THIS is a CLOSE-UP?

"Is Coachella Still Cool?" is the log line that gets trotted out each April, a Groundhog Day feature for mass media everywhere. (See here , for example.) In most post-Coachella features, you see the same things -- young smiling faces on the metal front row fences actually soaking up the music, preening Instagram-ready poses from wannabe lithesome flower-flecked model types, and beefcake bros with tanned flesh and Heineken wristbands guaranteeing easy passage to and from the beer tents. However, this post will be concerned with neither domain of aforementioned examination, as I'm neither cool nor Instragram ready. Instead, what follows is a simple recap of one Coachella vet's experiences, from one of the best first days to one of the worst last days. My friend Brian and I had attended eleven straight Coachella festivals, from 2004 (with Radiohead and a freshly reunited Pixies) to 2014 (which I actually took a second to look up to see that OutKast and Muse headlined, ...

Every now and again, I receive emails from a guy named Bob Lefsetz. Bob writes with passion about a wide variety of topics, from the music industry to popular culture to skiing, and while I don't connect with everything he writes about -- who would? -- it's usually an interesting excursion nevertheless. One of the things I like most is that Bob posts email responses from his readers, of whom there are many. It's a nice reminder of the heterogeneous nature of the population, and it's a chance to be exposed to worldviews that don't match your own, which serves to educate you about the views of others, as well as a chance to reflect on personal perspectives. But every now and again, I run across a missive from someone who offers me nothing but amazement and depression. This week, that person is Will Kerlick. Will's response to Bob's posting about Bruce Springsteen cancelling a concert in North Carolina over a restrictive set of anti-LGBTQI legislation st...