Nice is a facade grown from habit while kindness is a genuine act — It was a late winter afternoon. I sat, back rigid and upright, on a half-moon-shaped waiting room couch. It was a little before dusk and work hours for some had just come to a close. I yawned as I stared into the changing skyline from the 22nd-story view. It was…

Silver Jews frontman and poet extraordinaire, David Berman, dies at the age of 52 just days before his Purple Mountains tour was set to begin — Yesterday, the world lost one of its greatest poets-cum-musicians you’ve never heard of. Around 4 pm, Drag City announced that David Berman, frontman of The Silver Jews, died on August 7, 2019, just 5 days shy of when his new band, Purple Mountains, was set to play in Philly. At…

America’s gun problem has metastasized — What a sad day, as 11 people gathered peacefully in their place of worship were killed by a man equal parts disturbed, ignorant and well armed in a town not too far from my own. Just as sad, a few days ago at a Kroger outside of Louisville, Kentucky, a…

If you’re not feeling the bern, you’re quite possibly “in-flammable” — As a society, we have been told that capitalism is synonymous with democracy, or, more accurately, that capitalism begets democracy. In the globalized world, we see now that the two are not fuel for each others’ fodder. China is arguably an aggressively capitalist country, but its’ political system is as…