Today is August 1st, which means that it’s 38 years since MTV went on the air, playing music videos 24/7, interspersed with visits with the original five VJs: Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn. Celebrate! Since today is the MTVaversary, and the book I wrote with the aforementioned VJs—VJ: The […]
posted 1 August 2019 in Buy My Stuff, Excerpts. 1 comment
Dr. John, the New Orleans singer and piano player so mighty that he exerted his own gravitational force, died last week. I wrote his obituary for the New York Times. (The vagaries of obituary writing being what they are, I actually wrote it three years ago, but I’m thankful that he stayed around for as […]
posted 10 June 2019 in Articles, News, Outside. no comments yet
A few weeks ago, I was driving across North Carolina to interview a photographer–but halfway to my destination, I needed to pull over someplace where I could do two crucial interviews for an article I was writing for The New York Times about Originals, the next album drawn from Prince’s vaults. That’s how I ended […]
posted 6 June 2019 in Articles, Outside. no comments yet
Hello, neighbor. I am very pleased to tell you that I have a new book coming later this year. It’s called Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever. The book is a biography of Fred Rogers, an exploration of his philosophy, and an appreciation of his role in our world and […]
posted 8 April 2019 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
Kurt Cobain died twenty-five years ago today. When I heard the news, I was sitting at my desk at Details magazine, where I was working as a music editor. (The office was on the corner of Broadway and Canal Street; I had a great panoramic view of Brooklyn, lower Manhattan, and New Jersey, when I […]
posted 5 April 2019 in Archives, Articles. no comments yet
The holiday shopping season is nigh, and nothing says “I love you” like a copy of The World According to Tom Hanks. Unless maybe it’s a copy of The Beautiful Book of Exquisite Corpses. I encourage you to buy either of those books from your favorite book purveyor–but if you would like to give your […]
posted 21 November 2018 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
I’ve been busy with the hurlyburly of having a new book out–did I mention that I have a new book out? It’s called The World According to Tom Hanks: The Life, the Obsessions, the Good Deeds of America’s Most Decent Guy–but in case you missed some of the press notices for the aforementioned new book, […]
posted 19 November 2018 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
I am delighted to let you know that The World According to Tom Hanks is on sale now. I’m intensely proud of this book, which examines the life and philosophy of America’s favorite actor, and explores his psyche, going deeper than the usual mantra of “he’s just the nicest guy.” It features “The Ten Commandments […]
posted 27 October 2018 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
Hello world! I have a new book coming out on October 23 from Grand Central Publishing, The World According to Tom Hanks, and I am coming to your town on my book tour (if your town is one of the five listed below). I will be reading from the book–thrill to the secret life and […]
posted 8 October 2018 in Buy My Stuff. no comments yet
I recently interviewed Tim Mohr for Billboard on the topic of his excellent new book, Burning Down the Haus, which tells the story of punk rock in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell–in other words, a punk scene that had real political stakes (unlike many in the United States). He told me, “The German […]
posted 29 September 2018 in Articles, Outside. no comments yet
