Hello, hi. Welcome. You’ve made it Down the Pipes, your soon-to-be Top 5 favorite blog that appears weekly in your inbox. Most posts here are only available to the loyal subscribers who got here first and/or agreed to pay; this post is one of the rare exceptions, immediately available to anyone and everyone who happens to find it.
That’s because I wrote some pretty great shit last year (if I do say so myself, which I just did, obviously), and I figured if you’re a first timer to this corner of the internet (or perhaps you’re a regular reader who is simply nostalgic, like me), you might want an easy way to find the good stuff and sample the wares. So this post, and all the posts listed below, are now free and available to anyone with or without a paid subscription.
Yes, it’s a greatest hits compilation post. Already! I know. I’m not thrilled either and would much rather tell you about my current experience at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, or what I call “the greatest worst way to start your year.” But more on that next week.
For now, I thought I’d share some of my favorite posts from the last year, with color commentary for those of you who crave original content.
Until next time!
Back to Blogging
My first attempt at brushing the dust off after almost 2 decades of not writing anything publicly. For those of you who didn’t know me in 2003, I was a fairly prolific high school blogger who basically ran the equivalent of a Gossip Girl blog for my mid-sized suburban High School. This post retreads some past while expounding on some future, a fairly consistent theme around these parts.
Curiosity Kills in the Catskills
I live in the mountains just north of New York City, and calling that place home over the last 2 years has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I will occasionally get sappy and/or worked up about life up there, and when I do it turns into posts like this.
Regarding Spectra
Unbeknownst to me before I started this blog, I have a lot of thoughts on the metaphysical that I want to share. Most of those thoughts are complicated, and complication is hard to work through in binaries.
The Helping, Friendly Phish of Vermont
They built a kingdom out of lies, now I blindly fan the fire. This whole site is littered with obvious and not-so-obvious Phish references, and you’ll be getting a lot more Phish content from me in 2023 as the band celebrates 40 years (and I spend 100% of the proceeds of your subscriptions on Phish tickets and hotel rooms).
The Great American Wasteland, Chapter 1
In 2015, I left Gawker Media after 7+ years to travel, write, and explore corners of the continent in search of a pulse. I think I found it, but it was so dark and depressing that I shelved this whole project around the time Trump got elected. I’ll slowly be trickling out additional chapters as the general trauma of that period continues to fade.
Finding Yugoslavia
To the above point, I’m a sucker for travel writing. Not reading it—I find it terribly tedious and self-important—but as someone who can be both tedious and self-important in my own writing, well…it’s pretty much my favorite form.
It Just Takes Some Time
I may only listen to Phish bootlegs these days, but I was raised on a steady diet of emo and alternative rock. For those of you who always catch the clock at 11:11 and want to talk, this is my praise chorus.
Regarding Theism
Another metaphysical deep dive on religion and our silly human brains trying to make sense of our place in a mostly empty universe that happens to be filled with everything we know and love.
Dispatch From Deep Red New York
All politics are local, and when New York State went as red as it’s been in a generation, I happened to be living in one of the reddest counties in the state. What I learned knocking on doors, texting neighbors, and trying to actually make rural New York great again.
The Funniest Co-Workers on Broadway
New York’s finest temple of comedy was arguably Caroline’s, and I was lucky enough to spend my freshman and sophomore years of college working there. Come for the Attell clip, stay for the 100% true story of the time I bombed with Chelsea Handler (and I’m not talking about on stage).