This is not going to be a traditional book report. In that sense I will go over the book a little bit, and maybe why you should read it, but instead, and surprisingly, this book reaffirmed my belief that in the long run, human made music will still be around for thousands of years, and Read More …
Category: Opinion
How Quick Fixes Borrow from the Future
A man I used to work with in Chicago had a habit of taking out small loan every Tuesday to cover his Monday night choices. By Thursday, he was working for free just to pay off the interest on Tuesday. He thought he was solving a cash problem. In truth, he was simply renting tomorrow’s Read More …
I Paid My Neighbor in a Zucchini
This post is about a zucchini, a broken microphone, and why I think the outrage cycle is the most effective inertia machine ever built. Today in Chicago it was Kanye and the ADL. Next week it’ll be someone else. I’m not interested in relitigating who’s right, I’m interested in what all this click-bait, rage-bait do Read More …
A Mirror for Two Faces
Out in Maine, a gentleman named Graham Platner enters the political arena. He is accused of a dark and offensive offense against a woman, an allegation of the gravest nature. Instantly, the machinery of his own party is oiled and set in motion. The high priests of the organization assemble, their faces white with a Read More …
The National Cosmetic Studio
I have been observing with breathless awe the latest triumph of our grand Republic’s economic engine. We are told by the public prints that the government has appointed its first Chief Design Officer, a gentleman of immense private fortune and impeccable aesthetic taste, whose solemn patriotic duty is to “modernize the internet-facing portions” of our Read More …
The Gospel of the Crumbs
I was sitting in a diner off the Ike recently, watching a man in a grease-stained union jacket argue with a fellow in a crisp button down. They weren’t arguing about the score of the game or the price of a ham sandwich. They were arguing about “identity”, who’s taking whose “spot,” who’s “woke,” and Read More …
From the Assembly Line to the Golden Ticket
I have lived long enough to watch the soil of the Midwest turn from something we plowed into something we paved over for data centers. I see the world through a window pane that is cold, clean, and increasingly expensive. Being a man of quiet habits and a fair amount of book-learning, I spend long Read More …
A Dream Deferred by a Dollar Sign
There is a peculiar kind of weather in America today. It is a season where the rain falls only on the pavement, leaving the gardens of the ordinary man to bone-dry dust, while the glass towers of corporate high-rises are washed clean every morning by the sweat of people they never see. If we look Read More …
The Gospel of Gold and Gadgets
There is a particular brand of comedy being staged in the higher echelons of our society, and though I am told it is a drama, I simply cannot stop laughing through the tears. We find ourselves trapped in an era dominated by a “Technological Totalitarian State”, a delightfully sterile phrase for what is essentially a Read More …
The Gospel According to San Jose
There was a time when the architectures of greed were at least pleasantly straightforward. One could stroll down to the riverfront, observe the soot-choked brick factories, and point a gloved finger directly at the man with the loudest watch and know exactly who was shortening his lifespan for a nickel. It was a dreadful arrangement, Read More …