Articles2020-06-23T00:56:12+00:00



Articles

When I’m not obsessing over the career of Jeff Goldblum, I also write any number of news articles, features, profiles and cultural criticism. These days, I do it for The Washington Post. Before that, I wrote for anyone who would have me, including Esquire, GQ, Time, Southern Living and a variety of other extremely kind publications that gave me money for words. Here are a few of my favorite pieces.

Stop pretending you’re having fun at this outdoor concert

THE WASHINGTON POST  | July 15, 2019

Outdoor concerts are garbage, and not only because they smell like it. Don’t take my word for it. “I don’t even understand them in theory,” Lexington, Ky.-based freelance journalist Sarah Baird, 31, said, calling them “antithetical to enjoying music.

The very nature of what makes an outdoor concert special — specifically, inviting nature into a concert — is what turns off so many …

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The state of Bob Dylan in 2018? As mysterious as ever.

THE WASHINGTON POST  | November 23, 2018

On the song “Early Roman Kings” from Bob Dylan’s 2012 album “Tempest,” he sings, “If you see me coming and you’re standing there, wave your handkerchief in the air. I ain’t dead yet, my bell still rings.”

It’s never a good idea to take a Dylan lyric literally. His songs are usually shrouded in so many layers of metaphor, it all blends together like individual ice cubes melting into a pool of water. This song’s no different …

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Billboard’s charts used to be our barometer for music success. Are they meaningless in the streaming age?

THE WASHINGTON POST  | July 9, 2019

As the charts struggled to come up with a streaming equivalent to an album purchase or a song download, the media has been awash with headlines touting the latest record-breaking chart numbers. Artists such as Adele, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne and Post Malone are constantly breaking each others’ records, leaving bands such as Prince, the Rolling Stones and ABBA in digital obscurity …

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You’re going where? Lexington

THE WASHINGTON POST  | October 17, 2018

The first words I hear when I deplane in Lexington are: “The bourbon store is open if you’re thirsty.” It’s 11:28 a.m., and indeed, the airport liquor shop is open. I’m then greeted by several statues of horses stately planted in the grass outside the baggage claim. As a Southerner — New Orleans-born with stints living throughout the South — I’m particularly sensitive to the ways our towns are often stereotyped. But as more than one person, in varying dialects, points out to me, if you do something well, celebrate it. By the Kentucky locals’ estimation, no one does bourbon and horse racing better than Lexington …

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Give Me Richmond!

SOUTHERN LIVING  |  January  2016

Spend any time in Richmond and you’ll hear the following joke: How many Virginians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? The answer is three: on to change it and two to write about how wonderful the old bulb was. Sure Virginia is for lovers, but…

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New Face of An Old City

SOUTHERN LIVING  | October  2015

On April 10, 2015, the 140-year-old St. Roch Market reopened after sitting empty for 10 years. Back in the 1960s, the market was a bustling center of commerce for the working-class St. Roch neighborhood, acting as both a small grocer and lunch counter…

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