the sticking point

Birth of a Stoop Sale

I'm still working on the full-on TSP relaunch, with those Friday 10 Sticking Pointcasts for you... but in the meantime I thought I'd soft-launch with an entry or three. Rather than go into a drawn-out story that ends with my (unknowing) consumption of a dozen or so sunflower seed weevils last week, I thought I'd throw a question your way, and maybe have an interactive discussion in the "comments" board.

Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

I'll start.

In 2001 (April, as my Amazon.com buying history shows), I bought the entire Everclear canon. I went from zero to five CDs in a single one-click purchase. I had just read an article about Art Alexakis and was swayed by its sycophantic portrait of the old man as an artist.

Fast forward 7-10 days, the CDs have arrived and I'm listening. Try to imagine my face; it resembled someone who takes a huge bite from a steak sandwich and discovers he's been served rat's asshole. Uncooked!

Maybe you like Everclear. That's fine. I'm sure I have and enjoy 100s of CDs that would make most people laugh snobbishly. (That's for another day.) The 'clear is just not for me. And it is SO not for me that I cannot believe I was bamboozled into clicking away my hard-earned for a 5-disk earful.

I still have those CDs. I can't explain why, other than to say I have a tendency to keep things for that day in the distant future when the need will arise. (Like the ratty old pair of chinos balled up in the corner of my closet: there for a day friends may invite me for a game of pickup football in the mud, like they always do on commercials and the pages of J. Crew catalogs.)


But that's beside the point. The question, once again: Of which band or album were you once a huge fan, but now -- with passing time and increasing sensibility -- can no longer tolerate?

Wait. It's MAY?!

I'm sorry I blew right past the April 18th relaunch date without at least poking my head in and letting you all know what was happening. I appreciate the emails and questions about what's going on. Thanks a lot for remembering me, old man that I am. Here's the deal:

I had my shit together and was ready to hit the studio for the first of the new-style posts -- the first 'Pointcast -- but suddenly found myself much busier than I'd anticipated. Calendar pages, sleep, and leisure hours have flown the coop. While nothing has eased schedule-wise just yet, there's a window of time coming up when I should be able to go in and hammer out a few of these 'casts for you. I never intended to record days or weeks in advance of posting them, but it looks like I'll have to in the beginning. (I never intended to break my promise re: the launch date either.)

I am really eager to get these things up on the site and read your comments on the podcasts and all the music I'll have inside them. It's something I am looking forward to whole-heartedly.

So, it's coming. Not too soon, not too late, but "medium." For now, The Sticking Point squats in the bush getting stronger, while I work hard and listen to lots from Dax Riggs.