You go too far. In the atmosphere, you fall apart. More miles than my car’s got on it. That’s pretty far.

What’s best for everyone is bound to hurt somebody. Blood crushed from a clock. Your teeth make me weak and you’re keeping them from MEEEEEEEEEE

I have no idea what I’m doing with my life a month from now, but this summer has been great!

Walking with a ghost – Tegan & Sara live at Newport Folk Fest by pazonada

Interview with Zeega co-founder J. Shapins by pazonada

To compensate for the fact that the large filling in my upper right molar has actually turned into a morass of decay way too close to the nerve, now necessitating a root canal this week — and I may or may not still need a second, replacement root canal on the bottom left — I decided to go to New York City to see my favorite punk poet Blake Schwarzenbach in his new ensemble, Forgetters. I took my friend H. along, and boy was I glad I was wearing my leather motorcycle jacket because I fit right in with the crowd. Knitting Factory in Brooklyn was a chill venue, and the crowd was not too big (although some people were a little obnoxious, heckling the singers). I was a little shocked at the uncanny resemblance (in silhouette, at least) between the lead singer and Mr. Bobby Dylan a la 1968, but that was due to the slim-fitting clothes and the big curly hair.

As H. commented, “They seem to have lots of personality, all the band members. Which is refreshing, compared to the previous band.”

It’s true. Forgetters seem like nice guys and gals, people you’d love to just eat ribs with. The drummer sold me a homemade t-shirt and was, as we say in Boston, wicked nice. I was very, very excited to see this show, and doubly excited that summer decided to return for the 20 hours I was in New York. My only lamentation is that Reen and BB, my two pals and former roommates who introduced me to Jawbreaker in 1998 and subsequently played their music every morning to wake me up, could not join me at the show (due to newborn babies and/or long-term residencies in Prague). But a fond shout-out to them!

I shot a video of my favorite Forgetters song, Too small to fail, but it wasn’t so great so I just extracted the audio for y’all to hear. Sorry about the few muffled seconds in the middle; I put my camera down on a table because I wanted to jump up and down.

*Post title references a recent blog post by B. Schwarzenbach

Welcome to episode one of This Bostonian Life. I’ll warn you it’s a little boring to outsiders, as it’s more a mundane and vaguely sentimental commentary on our relationship than an objective documentary about the lost experience. But in case you’re interested, here it is…with some photos below.

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