Long Play

May 7, 2024
This is my perfect music festival; situated in my hometown across multiple venues over three days, featuring an eclectic mix of some of contemporary music's most interesting composers and performers, this year's Long Play Festival was beautifully curated and well-organized, and it introduced me to some phenomenal new music while showcasing some of the best modern classical and avant-garde of the past 50 years. The range and diversity of the concerts was vast and every one that I saw was unique and fascinating! Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective performing spoken word with field recordings, ambient sounds, cello and percussion to…

Illinoise

March 9, 2024
Sufjan Stevens is amazing. I was mesmerized when I first heard "Michigan" 20 years ago, and again a few years later when "Illinois" was released. Then in 2007, I saw what I still consider to be the best show I've ever seen, "The BQE" at BAM; incorporating triptych video of the elevated expressway through my borough while hula hoopers twirled and spun to the orchestrated concept album. Follow-up audiovisual experiences "Planetarium" and "Round-Up" solidified his esteemed standing on my personal ranking of most interesting and exciting artists. When I received a mailer announcing a dance interpretation of "Illinoise" I was…

Skiing

February 26, 2024
Nothing stresses me out like ski season! A limited seasonal window to enjoy my favorite recreational activity makes me feel like any second I'm not on skis is a missed opportunity. And as soon as I schedule a trip, I am watching the weather, which to an Eastern skier can be excruciating. Snow, the miraculous atmospheric phenomenon, needs to be timed perfectly and if it doesn't line up with my chosen dates, can be easily spoiled by warmth or cursed by rain. I spend most of my days between ski opportunities fretting about the impending Spring and deteriorating conditions. But…

Good Reads

January 26, 2024
Books are explorable Universes and Authors are Gods! The Wager - David Grann The Lost City of Z - David Grann Two books of incredible historical adventures by David Grann. The Wager depicts the 1741 shipwreck of a British ship in Patagonia. The voyage itself was excruciating, but the scurvy-laden, storm-throttled crossing was almost benign compared to the trauma that ensued when they landed on a rock in one of the most remote regions on earth. The Lost City of Z follows British Colonel Percy Fawcett in his obsessive search for civilization in the Amazon until his disappearance, along with…

Bruins

December 15, 2023
Growing up in Greater Boston, there was an imperative resident obligation to support the local sports teams and naturally I obliged. Despite the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Bruins distinctive combined haplessness over the 18 years I called Boston home, I was apparently hooked forever. Fortunately they all improved dramatically after I left and have delivered more Championships (12!) than any reasonable sports fan could possibly ask for since I moved to New York 22 years ago. Today is my 46th birthday; Bruins visiting Islanders so I wrangled the whole family to the arena and witnessed an incredible 5-4 shootout…

Stereophonic

December 13, 2023
I met Alaina in 1999(!) and fell in love. Circumstances forced us into a long-distance relationship soon after and, when I disappeared to West Africa for a few months in 2001, we ended it. In my grieving, I found solace in Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album; the songs captured so many of the emotions that I was feeling, love, loss, longing despair, hope, resignation and freedom. I knew that the band members had been experiencing intense relationship trauma while recording the album and somehow managed to navigate the emotional minefield to produce one of the greatest records of all-time. It is…

Sleep No More To Be No More

December 9, 2023
A few weeks ago, hanging out late with friends and discussing the impending closure of one of the most interesting art works I've ever seen, we purchased tickets to see Sleep No More one last time. I went when it opened in 2011 and loved it; the event involves wandering around a hotel in plain white masks watching performers in various scenes referencing Shakespeare's Scottish Play, MacBeth. Each floor of the six story hotel is a maze of installations that periodically come to life as performance venues while the ghostly audience follows the actors, at times sprinting up and down…

Transition and Evolution

October 5, 2023
I write here fairly infrequently; it's not part of my daily routine so months usually go by between missives. In fact, I neglected the site's maintenance for months and failed to notice that my registration had expired and the site was down for an extended period of time! I'm lucky nobody purchased the available domain (although someone did offer a not-insubstantial amount to buy it from me recently!) and I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused by the disruption, but you will be glad to know that I secured the supergood.org site for the next decade! I may be the only…

Summer 2023

June 22, 2023
We passed the solstice yesterday and officially crossed into Summer, when my work obligations shift from five days a week to two, and my cherished free time blossoms. I celebrated last night with The Cure at MSG and am eagerly anticipating Dead & Company tonight at Citi Field. I have seen some other great outdoor shows already this season including Taj Mahal at Prospect Park and Dave Matthews Band at Forest Hills and have another MSG jaunt next week with Tears For Fears before returning in August for a couple of Phish shows. I was thoroughly entertained by Shucked and…

Time

March 17, 2023
I can tell time, but don't know what Time is; it is one of the most obvious and important features of our existence but the more I think about it, the more I realize that my temporal comprehension is just a simplistic and survivalist adaptation for functional life. It's been five months since I last sat down to write here and all that exists of it is memories, accessed by patterns of electrical impulses in the synapses of my brain. Using the present to tap keys on my laptop creates a lettered breadcrumb trail of my past, which might be…