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Proud that I was asked to join Jocelyn Benson’s Small Business Coalition.
Always happy to share my experiences and thoughts, and hopefully help others in the process. 👏 Congrats to Maria Popova on twenty years of The Marginalian, “marginalia on our search for meaning” and “learning to live.” Always inspiring. 🎨 11 things learned in art school. Among them: “You don’t have to like an important work…
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Dee-Troit Basket-Ball
Boston led by over 20 before Detroit eventually won 121-113. I didn’t love that first half, but that run in the 4th was insane. Javonte Green hitting five threes in the second half has me excited. Hoping he and Duncan Robinson can keep ’em coming. Fun way to start the season, even if I’d prefer…
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A Recipe for a Zesty Life
(Harry Bliss cover of the New Yorker, published a year ago today.) Published by Joshua Allen, 31 years ago this Halloween: Every day I should create a little and destroy a little. The NBA is back, baby. Please direct all reasonable basketball discussion elsewhere. Detroit vs. Everybody.
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Robby Hoffman in Royal Oak
Went to Robby Hoffman as an early birthday celebration for Will and Lydia and now I am tired and hungover, but if that’s the excuse to eat pizza all day and watch Weapons and It Follows and A Nightmare on Elm Street, then pour me another drink. 👻 ‘Tis the season. 🌭 Metro Times picks…
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Today was my last day on East Lansing’s Downtown Development Authority.
It has been a privilege to serve on the Downtown Development Authority for the past eight years. Looking back, it feels like the culmination of a long chapter of civic service that began with the advisory board for (SCENE) MetroSpace in 2010, followed by the Arts Commission, and later serving as the Chair for the…
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A Chicago Fan’s Incredible Show Archive
Aadam Jacobs “secretly recorded over 10,000 local concerts since 1989. Now, they are cleaned up and ready to listen to for free online.” “On July 8, 1989, a young music fan named Aadam Jacobs, with a compact Sony cassette recorder in his pocket, went to see an up-and-coming rock band from Washington for their debut…
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Record Store Day, 2026
Kind of strange (probably not that strange) but this week basically echoed this same stretch last year. I didn’t end up seeing Marc Maron again, but I did pick up an autographed copy of his so-called “party record” Panicked, which, by the way, is almost word-for-word the show I went to last year. That was…
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Sam Kieth, Harvey Kurtzman, Jaime Hernandez, etc.
Haven’t blogged properly in a while, so it feels right to come back with something that is surely universal: comic books. I was sad to hear about the passing of Sam Kieth. It’s hard to overstate the impact The Maxx, both the comic and its later MTV adaptation, had on me. It started when my…
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Reiner
Before I was an MTV kid, I was a Nickelodeon kid. And like Cartoon Network turns into Adult Swim like a Pumpkin, Nick would become Nick at Nite. I loved Lucy, but I loved Archie Bunker. I knew he was always wrong. But I also new Meathead wasn’t always right. Years before Maron would argue…
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Eat, Pray, Pay
Trader Joe’s: Look, I am not oblivious to the criticism. Are there any updates? Have they gotten better? Googling “Are Trader Joe’s still shitbags?” didn’t yield a lot in the way of results. Even worse, I’ve been carrying around my faux-LL Bean bag everywhere and apparently that’s like, a thing in London? Am I an…
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Procured Art (Last Year)
Currently in the process of rearranging the house, art included, and forgot that I never mentioned some screen prints purchased at last year’s East Lansing Art Festival. As Vice Chair of the Downtown Development Authority, I had the honor—alongside the Chair of the East Lansing Arts Commission—of purchasing four pieces from that year’s People’s Choice…
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RetroDuck Presents: ’80s Night
RetroDuck presented an ’80s block party in downtown East Lansing last night. About 400-500 people danced to their favorite cover band, Pinball Pete’s brought some machines out into the streets and we handed out a couple hundred free shirts. Already thinking about next year’s event.
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Today’s Mail
A postcard and bumper sticker from Dr. Brian J. Bowe. Update: Also got this book from my old friend Jason. Looking forward to (finally!) reading.
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Spotify Wrapped and 15 Years of Listening
Down a bit from last year, mostly due to vinyl consumption. Apparently in my jazz era. Still a punk at heart, though. Also, as of today, Last.fm has been tracking music I’ve listened to on my computer and phone for fifteen years. Looking at the top artists, I’d say not necissarily the right order, but…
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Jim Henson: Idea Man, Ron Howard
Had the pleasure to see the Muppets in a wonderful exhibit in Grand Rapids last year and this film served as an excellent reminder of that inspirational day. In his own words: “Life’s like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.” I will likely always be more of a George Carlin or…