Edwyn Collins, Live in Brooklyn, March 13
I wore my fringe like Roger McGuinn’s! Like everyone else I’ve been following the recovery of Edwyn Collins — erstwhile Orange Juice frontman and solo one-world-wide-hit wonder (“A Girl Like You“). The man suffered two major cerebral hemorrhages in 2005, for a while rendering him in a condition where he could only say four things: “Yes”; “No”; “Grace...
read moreNew Year, New York, New Short Story
You can’t have this little book, but you can hear me read it. Shucks, here’s me reading a new short story, “Dave.” The original was in these little books I made and they are long gone. But you can totally listen to me read it in character(s)! Listen now, or download and take me along for your jog! Recorded at White Rabbit, a bar in New York City, in January...
read morePremium Money Scams
#1 Lesson: Never pay cash when you can use credit. I saw Guided by Voices play on Dec. 30 and Dec. 31 and wanted to blog about it, but a phone call changed all that. It was from the company that handles my 401(k) retirement account. A woman informed me that I now qualified for a new level of service — a “premium” level, in fact. She wanted to assign me a personal account executive right away. Immediately suspicious, I said I had to go and that she should send me information in the mail about the premium services. I work...
read moreSanta Cruz, not Santa Claus!
Amberly Young is so awesome! (Did you draw a heart because you love me?) Santa Cruz is a beautiful place and University of California, Santa Cruz, has the best-looking campus I’ve ever seen. It seems hidden within a forest of giant redwoods. A guy who took me around campus told me that new students often become lost on the trails that connect the campuses. I was intrigued by the Mima Mounds — Kyle, you rock for bringing me on the long and perilous hike (we had to climb a barbed-wire fence) to them. Why was I there? Well,...
read moreBelle & Sebastian, Live at the Williamsburg Waterfront
And Stuart said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. I can’t remember for certain the last time I’ve been to a show that I knew every song performed, apart from the artist’s yet-to-be-released album. Maybe Grant Hart? And now I was seeing Belle & Sebastian, a band whose songs I really love. I know the words, man! Along with punk and metal, I do enjoy a lot of twee. Hell, I love the stuff Orange Juice did for Postcard (collected on Ostrich Churchyard and The Heather’s on Fire) along...
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Ed Lin is the author of Waylaid, This Is A Bust, Snakes Can't Run, and One Red Bastard. Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. Ed lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung.