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Continue reading →: First-time director has some notesI’m making my directing debut at the 2023 Reading Theatre Project’s 5-Minute Fringe Festival.
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Continue reading →: Playwrights you should read, part oneOne in an irregular series of posts, giving well-deserved shout-outs to writers I admire.
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Continue reading →: When the resolution goes astrayMy plan to finish a full-length play went a little off course, but in the service of another creative project.
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Continue reading →: For the new year, a simple resolutionI posted this on Mastodon earlier today, just a kernel of a thought. Since one of my New Year’s resolutions is (or ought to be) more blogging, it seems fitting to re-post it here as an actual blog post. In 2023, my New Year’s resolution can be boiled down to…
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Continue reading →: 5 Things I learned from writing a play every day in FebruaryThis year, as with every year, I made a New Year’s resolution to write “more.” Whatever that means. The best way to do this, of course, is to actually write more. Write every day. It’s that simple, and that complicated. But if you want to be a writer, that’s what…
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Continue reading →: A reflection about the news business, through the lens of one peculiar career path
[NOTE: This was posted on Twitter, at my @richterific account, then on Facebook. My wife urged me to share it so more people could read it, so I’m posting it here. I made some minor edits, because Twitter ≠ Facebook ≠ blogs.] I feel like writing a thread about how…
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Continue reading →: Easter for atheists
If you don’t believe, can you still get peanut-butter eggs? Easter is a holiday that, for a long time, never felt like it counted. It’s always on a Sunday, involves lots of chocolate and jelly beans and has such a strong Christian message to it that if you’re not…
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Continue reading →: That time Ray Bradbury railed against Common Core
I can’t read just one book at a time. At any given moment, I’m in the midst of reading as many as a half-dozen books. (According to my Goodreads account, I have 11 books on my Currently Reading list.) As a result, it takes me forever to finish a book.…
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Continue reading →: Confessions of a non-lifelong Seahawks fan
Sports fans are made, not born. Most of the time, team devotion is handed down from parents to children. In my case, I learned to love the Seattle Seahawks with the help of some friends, and with the help of a profound sense of loneliness. I became a Seahawks fan about ten years ago. That…
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Continue reading →: New video: Static Jacks, ‘I’ll Come Back’
I’ve been beating my head against a wall for the last few weeks, trying to figure out what kind of music blog I want to write. (If you take into account the time that’s passed since my last true music blog, which I wrote at my last job, then it’s…
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Continue reading →: Streaming music is all wet
(This post also appeared at Medium.com.) If you want to know what music I like, just ask. I’m happy to tell you, and I don’t need Rdio, iRadio or any other misspelling of the word “radio” to broadcast my questionable tastes. When it comes to listening, it’s better to keep…
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Continue reading →: In concert: Lez Zeppelin plays Reverb in Reading
Many, many people in Berks County will get their jazz fix this weekend. Those with more rockin’ sensibilities still have options for live entertainment, however. The tribute band Lez Zeppelin, based in New York, comes to town Saturday for a show at Reverb. You can read my profile of the…
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Continue reading →: Future Bible Heroes to release their past, and present, music this summer
So you never heard of Future Bible Heroes, even though their second album, “Eternal Youth,” has been around for more than a decade. Or maybe you have heard of them and you’re wondering why I’m presuming you know less about them than I do. Forgive me. There are billions of…
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Continue reading →: Low releases new album, ‘The Invisible Way,’ continues North American tour
You can’t spell “slow” or “low-fi” without “low.” Both are apt descriptors for Low. If you haven’t heard of the Duluth, Minn.-based band by now, chances are you’ve been listening to louder music — for a long time. Low’s 10th album came out Tuesday on Sub Pop. Believe it or…
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Continue reading →: New release Tuesday: Alpha Rev, ‘Bloom’
You might have heard “Sing Loud” by Alpha Rev, the folk-rock band made up of several Texas natives. You might also have noticed that, befitting a mostly acoustic folk-rock band, that “Sing Loud” is actually a pretty quiet tune. The chorus gets a little rowdy, but with a song title…
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Continue reading →: Review: Caitlin Rose, “The Stand-In”
Nashville singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose is young. That’s unfortunate, because such a superficial detail makes it seem inevitable that she’ll be compared to someone like Taylor Swift. And she deserves better. On her sophomore album, “The Stand-In” (released March 5), Rose demonstrates a sensibility that makes her seem older than her…
