avoid rv ...

... you'll thank me later.

on my wedding day

In the three years I've been dating my wonderful girlfriend/fiancee/bride-to-be, I've consulted an essay entitled "The Road Taken" by Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau on many occasions for guidance, inspiration and its candid look at how one couple's married life works. It has nothing to do with music, per se, but it has everything to do with the passion and love generated by a well-developed romantic life that inform your appreciation for the art around you.

If I ever get to meet the man, I'd buy him a drink and thank him for this piece. I can only hope my baby and I get to have as healthy, happy and long a life as he and his wife Carola have had.

god bless doonesbury

Who needs to spend time criticizing the Bush administration when Gary Trudeau can do it for us in eight perfect panels?

calexico

On their latest album, Garden Ruin, the Tucson band get as political as you can while still writing lilting, acoustic ballads. Or so says I.

kurt cobain has now been dead for 12 years

On the anniversary of the Nirvana frontman's suicide, I decided to go back and re-read this piece from The Black Table. Several writers, including James Frey, Tom Perrotta and myself, were asked to reflect on Cobain's life and death. I have to say, I agree with what I wrote even more now than I did then.