When I’m out running errands in trusty, ol’ Ruby, I’ve taken to listening to KOOL-108 the local oldies station. Yes, 89.3 The Current is my radio soulmate, but a lot of times I just want to singalong to the radio while I’m driving around and I know all the words to all the songs on KOOL-108. Oftentimes, KOOL-108 hurts my feelings by playing something like…
After forty-seven years on this planet I can admit I do not have very much to be smug about. I’m not wildly popular or famous or fashionable or beautiful or sexy or rich or ambitious or successful or I dunno other things people are smug about. I’m an Angry Hermit/Spinster who believes people should be in awe of my good taste* and is consistently disappointed…
When I heard that Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn were leaving “Project Runway,” I was crushed. “Project Runway” is my favorite show currently airing on TV. Or maybe it’s tied for #1, because I love “Top Chef” a whole bunch too. In fact, since I cut cable back in 2011 “Project Runway” and “Top Chef” are the only two shows I consistently buy from Amazon….
I’m slightly worried that I am depressed again or that maybe I have depression. I did zero things all weekend besides lay about napping, reading With the Fire on High (which was disappointing), and watching MasterChef Season 9, even though I kind of hate the ridiculous over-production of the show and the amped up melodramatics. This morning I didn’t want to get out of bed…
When I worked at Jasc one of my tasks was to find and interview people who used our software. Then I’d write a story about them and their art for our newsletter. It was, by far, the best part of my job. The people I interviewed were always super pumped to talk about their hobbies and really passionate about what they did. Passionate people are…
By all accounts, Susan Choi’s novel Trust Exercise is the kind of book I should have hated. The narrators are unreliable. The author is a bit coy with us in the beginning. Another character is referred to as “the author” is the fictional author? Susan Choi? Can anyone be trusted here? Just what is going on? I’m not entirely sure what in the hell is…
When Sister #2 and Ben made the decision to sell their house here in Minnesota I immediately offered my 20-year-old Maxwell, my guest bedroom for the summer. I didn’t wait for them to ask. I offered up my house without thinking or weighing the pros and cons, which astonished them. I’m an introvert and the last time I lived with someone it didn’t go well….
Today marks the 10th Anniversary of getting laid off at The Nerdery*. I’ve been doing the Unemployment Boogaloo for ten years. How did this happen? Do you remember 2009? I look back on it fondly now, even though I was getting laid off as the ad world cratered thanks to the great 2008 financial implosion. Obama was president and I was in my thirties. IN…
For the Spring Member Drive, The Current has been counting down the Top 893 songs of the 2000s (as voted on by Current listeners). It is, of course, brilliant. I love when they do this kind of special programming. For me this particular countdown is equal parts a reminder of how much I love The Current and how it’s introduced me to so much music…
If you are in the mood for a good cry, have I got two memoirs for you! First is Stephanie Wittels Wachs’ Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss, about losing her brother, Harris Wittels, to a heroin overdose. If you’re like me, you know Harris as a writer from “Parks & Rec” who also played one of…
