minor league baseball Saturday nights with my loves

say what you will about Don Henley but when he wrote “they’re beating plowshares into swords for this tired old man that they elected king,” he knew what the fuck he was singing about

Librarian Fiancee: gives me shit for how many holds I have Also Librarian Fiancee: actually can I get you a cardboard box so you can take my holds home too?

almost-teen son listening on headphones in car and there’s really nothing like hearing him sing along to Benson Boone in a voice that’s monotone and yet changing

“hey jealousy” might well be my favorite driving song (about/for)

and that's a bare fucking minimum

trans people deserve to live, freely and openly and safely and unconditionally

"Mercy is violent but is not violence. I would have tried to tell you." (@sethwieck.bsky.social, from the poem "On Killing Prairie Rattlers")

the thing with drake is that i cannot

in a just world, this is the song of summer 2026 www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjvR...

Billy Joel is underrated. “Hotel California” is a great song. “Don’t Stop Believin’” is better than the Sex Pistols. Some of my heretical views

if you're not following Thad, I don't really know what more I can do for you

"when you get stuck on a question, tell a story" (my partner, coming through with the best advice i've received in a hot minute)

Friday Five: Five cultural artifacts that shaped my week Music by @martystuart.bsky.social, Little Simz, Basement and Adrian Quesada Words by Matthew Zapruder Get into it: aarikdanielsen.com/blog/may-15-...

rarely does the album I think will be my number one of the year end up there. that said, the album I’ve had my eye on from Jan 1 comes out tomorrow.

reading a Hemingway poem that uses the word "fart" no less than 6 times

i'm gonna be honest, sometimes I hear someone say BTS and my brain thinks they're talking about BTK for a split-second

i wanna take you to the olive garden

that's right

a la The Wedding Singer, scribbling "I was really into Parquet Courts when I wrote this" at the top of my current poems/essays

today, in total lack of surprises

Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player who has served as a global ambassador for the sport, has died from brain cancer, his family said. He was 47 www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...

reading a book of poems that made me ask you out loud “so they’ll just give the Pulitzer Prize to anyone?”

making library holds no man could live up to

pda but for books 😘📚

finally catching up with this from last year, and it's fuckin great

tfw you make your partner’s website bio (yes, she’s in mine)

if I ever get a poetry collection published, I'm going to steal from the Al Green playbook and title it: Aarik Danielsen Is Love

It is beyond maddening to watch universities sink millions into AI bullshit while young people are turning against it.

Gondelman is a national treasure

listening to howlin' wolf, who owns between 1-4 of every millennial's favorite songs

Your Monday reminder: ✏️ Head down, ✏️ Keep writing, ✏️ Don't be an asshole. 😉

objective and aware and rigorous as we might be, when we write about art, we are always writing about ourselves. the mood we brought to the music. the color that touches us in the painting. the way the photograph reminds us of our mothers. the way the poem resets every compass on the inside.

Ok, Omaha

for all the mamas youtu.be/tdNDfgrefg0

I’m bad at praising myself, but damn I have good taste. records. girls. Mexican food. poems. places to sit by the trees. etc. and then some.

reading Jack Kerouac’s grocery list (quite literally) and riveted

being a giants fan in 2026 is appreciating that kyle harrison is doing swell in milwaukee blue and hoping patrick bailey learns how to hit in cleveland etc etc

“Bobby Bonds? I got a loan from him one time” This is the woman I’ve chosen to love

if r.e.m. hadn't existed, i *might* tell you drive-by truckers is our greatest american band

this plus music isn't a consumer good, something to be used or assigned a specific purpose. let be it an immersive good, something to be experienced and absorbed at a cellular level.

treat yourself, weekend edition

Is it really though

Man 1 at sandwich shop, of the pepper relish: “it’s got a little kick but it won’t blow your brains out” Man 2: “id be ok with that!”

spending my Friday off finding some cool mom’s day treats for Holly because

this week's Friday Five is live! Music by Isaiah Rashad, Hiss Golden Messenger and Weird Nightmare Words by Ottessa Moshfegh and Willy Vlautin aarikdanielsen.com/blog/may-08-...

the best part of wicked game (which is indeed a perfect recording) is when Isaak’s band coos “this world is only gonna break your heart”

“The list of things I feel is crazy” (Jimmy Eat World, forever reading my mail)

it bothers me when a novel or short story revolves around a fictional band, and the writer never actually tells us who or what they sound like

quick reminder from St. Mary O (and me): You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.