At this time, I want to bring your attention to something shameful. The album Christmas Soul Special is rare. Apparently we live in a world where people either don’t know about it or they don’t want to hear it. I really hope it’s that they don’t know about it. Ignorance isn’t a good excuse, but…
I went to see The Man Who Invented Christmas. I liked it. It is a highly fictionalized account of how Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, which is one of my favorite books. The drama of the movie comes from the fact that Dickens only gave himself six weeks to complete the book so that…
Yesterday, I went to see my daughter perform in The Nutcracker. The past few years I have brought her to watch The Nutcracker, but this year she got to be onstage. She was a reindeer, a trumpet playing angel and a bon-bon. Technically she wasn’t the star of the show, but why get hung up…
I’m of the general opinion that song lyrics don’t matter. A song is good or bad because of the music. If I want poetry, I’ll get a book of poems. Songs are all about the melody, rhythm and harmony. That being said, it can be enjoyable to notice the lyrics. Good lyrics can elevate an…
I want to see if I can manage a post a day for the month of December. December seems like a good time to try it. The main reason it seems like a good time is I really like Christmas. I think I like Christmas as much as any non-Christian can. If I’m desperate, I…
I’m not the type to know much about, or care much about, famous people. But I care very much about the things that some famous people make. I love to read. I love television and movies. And I need a stronger word than love to describe how I feel about music. Every once in a…
Now hear me out. I know that divorce is a wrenching experience. But divorce is also the seventh anniversary of your wedding day after the ink dries on your papers. It’s the first awkward date when you’re trying to get back into the game. Divorce is not only the explosive fights and protracted custody battles. Eventually, the…
One of my friends told me about a habit he has when he starts to watch a new show. If the show is available in its entirety already, he watches the last episode of the series first, and then starts the show from the beginning. I find this to be an odd way to watch…
We are fast approaching an off year election. We are not electing a president or a new congress. That means most people won’t bother to vote and that’s just wrong. Off year elections have a huge impact on our day to day lives. They are when we elect our mayors, our town councils and our…
What would James Baldwin have written if he didn’t have to literally defend his humanity? How much time did one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century spend talking to white people? How much time did he waste talking about white people? As I think about that, I realize that I don’t want…
