| a poet again |

After a long year of distraction and defeat, I finally got my act together and published two poems before year’s end over at Nth Position. (Personally, I like editor Todd Swift’s post about the new issue which features a colorful painting of a woman playing solitaire in prison.) “Aporia” and “Inevitabilities” were taken from work written in the second half of 2005. Though I’ve written newer material since then, I’ve decided to hold off on sending it out to publications. In part because I’m tired of reading rejection slips and also because I’ve found publishing less is often better than publishing as much as possible (or to make it sound like an adage: choosing quality over quantity tends to improve the quantity of the quality). Many poets seem interested in publishing as much as they can and flood magazines with drafts and minor work. I’d much rather have a proper collection published than release everything piecemeal. I’ll likely enter the 2007 Discovery/Nation Contest next month for shiggles, but I don’t have much else planned after that. Maybe just plug away at a finished manuscript. We’ll see what the new year brings.

| site update |

Speaking of new poems, I’ve finally expanded this site’s poetry section to include a selection of unpublished poems. I plan to do an extensive update on the prose section as well in the very near future to include all of my work that’s currently available online and some that isn’t. Hopefully, the revamped prose section will be up in the next few weeks.

| noble skope |

Starting with the January/February 2007 issue of Skope Magazine, you can now find copies stocked at Barnes & Noble stores across the country. It’s pretty exciting news for a magazine that started only five years ago as a Boston publication. It’ll be great to see how it stacks up next to its more famous peers Rolling Stone and Spin.

The new issue (with Ludacris on the cover) includes my features on The Rapture, Pilot Speed, The Little Killers, and Erase Errata. Also included are my six album reviews, spanning genres from hip hop to goth.

Here’s an excerpt from my piece on The Little Killers, titled "A Recipe For Imperfection":

Released in September, Brooklyn-based The Little Killers’ aptly-named second album, A Real Good One, is just that. Featuring thrashing, homemade blues rock, cut in a New York City studio in just four days, it’s the sort of music bred by the likes of The Stooges with a healthy dose of The Germs on their more coherent nights. “Before we started recording I was interested in seeing if we could get more of a live sound,” singer and guitarist Andy Maltz says. “[Recording live] adds something that I think a lot of people try to avoid and that’s the element of imperfection. Everybody sandblasts their records these days.”

When The Little Killers first formed in 2001 (a year before that other Killers band), the trio was an unlikely mix. Bassist Sara Nelson had rarely picked up her bass, and drummer Kari Boden had never even played the drums before their first rehearsal. “We were just friends and we didn’t care what anybody thought,” Maltz admits. “I don’t know if we fit in with anything that’s out there…We never try to fit in with anything or do anything other than have some fun and play music that we all like.”

| auld lang syne |

I supposed I’d be remiss not to mention the coming new year. To keep it short, I’d like to thank everyone who’s reading this for taking the time out to spend a few minutes reading this page now and then—or even just once. I appreciate the attention; as does my insatiable ego. It’s great having a small spot to share my work and a few thoughts and observations. So if you’re ever bored, feel free to browse the news archives located at the bottom of this page and find links to all the work that’s been posted here to date. Here’s hoping more folks turn out to read these pages along with you in the coming year. Happy new one, kids. Enjoy the ‘007 like George Lazenby because, just like George, you’ll only have one go around.

| jesus’s birthday? |

Snagged this week’s cover story over at The Mercury with a piece titled "For Christ’s Sake." As you may have guessed, it’s all about Jesus and Christmas—covering the origins of the holiday, how much was co-opted from other religions, and even a word or two on The Passion Of The Christ and The Nativity Story.

After reading the Jesus piece, you can also take a crack at The Christ Quiz written by yours truly. It’s not quite a Mensa test, but there are some trick questions in there just to keep the faithful or the interested on their toes.

All in all, the Christmas season is a great time to embrace and dispel all sorts of classic myths to your liking. In other words, my kind of holiday. So have yourself a Merry Little Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Safe Hajj, Habari Gani to those celebrating Kwanzaa, and Polite Disinterest to the devout atheists out there. See you all in the ‘007.

| a sly question |

Last time, I mentioned that Sylvester Stallone was being nice enough to answer questions from fans over at Ain’t It Cool News. For the last round of questions, I finally came up with one that I wanted answered and, lo-and-behold, it was chosen! Here’s my question followed by Stallone’s answer:

Finally, is any mention of the Balboa family made in the new film? If not, I smell prequel! And Sly, have I got a script for you. It’s your next picture. And you can thank me at the Oscars.

