i can't really sing, so

So this is a riff on a Marcus Greil column I loved when it was in The Believer, and it's apparently been other places too. It's sort of, in my version, a "cultural/art experiences" top ten? I had notes for one last year, but sadly never wound up posting it! So here it goes for 2019. Sorry, 12/31, for excluding you from the possibility of being included in this, in case I have an amazing cultural/art experience tomorrow. 10. PRESERVATION ALLIANCE OF LAFAYETTE ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING , MAY 2019 :: I am definitely a bit biased here, but Geoff did a lot of great work this year, and it was really amazing to hear him talk as a professional in front of a group of interested people about what he was doing on the Roy House on campus. I know that he knows a lot, but the nitty gritty details of it aren't often something we discuss, so hearing him talk about it in a setting like this made me so proud. 9. EAGLES VICTORY @ THE CHICAGO AIRPORT, JANUARY 2019 :: This is a w...

I remember the plane ride back. I remember him, a fellow fan who was in my History of Photography class, and an unfurled copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer. We sat there, in unity and silence, and read everything we had seen the night before, every devastating sentence, every word that acquiesced defeat. I remember the speechlessness we shared waiting for our plane to arrive, so that we could board, so that we could fly back to Boston. The plane ride always went so quickly, shot you from Philly to Boston in a good nap's worth of time. It was the transition, the bag check, security check, all that getting to the waiting and then the waiting itself, that was the worst. And Dave and I sat there, sharing that newspaper, shaking our heads, knowing that was all the other expected. In 2005, the Philadelphia Eagles lost the Superbowl to the New England Patriots. I had flown home to watch the game with my Dad at his local South Jersey bar. We went to Antoinetta’s around the corner from...

Third & One. To those only vaguely familiar with football terminology, third and one may make a musical sound. The words roll off the tongue like an upbeat waltz, the beat on the last syllable. But to a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, especially after this week’s circus of a game, third and one is a plague. Third and one sounds more like the music played in films when something bad is about to happen as the unsuspecting victim ambles alone down a corridor. Third and one, some might argue, is at least better than fourth and one, especially when your team is down and the coach decides to go for it on fourth down, though the team is already in decent field goal range… When it’s third down, one yard to go, the play to choose most of the time would be to run the ball. Hand the ball to one of your running backs who you trust to gain a yard, maybe some more. The Eagles coach Andy Reid, however, on third and one, chose today more often that not to pass the ball. Though the Eagles play...