I've never liked pickles. If I see slices on my sandwich, I'll pulling 'em out.

I love onions though. And I think I prefer pickled jalapenos to raw ones.

Zorba the Greek. It just popped into my head as the library was out of, like, 3 or 4 other things I wanted to read in front of it.

It's...fine, interesting enough for me to read to the end.


The Last Temptation of Christ blew my mind the first time I read it and with every subsequent ...

Zorba the Greek. It just popped into my head as the library was out of, like, 3 or 4 other things I wanted to read in front of it.

It's...fine, interesting enough for me to read to the end.

Just finished The Endurance Artist by Jared Beasley, about Gary Cantrell (AKA Lazarus Lake), creator of the Barkely Marathons* and other grueling ultramarathon races.

As a fan of extreme sports and endurance tales in general, this was an easy win for me; but it was also great to get a little more ...

Watched Mildred Pierce , to go with the Todd Haynes retrospective a local arts center carried recently. Enjoyed it. I don't like spoilers, but a certain character is one of the most hateable ever put to screen (and paper, I imagine).



Back in December, our local indie cinema showed a new print ...

I heard John Lennon’s mid-70s song “#9 Dream” earlier this week for the first time in at least a decade.

That song might have the all-time worst gap in quality between the verses and the chorus. That chorus is just . . . “awful” seems too inadequate a term.


Just happened to hear Duran Duran ...

I fly out of Kansas City sometimes, their airport got a makeover a few years ago and it's much nicer. Going through security is easy. However, the airport is north of the city, and there's no railway to take you downtown. St. Louis at least has the Metrolink.

I guess of the 2, Imagine Dragons is 'better'. I don't recall enjoying any of their music, but Nickelback is just...joyless.

FTR, I bought Devil Without A Cause back when it was popular, I liked Kid Rock at the time. (Robert Christgau compared the album to License to Ill. I agree with that.) But ...

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You was good, Rose Byrne and Conan O'Brien are great. The only thing that bothered me is that for whatever reason I had trouble believing that the child was a girl. I've never met a young girl who behaved that way but plenty of young boys who have.


I thought this was ...

Lamonte McLemore from The 5th Dimension. Portrait was a staple in the Murphy house while I was a kid. Great chapter on them in Summer of Soul . I felt that.


The 5th Dimension was the 3rd concert I ever saw. I went through a phase as a teen when I was all into oldies, and they played our town at ...