COLUMN: Daniel McLaughlin speaks music


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The story of Daniel McLaughlin’s love of music begins, like any proper rock opera, with a badass grandma. “The first band that I was into was Green Day, the American Idiot album. I remember having my grandma take me into Borders before it went out of business. I wasn’t allowed to buy the album, but […]

COLUMN: Here I go again: lessons for future me, from me


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I finished the journal I’ve been keeping since I was 17 this week. The last page of writing was basically a love letter to the book itself. I made a list of all the things it survived. Then I read through past entries. In one, I described uncontrollable itchiness and napping two or three times a […]

COLUMN: Give “bad” music a chance


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Weezer’s first album, Weezer, also nicknamed “The Blue Album,” saw universal acclaim both critically and financially. Songs like “Buddy Holly” and, my personal favorite, “Undone — The Sweater Song” shot to the top of the charts and found love among their new fans. It seemed as if grunge would finally be dethroned because alternative rock […]

COLUMN: The Bachelor empowers women


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Of those who watch The Bachelor, there are two types of people: viewers who truly enjoy and are invested in the series, and viewers who tune in every other week or so and hate themselves for it. Until last week, I existed wholly outside of this spectrum because I didn’t watch The Bachelor and thought, […]

COLUMN: Writing and running are not so different


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Running is a lot like writing. For people who don’t do much of either, that first sentence has probably already sent them fast-walking to the exit. But I’d probably make it to the door faster, and I’d tell them to hear me out. Running is already a part of your existence — every time you […]

Travel plans are made after Wurstküche


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I call my mom in Kansas City around the same time every day, a ritual we’ve developed over the past four years to bridge the 1,500 mile distance and time zone change between us. Our daily conversations are often bookended by her concerns about my well-being. “Are you eating enough? Make sure you’re getting enough sleep!” […]

You’re Dead! is a mix of genres


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During my freshman year in college, Flying Lotus, one of my all-time favorite artists, dropped his best album to date. My first semester in college wasn’t the best, but this album was a nice way to cap it all off, even if I didn’t get a chance to listen to it until the semester was […]

Horace-Scope is a a hard bop classic


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In high school, I had one of those old school CD pockets that would wrap around a sun visor in my car, which was inherited from my mom’s car in the ‘90s. I didn’t have satellite radio, and a guy can only hear so much Aerosmith on the seemingly endless local rock stations before he […]

Old Chinatown brings feelings of family, togetherness


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Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Every year, I look forward to spending time with my parents, celebrating the day with family-specific traditions. We watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade while demolishing scallion pancakes, a Chinese side dish. For dinner, we trade Thanksgiving Turkey for Thanksgiving Peking duck. And at night, we winnow through the Black […]