Published in Fools Rush In Again·Feb 23Did you hear the distant cry?Mark Lanegan, RIP. Lately I have been thinking that I don’t want to write about music anymore. In part this is because I don’t want to be someone who’s work is one long reminiscence; it’s also because the circles that I am forced to write in make me feel like…Grunge4 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Dec 8, 2021Mixtape the Movie: A defense.by Gina Arnold My next book project is an anthology about independent record stores and the dear place they hold in our collective memory. I truly believe that such stores were, as I put it in the book, the best side of capitalism, but nothing’s perfect, and there is a…Movies5 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Nov 23, 2021Nobody’s Army: Lessons from the Astroworldby Gina Arnold When I was young, I went to rock festivals…a lot of rock festivals. In fact, outside of the people who work rock festivals, such as promoters, bands, and stagehands, I might have been to more rock festivals than anyone you know. In the 1990s, I was a…Music4 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Nov 3, 2021Songs of Innocence & Experience: James Taylor at the Chase Center, Oct. 29, 2021.The other night I went to see James Taylor. How embarrassing, right? It’s not exactly something you brag about on Facebook, and as for sharing pictures or videos to Instagram, you’d have to have a very different set of friends than I do to bother. There is nothing cool about…Classic Rock6 min read
Sep 27, 2021To Lose And To Pretend: Nirvana’s Nevermind at 30This morning I found out that Courtney Love dropped my name in a recent interview with the L.A. Times in an article about the 30th anniversary of the release of the Nirvana album Nevermind. In answer to the question, Is too much made of the idea of Nevermind being a…Nirvana4 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Sep 21, 2021The World Set Free: BTS at the United Nations, 9/20/2021Yesterday in advance of the opening session of the General Assembly, the United Nations allowed the Korean pop group BTS to both speak and perform from the dais of the auditorium which typically houses the General Assembly. Introduced by Korean president Moon Jae-in, the seven-member band orated a carefully prepared…Bts Army4 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Aug 13, 2021A Spring Clean For the May QueenFrom the top of the hill behind my cousin’s farm in Dorset, you can just see Glastonbury Tor. …Reentry6 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Feb 2, 2021Death by Covid — A Love Story.My Dad died on January 18 and I had to write an obituary. After it ran, lots of people told me what a great obituary it was, and I thought: Do they mean it’s well written? Or that my father had a great life? My father DID have a great…Covid 197 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Jul 23, 2020BRING OUT YOUR DEAD: immortality in Utopia AvenueDavid Mitchell is my favorite author on earth and news of an imminent novel from him is always a day to rejoice. Yet when I found out that his latest was about a fictional band in Swingin’ London, I was worried. To my mind, rock ’n’ roll has thus far…Books5 min read
Published in Fools Rush In Again·Jun 3, 2020Stop Making SenseBy the 8th day after George Floyd was brutally murdered protests, both peaceful and violent, were occurring through the country, not only in urban centers like New York and DC, but also in places like Anchorage Alaska and Lexington Kentucky; in Wilmington, in Tulsa, and Boise, and Spokane. And they…Black Lives Matter6 min read
