I Can Breathe (for George Floyd)
Sean MurphyI Can Breathe Of course I can. I’m white. I can breathe. I can also bear arms with impunity, vote in absentia or in person. I can shop without eyes—electronic…
Long Live Rock; Long Live Pete
Happy 75th, Pete Townshend! Inspiring? Pete Townshend, arguably, is the ultimate rock hero. He had the Lennon & McCartney songwriting skills; he played the hell of those guitars he ultimately…
A Portrait of the Artist as a Middle-Aged Man
Fifty. Five-0. Fiddy. Half-Century. Five Decades. Old. Actually, one thing I can declare with the certainty of a man undeniably ensconced in middle-age is that, in many significant ways, I…
Murphy’s Laws: 50 Infallible Observations on the Occasion of Turning 50
“With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.” That, from the ever-quotable Oscar Wilde. Does age impart wisdom? Maybe. It definitely provides opinions. Some of them, perhaps, are worthwhile.…
Every Day is Mother’s Day (Revisited)
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I…
THE ORIGIN AND ANATOMY OF A STORY
Write what you know: at once the best and worst counsel offered to the aspiring fiction writer. It is insufficient, if not too smug and certain, too limiting, and possibly…