aren't you playing with me?
The cruelness and savagery of children can be astounding. Growing up in small-town Ohio, I was a firsthand witness. For a period of years, living two houses away in our plat of humble, ranch-style homes, Timmy M was my regular tormentor. Swift and strong, and a year older, Timmy was a superior athlete and delighted in domination. Snowball fights turned into prolonged combat, extended beyond any rational sense of jovial, healthy play. Pick up baseball games in the open field b
as pleasures pale
The Pleasures Pale sprouted in late 1985 with a series of songwriting sessions and loose band rehearsals. These initial assemblies transpired as they often do for young, developing bands: The prospective players meet and improvise; each brings their own musical influences and tastes, their own experience and perspective. Someone throws out a riff — a guitar or bass figure, a beat or melody fragment. A groove takes shape. A second movement releases and resets the groove. The s
