Look, no matter what's going on in the world, I wouldn't be a proper blogger hack if I didn't publish my favourite media of the year at the end of December. So here you go, the top fives of 2025... Books  (That I read in 2025, not necessarily new books in 2025)The Resurrectionist by A Rae DunlapThe Lost Story by Meg ShafferRemember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting by

I know, it seems like I only ever go to London. But that's kind of been true for the last couple of years... I still love to go new places, but I'm 100% OVER the actual mechanisms of travel. So most of my plans end up cancelled when even the tiniest hint of a hassle comes up -- flight time change, weather, me waking up with a sniffle -- and the ones I keep are ones where I don't want to miss the

For the last ten to fifteen years, I've typically spent Thanksgiving either out of the country, or on a long haul flight home, eating airplane food for my holiday dinner. I'm too much of a history buff to buy into the mythology or 'celebrate' the American Thanksgiving holiday, and don't care about missing a day of overeating with friends and/or family, so I prefer to spend the day anywhere but

It's been well documented that London is my #1 city, and Robbie Williams is my #1 popstar, so when it was announced that he'd be headlining a night of BST Hyde Park again in July 2024, of course I was there.I landed at Heathrow on July 4th (because I love spending all the iconic American holidays in foreign lands), to spend a week in London with the Rob show right in the middle, carrying an

On Saturday night, I and 2800 of my fellow Bramily* members had the joy of attending a one of a kind Brandi Carlile Band show here in Seattle, to get a sneaky preview of her new album, Returning to Myself.The show was an album playback and acoustic performance, so the only folks on stage were Brandi, the Hanseroth Twins, and Sista Strings, all seated in comfy couches and chairs. It started

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A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

As a Gen X American, especially one with a country music loving dad, Willie Nelson and his songwriting have been omnipresent throughout my entire life, and I can't remember a day when I wasn't already a fan. His music was always around me, even if I was well into adulthood before I started listening to him on purpose.At some point in early 2024, it occurred to me that Willie was still

Once upon a time... well... once upon late 2023, my friend Steve learned that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were taking a comedy show (the Restless Leg Tour) on the road, and as the good fans that we are, we had to go! But at that point, they were only stopping in a few cities, and Seattle wasn't one of them... but Portland was. So we excitedly got our tickets and planned a quick road trip.&

When the announcement came out in spring of 2024 that Robbie Williams was having his first art exhibition at the Moco museum in Amsterdam, my last few days of vacation for the rest of the year were already all committed to trips I didn't want to change, and the show's run was set to end before I'd get a new grant of time off. So I was faced with the good employee / devoted fanatic's classic

Stopped by London for a couple days on the way back from Dublin, because if I'm not there at least twice a year, I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Maybe a dozen years ago, someone asked me how many times I’d been to London, and I had no idea. It was only a handful of visits back then, but it was still enough that I had lost count. It’s probably my favourite city in the world, so I stop by

So... what did you do last weekend? Oh, nothing much? Watched some TV? Well, I just took a quick little jaunt over to Dublin...No, really, I went all the way to Ireland for less than 2 days. By the time I got settled into the hotel after my halfway-round-the-world journey Friday night, it was 8pm, and only about 38 hours until I had to catch my lift back to the airport Sunday morning. So that

I love Brandi Carlile, and have since the early 2000s demo CD days. I also hate going to the Gorge, and have since... I don't know... birth. So because the Gorge Amphitheatre in George is always Brandi's closest tour spot these days, I only ever see her play if I jet off someplace, and I'm always on the lookout for destination shows. Which meant that I couldn't pass up the opportunity in the fall

Fun fact about me (or sometimes not so fun, depending on their results): I've been a Scotland rugby supporter since the late 1990s, long before I ever visited and fell in love with Scotland, or got engaged and then un-engaged to one of its citizens, or made Edinburgh my second home. And as part of that fandom, I've gone to watch Scotland (along with a couple other teams) in every men's Rugby