Stallone’s Answer: By the way, while talking about my brother, I did have words with Norm McDonald on Saturday Night Live—“Sure, you can make fun of me, but lighten up on my brother. He doesn’t deserve insults, week in and week out, OK?” Norm McDonald, who was not very talkative, managed to nod his head and the running joke was killed then.

I always saw Rocky being born on the night we first see him; he was not meant to have a back story—that could be handled in a few pieces of dialogue. I did not want to dwell on the past because we had so much ground to cover for the future of the character. While you might say that that’s a cop-out, maybe, but I always imagined Rocky as really being a ward of the state, never knowing who his parents would be, a product of the streets—and Adrian would be his first journey into emotional attachment with anything on this planet. Also, starting on the face of Jesus and panning down to Rocky being pummeled was supposed to be an indication that the character was being chosen for a redemptive journey.

You can read the rest of the final Stallone Q&As on this page.

I would like to take a second to stick up for Norm MacDonald. His running gag about Frank Stallone on SNL was hilarious and was never really personally insulting. For anyone who doesn’t remember or didn’t watch, the joke Sly mentions was done when MacDonald was the Weekend Update anchor in the mid-90s. An example of a joke would be:

"In economic news, unemployment figures rose slightly for the month of October, with declines in the Dow Jones and NASDAQ. The reason for the sudden downturn? You guessed it—Frank Stallone."

And each time, a giant photo of Frank would appear behind Norm. As predictable as the joke was, it made me laugh every time I heard it.

(Just so Frank Stallone knows, I wasn’t trying to offend by referencing him in my question—only trying to be slightly amusing in how I asked my question. I actually liked Frank’s performance in Tombstone quite a lot: "Them guns don’t scare me. Because without them guns you ain’t nothin’ but a skinny lunger." Classic.)

There was also a great feature on Sylvester Stallone in the December issue of Premiere. It was a long interview about his decision to make one final Rocky movie and how he’s coped with his changing career and getting older. Definitely worth a read for anyone who’s interested. You can read an excerpt here.

Had some recent music reviews published over at Slant Magazine. Among them, the latest 2Pac album, Pac’s Life; the first release from Neil Young’s archive series, Live At The Fillmore East; and Tom Waits’s box set of b-sides Orphans. On the television side of things, I took a look at the new NBC comicbook drama Heroes. Personally, I liked the Orphans and Heroes reviews best. But what do I know?

| pulsating |

My interviews with Boston comedian Paul Keenan and New York City band The Honey Brothers are now out in the latest issue of The Pulse.

It turns out that Keenan is big Mitch Hedberg fan. While it didn’t really make it into the interview for word count limits, we had a long conversation about Hedberg’s style and comedic innovations. It felt great to shoot the comedy shit with a professional stand-up comedian. Hopefully I get to meet some more in the near future. (Anyone know Gaffigan?) Check out Keenan’s website for a list of his upcoming gigs in the Boston area.

Kids might get a kick out of reading up on the brothers Honey, their drummer plays Vincent Chase on the HBO series Entourage. (If I had the chance, I would’ve spent an hour quizzing him on Jeremy Piven.) Be sure to take a few minutes to watch this music video for their amazing song "Some Of Them Are Nice Days." You can visit the band’s website here.

| performateer |

The new issue of Performer is out with three reviews from yours truly. Of the three bands I covered this month, I’d recommend checking out Fancy Trash and The New Dumb. (That’s two out of three. I must be slipping.)

| rocky six(ty) - part two |

We’re only two weeks away from the release date of the new Rocky movie (previous post). Am I the only one excited about this? (Don’t answer that.) To get kids on the internets ready for the occasion, the Slyster has agreed to personally answer 10 questions every day until December 20 from fans over at Ain’t It Cool News. Currently, they’re up to Round 8. Stallone has been remarkably candid with his answers and it’s made them a trip to read. For instance, he finally explains the secret behind the three seashells in Demolition Man, and whether he and Bruce Willis lost a bet to Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was elected governor of California. I highly recommend reading them all. Stallone answers a lot of bizarre and often embarrassing questions and takes them all in stride with a good amount of humor. And hell, since it’s open to everyone, send in your own questions to the man who brought us such gems as Rhinestone and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. I know I will.