Bostworld

Like so many guys my age, I made my first connection with male sexual identity in the back of mass-market magazines like “True Detective” and “Man’s Adventure.” Naturally, I was drawn to the so-called “adult” content in these tiny sidebar ads, but what strikes me now is how juvenile they are, and how devoid of any actual females. They almost seem to suggest that pictures, films or stories about women are much better than the real thing.

Continue reading ‘Things I Should Throw Out: “The Kind Adults Want”’

I didn’t vote in the first presidential election I was eligible for. It was 1980, and my attention was elsewhere. I was right on the precipice of a fifteen-year hole that was to be my career as a rock and roller. Little did I know that America was poised on a precipice of its own.

I never made the mistake of not voting again. Even at my most fogbound, I would manage to do my research and get myself to the polls. But I never actually participated in a campaign until this year. I not only donated actual money to the Obama campaign, but I guilted my wife into doing the same. And then on election day, we both took off work and spent the day calling folks in New Mexico.

Most of the people we called weren’t home, but we were told not to leave messages; just keep going through the lists as quickly as we could. The folks who did answer were pretty evenly split between those who had already voted for Obama and parents of newly registered kids. “She’s at school,” they would tell me, “But I’m pretty sure she voted for Obama last week.”

Continue reading ‘Your Favorite Little Podcast: Episode Fourteen’

Happy Voting Day, America!

No matter what your race, no matter your creed
It’s justice for all that we want and need
United in brotherhood, we will succeed

All together , all together, we are stronger every way
We will build together, work together for a better day


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About a year ago, when national treasure Merlin Mann took a brief hiatus from his blog, 43 Folders, he recruited a selection of substitutes to post in his absence. Much to my amazement, I was one of his recruits (due no doubt to Merlin’s love of the Meat Puppets and not anything he might have encountered in these pages). Time permitted the completion of only two pieces, and I fear neither revealed much in the way of useful tips and tricks for his life-hacking hungry readers. I was more interested in poking fun at the whole idea of “productivity strategy” than I was in actually being “productive.”

Continue reading ‘Taming The Beast Inside Of Me’

I haven’t been to Chicago in over a dozen years, but I still have my memories. Unfortunately, most of them involve trying driving around the club trying to find safe legal parking for two vans and a trailer. So the next best thing for me are these postcards from my grandfather’s collection, some of which date back a hundred years, to the 1893 World’s Exposition.

Continue reading ‘Postcard Collection: Chicago’

In the early fall of 1996, my friend Bruce Sandig and I traveled down to Tucson to appear in a video for my brother’s cable television show. I guess Damon must have been desperate to fill time on his November episode. Why else would he invite Today’s Sounds on his show?

Any doubt I might have had that Bruce would balk at having to perform “Let’s Turkey Trot” dressed up like a pilgrim was quickly laid to rest. He jumped at the opportunity to appear on television. So, we visited the local party store for some paper hats and scored some shirts and vests from Goodwill. We completed the ridiculous ensemble with some black biker shorts from Wall Mart. Then we drove down to Tucson to meet up with my brother. I tortured Bruce during the drive with my off-key demos of songs that didn’t make it on the record.

Continue reading ‘The Damon Show, Part Five’

Here’s one I should seriously throw out. This coverless 1947 edition of “True Romance” was already in tatters when I found it in the back of a dusty gift shop in Oatman. But I fell in love with the magazine’s beautiful postwar art direction, as well as its haplessly out-of-date take on feminine empowerment — that is to say, landing a man. The advertisements were especially poignant, offering guidance on how to manage such typically tragic social disasters as halitosis, menstruation and “borderline anemia.” And the advice doesn’t stop at the altar. The helpful hints for homemakers are equally plentiful. No doubt, many of our own grandmothers used Drano to combat humiliating “sewer germs,” treated “childhood constipation” with Fletcher’s Castoria and curbed “spousal indifference” by douching regularly with Lysol brand disinfectant.

Continue reading ‘Things I Should Throw Out: “True Romances” Magazine’