It’s the second week of the National Football League season. As I gaze out across the vast expanse of football fandom and traverse the wild terrain of posts, comment threads and Tweets, I’ve made a striking observation: There are some fans that are unhappy with their team’s offense. In particular, they’re unhappy with the offensive line. Seriously. It's a thing. And for some poor souls, this is causing significant stress, anxiety and displeasure. It’s disrupting their thoughts and poking at their fundamental sense of well-being.…
I recently came across a post by Jennifer Garam entitled “How to Keep Writing When No One Gives a Shit.” She begins the piece with an unflinching overview of the current state of her writing career: “…no publisher is wooing me with six figure advances…nothing I’ve written has gone viral…no one is compulsively refreshing my website, checking for my next blog post to be published.” She goes on to discuss other cruel metrics−sluggish web traffic, low engagement on social media, etc.− that seem to confirm…
After last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris, people started modifying their Facebook profile pictures with an overlay of the French flag, ostensibly to show support for Paris and the people impacted by the violence that took place across the city. As with anything on Facebook, this quickly became a trend. Shortly thereafter came a wave of outcry from people who questioned the public outpouring of support for Paris while the previous day’s bombings in Beirut received scant attention or condemnation. To many, this disproportionate reaction…
A few days ago, my friend Jason Parker, trumpeter, bandleader, educator and KPLU blogger, wrote a post entitled “Why Jazz Fans Shouldn’t Be So Quick to Dismiss Pop Music.” Jason is a member of a Facebook group “Jam of the Week” and wrote his post in response to negative comments that some “jazz snobs” had made about pop music. Jason makes a lot of good points. He questions the logic behind cutting oneself off from an entire genre of music. He also gives examples of…
A few weeks ago, former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson had a bit of a public unraveling at a press conference. He was speaking to reporters about his first fight card with Iron Mike Productions, a new promotion venture, when his remarks took an unexpected turn to the personal. He opened up that he'd recently had a slip in his recovery from alcoholism and that he needed help. He went straight to the heart of the matter, “I’m on the verge of dying because I’m…