Tell me 5 random things you love (that aren’t people or pets) -Taking walks in a very light rain -The smell of pizza in the car on the way home -Restaurants where I feel welcome to just sit and read once I’m done eating -Driving stick on a winding country road -Cheese and crackers for dinner

Definitely B for me. I’d hit some of the places mentioned below AND spend some time hanging with Fort Wayne friends and family.

Melanie Radford plays killer bass for Built to Spill, but her other band kicks ass too. If “Sleater-Kinney/Ex Hex but sludgier” sounds like your kinda thing, definitely check out Blood Lemon.

aretha franklin's "do right woman" was written by chips moman and dan penn, because if you want a do-right all-day moman, you gotta be a do-right all-night dan

Reminder: Service is selling. Selling is service.

"The Americans can't get the slime out of their capital's monument pool and will arrest you for touching it," sounds like the sort of lie they'd tell us in the Soviet Union so we'd stop bitching about bread lines.

Saturday night dinner fresh from the grill

Selfies with Benny

Nice little CD haul from Half Price Books this morning

PSA: Summer means it’s time for one of my all-time favorite recipes. I’ve made it countless times over the years, and twice in the past three weeks. Perfect as a side + easy to turn into a main course, too.

This is a jaw-dropping glimpse inside Trump’s police state. Note: all charges against this hero were dropped once NYT started asking questions. My only beef is ascribing the obvious conclusion to “critics”. Just say it.

v grateful that @pitchfork.com gave me the chance to write about some recordings i've loved for a long time - hope your weekend has some cookin, steamin, and relaxin (i guess workin too) pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

This new Tyshawn Sorey album really smokes (also, Adam O’Farrill is having himself a year)

Open/shut

"I've been waiting twelve years to say this. Ladies and gentlemen, D'Angelo." youtu.be/a0NCy1DteDQ?...

Post the best picture(s) you have ever taken of your pets (if you feel like it)

Whoa, Garland Jeffreys sucked on a chili dog in Spanish Town a whole 5 years before John Mellencamp did it outside the Tastee Freez (chorus begins at 1:40)

The Earth, Wind and Fire documentary is fantastic. @questlove.bsky.social is an unbelievable badass storyteller. The animation is spot on; the archive is killer, loved it.

Shhhh, don’t interrupt their programs

Disclosure Day is apparently a highly polarizing movie, and if so, I’ll happily take my place among the positively charged (and profoundly moved). Loved it.

Hanging out at the scene of the crime

Aquarium Drunkard :: 2026 Midyear Review aquariumdrunkard.com/2026/06/15/a... The year is half done and we’ve rounded up nearly 140 favorites so far. As always, the list is unranked and unruly—archival and reissued releases shared in tandem with the latest arrivals. Let it blurb.

k.d. lang released 'Absolute Torch and Twang' (with The Reclines) 37 years ago on June 15, 1989 | Listen to the album + discover where it ranks in our readers' poll here: album.ink/kdlangPoll

I wasted no time ripping thru this killer rust-belt noir thriller

Lazy afternoon

THE NUMBER OF THE BEEFS

More evidence that Trump is the Antichrist

[me finally watching Jerry Maguire for the first time] THAT MILES/COLTRANE STOCKHOLM CONCERT WAS ACTUALLY IN 1960, NOT 1963. WANNA MAKE OUT TO CHARLES MINGUS?

Hell yeah, new Horse Lords album is a blast. Can’t wait to see them in Yellow Springs next month (antiochcollege.edu/event/horse-...).

Beautiful little piece by Phil

HOLY SHIT

Whew, glad I didn’t quit watching Spurs-Knicks at halftime. What a wild game.

I just read this to my wife, who works in public health and also manages the medical affairs of a 79-year-old with diabetes and dementia. Her response: “I can’t even name 22 medical specialties!”

Handsome boyz

Cover reveal for my new novel, HEAVY SUGAR, out January 2027 from @sohopress.bsky.social! Love this art so damn much. More dope here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/828881...

With 2026 nearly halfway in the books, here are 30 albums I’ve really been enjoying so far this year

For a period of a couple of years during the 2010s I was employed regularly by cattle to shoot the covers for the albums they had recorded. It was always wonderfully inspiring to witness the love, hard work and passion they had put into their music and I think that comes through in the photos.

Really missing John Prine and Todd Snider right about now, because this is fodder for multiple albums’ worth of great songs

With 2026 nearly halfway in the books, here are 30 albums I’ve really been enjoying so far this year

Holy fucking shit does this album rip

Watching Game 3 of Benny’s head

All stretched out

My wife got a new mug

Yo La Tengo

Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (saw it performed live tonight, it rules) is a gargantuan 70 minutes long, and yet somehow that’s still shorter than his median symphony runtime

Literally looking out at the world from a Nazi bunker

This seems like a real punch-yourself-in-the-dick move, but what do I know?

Delightful album taraclerkintrio.bandcamp.com/album/somewh...

Very sad. Also, damn, I figured Anthony Stewart Head would be a lot older than 72. Doing the math, I’m realizing he was younger than I am now when Buffy first aired.

What’s your favorite movie from each decade of your life? 80s - Raiders of the Lost Ark + Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring 90s - Goodfellas + Bottle Rocket 00s - Mulholland Drive + Yi Yi 10s - The Tree of Life + Take Shelter 20s - One Battle After Another + It Was Just an Accident