The arena speakers blared the opening strains of AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and the message on the jumbotron read, "Scream!" And gosh darn it, the 2,600 or so people in the stands stood up and summoned up a respectable noise. After taking somewhat dismissive notes throughout the game, now I was getting caught up in the experience. The Springfield Armor ( Read more... )

A few thoughts:

• The River Rat race was on Saturday. I wasn't there. I was unable to find a paddling partner -- but I didn't try very hard. I did listen to the radio broadcast on Orange's WJDF 97.3, which was interesting. What makes it so charming is that the River Rat race is like the Boston Marathon, except on a smaller scale. It takes over the ( Read more... )

While at Willits-Hollowell yesterday, I saw a copy of the July Preview Massachusetts magazine. In it was my story on the Williamstown Theatre Festival's world premiere production of Jonathan Marc Sherman's new play, Knickerbocker. I'm pretty excited about it, because Sherman, like me, is a new dad and his play is about a father expecting his first ( Read more... )

I've always been a fan of local voices and personalities in the newspaper. These days, I think one of the best things the Recorder has going for it is Gary Sanderson's column. Sanderson's column is ostensibly an outdoors column and it runs on the sports page. He does write a lot about taking his hunting dogs out, about about deer kills, and his ( Read more... )

These are all books that I've started, that I'm reading, that I expect to return to.

• The New Kings of Nonfiction, by Ira Glass. I found this book at the BookMill when I was shopping with A. for books to give for Valentine's Day. It's an anthology. Glass is the editor. I read a little of his introduction. He thinks we're in an "age of great ( Read more... )

I don't know if I want to know the answer to this question, but Francis Wilkinson of The Week asks it anyway.

I wrote about 42 stories as a freelance writer in 2007. They appeared in (or will appear in) The Recorder, the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Valley Advocate, Preview Massachusetts magazine, the UMass Magazine, the Western Massachusetts Sports Journal and the wedding supplement I Do. With an eye toward looking back over the year, I'd remember the ( Read more... )

I must say, I was totally taken by surprise to see this morning's article in The Recorder saying, "Recorder's parent company buys Valley Advocate." Wow! Just like that? The Valley Advocate cuts loose from the Tribune Company, from the Hartford Courant, and from the other Advocate papers in Connecticut and joins the Newspapers of New England ( Read more... )

While I was in Cleveland over the weekend, I read in the Plain Dealer a two-part series by the photographer who took the picture of The Marlboro Marine. I remember the photo. It is iconic, speaking of the weariness of war. It was an L.A. Times story, so I imagine it probably appeared all over ( Read more... )

I spent the last week responding to student papers. It was a tedious, laborious chore that I dragged myself kicking, scratching and procrastinating through. I spend too much time with each essay, and I have a tendency to kick myself out of an essay midway through to "look something up" or "check on something." And I end up distracting myself ( Read more... )