Responsibly Wild Blog

If you've been playing along, then you know last month I played a show. It was my first time "fronting" a band in 15 years. The set wasn't great and the crowd wasn't there for us, but man was it fun. Writing, performing, and recording music is one of those rushes that can't quite be found anywhere else. I suspect performing in a play on stage comes close, but that doesn't isn't always backed by a kickass drum beat. So since that show I've an old itch has been begging to be scratched... Through my years as an active singer/songwriter I never, not once, recorded in an actual studio. Closest I came was High Jinx recording bass and drums in a church. Second closest was Eight Miles Out and The Evil Geniuses each recording in a friend's basement, Justin Meyer, who was messing around with starting a studio. He did good work, but the studio experience wasn't there. Last time I was in an actual studio was 2012 when I snapped some pic...

It has been a long time since I played in a band. A few years ago I jammed with a group for a few months, gigged with them, and got out at the right time for me. But in that situation I felt more like a session guitarist than a full fledged band member. This past weekend I played in a band... A tribute band. Photo courtesy of Bethany Jensen Behold, " All on Black ." A one night only tribute band to maybe my all time favorite punk band, Alkaline Trio. Finally figured out the 1st time I saw @Alkaline_Trio ; Jan 17, '99 Val Air Ballroom. Damn snowy night, ~50 people there, A3 blew me away. Approached them after the set, they seemed spent, & had zero merch. Went home and mail ordered Goddamnit from @asianmanrecords that night. pic.twitter.com/HVHSyaUidn — Patrick Boberg (@PatBoBomb) October 31, 2019 I'm a serial analogist, metaphorist, and similator, and a common comparison I like to make is of girlfriends (or I guess romantic relationships if you ar...

Above is one of my favorite mixes of slapstick humor, showing instead of telling, and skilled filmmaking. If you don't know, this is Ed Harris portraying the legendary painter Jackson Pollock in the 2000 film "Pollock." The film is rather slow and meandering but Harris is excellent in it and of course this happened. I love this clip for so many reasons. First off it is an absurd bit of comedy; a drunk man riding a bicycle with a heavy case of beer eventually falling and losing all his beer. That is grade A, silent film comedy. Buster Keaton couldn't have done it better (although he would have shot it in wide, the standard for comedy). S econd , it's a single shot, tells you so much about the characters foibles, and if you're really paying attention you see the camera bobbles when Harris hits the pavement which lets you know the bike crash was likely unintended as the camera gives itself away at that moment (breaking with the style of the film). That i...

Our Band Could Be Your Life is in my top three favorite reads of all time. When I was at the zenith of musical self-righteousness, I discovered OBCBYL and devoured it. I was in my junior year of college and funny enough, I was taking a history of rock n roll class at the same time. So for 3 hours a week I was learning about the 12 bar blues in class and then falling deep down a rabbit hole of seminal punk, noise rock, and hardcore in my personal time. If you dig deep enough on this site you'll discover my initial reaction to reading it. I was the stereotypical "only willing to learn the things I'm into" kid until just after discovering this tome, but at the time this book was like the Bible. A sacred text that drew a line in the musical sand saying "If you want it, this is the bar you need to pull yourself over." Turns out I didn't want it that badly. But of course, life lessons and stories of dedication don't just apply to one avenue of life. ...

So if you aren't up on the hottest series finding daylight after Game of Thrones' massive shadow has started to dissipate, it is Fleabag. Title not withstanding -apparently a half-cute, half-insulting nickname for writer-actor-director Phoebe Waller-Bridge- this show is everything you want from top shelf HBO minus the dragons and gratuitous nudity, except it is British and on Amazon. Now before you fire up your streaming gadgets, know this show is chock full of X-rated content but doesn't stoop to visualizing all naughty bits just too reel in the Bros. I mean the first scene in the show involves painful sodomy and strong cursing about said sodomy. The only reason I'm not describing it in further detail is I'm certain my pre-adolescent children will one day discover this website and I don't want them to learn the vulgarities and explicit details of intercourse from their parent's digital ghost. (Hi kids! I promise I'll stop using the word sodomy.)...

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know this past weekend we were hit by two cultural mega bombs; Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones: S8e3 "The Long Night." There's plenty to be said about Endgame, but I'll leave my thoughts for that over on my podcast; Filmcast Without a Cause . But as for Game of Thrones, I've got several thoughts and nearly all of them have flipped from where they were right after the credits rolled on Sunday night. HEY! SPOILERS GOING FORWARD Yes, I have waxed on with woeful rage at the series devolution of HBO's powerhouse program, but at the penultimate moment of the series, it seems fitting to revisit what is one of the largest culture achievements of all time. Without beating around the bush right away my general thesis is GOT's showrunners do not understand their property and have not only dumbed it down, but have spit in the face of their own reduced work. Famously Game of Thrones is adapted from George ...

I have never been much of a reader. For a brief period in college I fell head-over-heels for Chuck Palahniuk, but after a half dozen books and starting to feel like I was reading behind the typewriter with each new release, I kind of quit cold turkey. Sprinkled between the Palhniuk releases I read some of my favorite biographies, retrospectives, and cultural critiques, but once I was in the working world I lost the appetite to spend my free timing reading. Since college I have read... But very sparsely. Some Vonnegut, some Dick, but just as before Palahniuk; if something didn't grab me within a few pages, I dropped it. It's always been something I wished I could embrace but I have never been able to sit still long enough and give myself over to trickling narratives and writing styles that didn't grab me right out the gate. That is until I recently got sick of podcasts. I have been a podcast fiend since discovering Filmspotting in early 2007 and wanted something to listen ...