punks on the internet

I have long described myself as Taylor Swift agnostic, which is not really true because I do believe she exists, and the truth is that I always misuse agnostic when I really mean atheistic.

The sidewalks are watching me think about you

When I lived here, I was always chasing something, the perfect idea of a life in the wild and untamed north. Partied and thought about parties and how each one would be the answer to the questions that kept me awake and pacing in my living room, like a raven seeking food half-buried in the snow.

Damn it Johnny, you know I love my Big Beef N Cheddar

The second time I ever came out as trans, it was in an Arby’s drive-through in Alberta on a flip-phone in the height of the oil boom. A decision made with impassioned haste that left lingering memories of trying, failing, and the desire to try again regardless of how

A brief history of darts in the body

I started smoking, and I don’t remember the first one at all, but that is often the way of firsts.

Cheap McNuggets at the gates of Heaven

Tasting heaven only cost $.49, and each bite brought me closer to God.

Everything Looks Perfect From Far Away

Do you ever think about how the emotional core of “Such Great Heights” will never feel the same due to an alarming lack of answering machines? I mean, yes, sure, even without the machine it is still an emotionally resonant song about long-distance yearning, but that distance feels cheated now.

These Frameworks Labeled Home

The Weakerthans second album, Left and Leaving, turned 25, and I am late celebrating it. I started writing this on the day of its anniversary with the best of clear-eyes intentions. I started and stopped sentences, cleaned out spelling mistakes, went back and recompiled half-considered paragraphs. I thought about the

The Tale of Billy Pumpkins

The uber driver on our way to the Harvard bookstore didn’t know what a memoir was, and I’m still at a loss as to the chain of events that leads to someone being legally permitted to own and drive a car, but live entirely unaware of a dominant

Say you care less how I feel

Every interview I’ve done lately has been connected by a single, unexpected thread. A red string tacked to disparate faces weaving an unexpected story from happenstance and stray thoughts. This isn’t true of every conversation I’ve had, but enough of them have created a trend. I was

Lessons on the posture of giving a shit

there is some power to be found in loudly and emphatically giving a shit where people can bear witness to it.

Tramps Like Us

There should be a German word for having never wanted something, but needing it to feel good all the same.

Fix The Tracking

We can never ask AI to generate the past we want to hold onto, or the perfect world we believe was promised to us and I guess for some it is easier to hope that someday a computer will make this world perfect for you than to accept that real perfect will always be broken