Massachusetts
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That Was 2024
My year in review
I was hopeful, if not naive enough to be confident, that enough people were sufficiently fed up with That Fucking Guy to keep him from returning to the White House. But he will, of course, be returning, and while this time his victory isn’t the shock to the system it was in 2016, his popular vote win, a hair shy of a mandate, still stings plenty. The Democratic Party’s subsequent soul-searching might be morbidly comical… See more →

Boston! We’re here at @multipleformats until 6. Lemme see your faces!





Hey Boston friends! I’ll be on the BU campus Saturday at @multipleformats with my algorithmic art zine, Plus Equals (including the most recent issue, #7, pictured here). Come say hello!
That Was 2023
My year in review
I’ll begin by briefly weighing in on five of the most prominent pieces of the 2023 zeitgeist, at least from where I was sitting. Some cynical vibes ahead, so feel free to skip past this part if you’re not in the mood for negative energy:
- Taylor Swift: Gen Z’s version of Beatlemania is a bit of a head-scratcher for me, since I find Taylor Swift’s music to be entirely unremarkable, but that didn’t stop her… See more →

Hey Boston, I’m here all weekend at @bostonartbookfair selling affordable art for nerds and non-nerds. Let me see your faces!







Hey, Boston friends! I’ll be in town this weekend for the Boston Art Book Fair (@bostonartbookfair), foisting all issues of my algorithmic art zine, Plus Equals, on the local cognoscenti. Come by, say hi!
That Was 2021
The highlights and lowlights of another pandemic year
Let me begin by saying I promise this post is mostly good vibes. Skip ahead if you like, but if you’ll momentarily indulge my pessimism: What a stupid time to be alive.
2021 was supposed to be the year the vaccine gave us our lives back, and while it did for some of us to some degree, its international distribution predictably favored wealthy nations, and the long-simmering anti-vax movement here in the wealthiest nation of… See more →
Boston Symphony Orchestra
That Was 2019
The highlights of what I took in and put out
My immune system didn’t do me many favors in 2019. I was sick on five or six separate occasions in the first half of the year, including an obnoxious bout of bronchitis that lasted the entire month of February. Luckily that didn’t stop me from having an adventurous and fulfilling year, and for the first time in my four years at ProPublica, I used every single one of my vacation days.
Projects
My first three… See more →
Wayne “The Train” Hancock
That Was 2017
The highlights of what I took in and put out
Projects
Since 2011, working with A Book Apart was my way of contributing to the design community while my own direction as a designer was uncertain. Over the course of 2016, as my new job at ProPublica restored my enthusiasm for design, I wanted to get back to working on my own projects and sharing what I learned in the process. Making time for that meant something had to give, so after producing the paperback/PDF… See more →
2012 US Air Guitar Boston Regional
Boston’s air guitar faithful assembled at Brighton Music Hall on Friday night. They came to talk loudly over the judges’ commentary, and they stayed to marvel at performances that were by turns inspiring and reviling.
The air guitarists of Boston have long toiled fruitlessly in the glittery shadow of four-time champ McNallica (Erin McNally), whose charisma and fire was insurmountable even on the rare occasion she faced a worthy challenger. But with McNallica’s retirement came… See more →
The Futureheads
Tonight's Futureheads setlist distribution: The Futureheads: 7, Area EP: 1, News and Tributes: 2, This Is Not the World: 3, The Chaos: 7.
The National
The crowd here is reminding me of why it took me so long to bother checking out The National. — at House of Blues gowal.la/r/dNa
There are not enough dicks in the universe for House of Blues to suck.
Opening Night at Pops: 125th Pops Anniversary Celebration
Tonight, a handful of coworkers and I will lead a fully orchestrated Beatles sing-along with the Boston Pops. bso.org/bso/mods/perf_detail.…
"Sing onstage with the Boston Pops" has been added to the to-do list and checked off.
2010 US Air Guitar Boston Regional
Pax East Harmonix Showcase
Skeletonwitch
If it takes a Wednesday night metal show with five bands on the bill to prove I’m not really a grownup, so be it.
The Main Drag
Melt-Banana
Melt-Banana didn’t play the Devo song you loudly demanded throughout the show, but my only disappointment is that you’re still breathing.
Baroness
Baroness was really great tonight, but they would have been better if I hadn’t started drinking at 3pm. They should work on that.
Múm
There were empty seats at the Múm show tonight. I wanted to fill them with people I care about.
Mission of Burma
The Besnard Lakes
Bang Camaro
AC/DC
First stadium concert in a long time. I can’t believe there are people who experience live music exclusively this way.
AC/DC has disproved my theory that I couldn’t be thoroughly entertained by a band playing a quarter mile away. Sad we missed Anvil, though.
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants are great, but there’s not enough snark in the solar system to adequately describe their audience.
Hot Box
2009 US Air Guitar Boston Regional
Peelander-Z
I owe Eric Pope a beer for convincing my tired ass to stick around for Peelander-Z. Holy hell, what a show.
Big Business
Mastodon
Opeth
Electric Six
The Woggles
Big Bear
The 2009 WBCN Rock n Roll Rumble
Crippled Black Phoenix
Big sound problems for Crippled Black Phoenix tonight at Great Scott. To be fair, they’re probably not used to dealing with 8-piece bands.
The Mountain Goats
Sad that the seven-foot-tall guy who obstructed my view of John Vanderslice will do the same for John Darnielle.
Pahk da Cah in da Hahvid Yahd
For my first visit to central Boston, just last year, I approached from Logan International Airport, northeast of the city. The entire five-mile ride was underground, which wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow if I had been on a subway, but I was in a cab. I knew I was traveling through the results of the Big Dig, Boston’s impressive system of tunnels named after area politicians, civil rights leaders, and baseball players. But experiencing it… See more →
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Wayne hopped on a bus bound for Columbus this morning. He then flew from there back to Philadelphia, from which he’ll fly to San Francisco on Saturday for a week-long family vacation in northern California. You may recall we spent some time there recently. In the parlance of his students, Wayne is an all-star partyer.
My party is almost over, and as much as I’m really looking forward to getting home, I’m oddly apprehensive toward… See more →