing “Don’t Let’s Start” on MTV (probably on 120 Minutes?) and liking it, then mis-naming it as “Dont’ Let’s Talk About It” to someone and feeling stupid later. I remember a conversation with a guy I recognized from just being around theContinue reading “They Might Be Giants: Flood at 30…ish”
Lakeside, Ohio
I grew up attending Methodist churches, which in Ohio pretty much guaranteed that at some point, I was going to wind up in Lakeside. It’s possible I visited the place once before I knew what it was: My great-uncle Paul was a Methodist minister who retired to Marblehead with my aunt Dorothy when I wasContinue reading “Lakeside, Ohio”
Weekend in Canada
Neither Jenn nor I had been to Toronto before that weekend we went up for the Pet Shop Boys / New Order Unity Tour, and we had such a nice time that I thought I’d separate this bit of travel writing from the memory-entangled concert experience. Earlier this year, we visited the American side ofContinue reading “Weekend in Canada”
Too Many Shadows / A Sudden Sense of Liberty
In the spring of 1986, I was a freshman in high school, and I never went on those end-of-year extracurricular weekend class trips to places like Philadelphia or Toronto or Washington, D.C. They just didn’t seem like my thing – they seemed like things the popular cool kids did. But that year, the trip wasContinue reading “Too Many Shadows / A Sudden Sense of Liberty”
WonderBus 2022
Jenn & I recently attended our first music festival: WonderBus 2022. We bought weekend tickets back in February when the nightly headliners were announced as Duran Duran, Lorde, and The Lumineers, because we haven’t seen any of them live, and each of us is a big enough fan of two of the three to justifyContinue reading “WonderBus 2022”
What Happened in Vegas (Spoiler: It was COVID.)
Back in February, Jenn and I booked a vacation. We wanted someplace warm and new to both of us, so we chose Las Vegas. We’re not big partiers or gamblers, but we like trying local foods and exploring unfamiliar cities and national parks (we got some excellent local recommendations for these) and in a worst-caseContinue reading “What Happened in Vegas (Spoiler: It was COVID.)”
Goofaceazon 