What my protagonist is thinking about this morning.

An artist who composes and plays badass modern classical music.

This kind of sums up the feel of the story I finished last night:

And then yesterday Tom Petty died.

I'm not even going to attempt (not yet, anyway) to speak about the tragedy in Las Vegas. It was preventable, and that, more than anything I think, is what makes it a tragedy.

But Tom Petty, man.

That's what getting older comes down to, I believe; slowly watching everyone you admire, everyone you look up to, and then, finally, everyone you love, go away. My heroes are falling like tin soldiers kn...

From time to time I post music videos of songs I'm currently digging. This one's been stuck in my head for two weeks. I find myself singing it without any conscious thought.

So Sting has a new album out, and it's not lute music. Interesting...

I love The National because its band members are close to me in age, and their music expresses something about how my generation feels. "Get off our lawn," their music seems to say. "The world is going to shit no matter how many fliers you hand out, so just leave us alone."

I stay down...with my demons.

Indeed.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Norwegian band a-ha. Though not well known in the US beyond their 1985 hit “Take on Me,” they’ve continued to be popular abroad, having recorded nine subsequent albums, all of which I dearly love. When I say that I’m a serious supernerd fan of their work, I’m not exaggerating. At any rate, here is a video for their latest single, “Cast in Steel,” the title track from their latest album...