Massachusetts

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!

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!

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 →

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 →

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 →

Livin’ right with two days in a row of my man Sol Lewitt, at @DiaArtFndn and @MASS_MoCA.

Hey Boston, I’m judging Saturday’s @usairguitar Northeast Semifinal at @MidEastClub. It’ll be fun. You should come. ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEv…

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 →

Back in Boston for the first time since I moved. They still have that river.

Goodbye, Boston. Sorry it didn’t work out. Maybe next time.

Surrounded by file footage of George Steinbrenner on an eternal loop. Seriously, Boston, drink with me at Charlie’s before I start swinging.

This day demands to be ended with a lot of beer. Join me. — at Charlie's Kitchen gowal.la/r/wZTK

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 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.

My neighborhood, once a safe haven from entitled college drama, has been very shrill lately. Makes me miss the crackheads in Philly.

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.

New England may be imperfect, but its benevolence saw fit to give me the day off for whatever "Patriot's Day" is, and I'll take it.

Boston, you're on the east coast. Your pedestrians would do well to embrace an unreasonable sense of urgency. Or get the fuck out of my way.

Either Porter Square's T station escalators get too much maintenance or every other escalator in the world doesn't get enough.

At BOS. Time elapsed between my door and the gate: 68 minutes. It is not good for me to know this is possible.

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.

Alone in a crowded diner. Mimosa. Omelette. Mushrooms, peppers, onions, mozarella, marinara. Steve McQueen. The Beatles. Happy new year.

Intentions of a productive night in were disrupted by friends, beer, and Improv Boston's final Rock Band night of the year. That'll do.

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 was really great tonight, but they would have been better if I hadn’t started drinking at 3pm. They should work on that.

Driving in Boston is neither a right nor a privilege. It is a punishment.

A trench coat outlet would clean up in Salem.

There were empty seats at the Múm show tonight. I wanted to fill them with people I care about.

Good conversation with @iamrumz and @jyllish. Good set from Besnard Lakes. Good night.

Cambridge streets have become no less craterous in the seven weeks I was too lazy to fix the flat on my bike.

Lots of great tours have stopped in Philly but not Boston since I moved. It so used to be the other way around. Grass is always greener.