Big Shot: Making a Case for Billy Joel
Sean MurphyFive hours is a lot of time to spend with Billy Joel. But it’s worth...
Why We Keep Returning to Stories: A Conversation with The Atlantic’s Emma Sarappo
If you’re a writer, editor, teacher, critic — or just a serious reader — you...
Never Say Die: Ozzy into the Void
He accomplished everything he was put here to do. And more. He didn’t merely change...
F with the Formula: Brian Wilson as Antidote for Cynicism
Brian Wilson could hear everything. The miraculous sounds in his mind. The sound of history...
Ennio Morricone, The Master
Certain things are anathema to the mature writer: hyperbole, cliché, groupthink, money—just kidding, (mostly). Sometimes,...
St. Elmo’s: Where Every Day is 1985
Forty years ago, this week, a movie that in many ways belongs on the Mt....
Lalo Schifrin: Sound & Vision
When one of the best albums of the ’90s dropped, pretty much out of nowhere,...
Reflections on Fiction vs. Memoir
Ten years ago this month, my novel Not To Mention a Nice Life published (and became an Amazon...
The Once and Future King: Brian Wilson
What can be added to the mostly excellent obits and tributes coming in from around...
Sly Stone: For me to stay here, I got to be me
Listen: hearing is believing. Always. Which isn’t to say that we don’t need or shouldn’t...