DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM (4)
By:
April 14, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… late-breaking obsessions, avoided discoveries, and devotions delayed! Series edited by Adam McGovern.
Growing up in my hometown in Michigan was a failure. Memories of that time are overwhelmingly negative and tinged with grey. Get out! It was a dingy small town of 35,000 when I left.
In 1982 when I was 23 I moved to New York City. I have never had a plan. So for 42 years I wandered around New York trying different things. I was a carpenter, a cook, videographer, and electrician. I was a comedian during the standup comedy glut of the ’80s. I tried acting. I produced a play and wrote songs and stories and movie scripts. I went to therapy for seven years and learned about anti-depressants. I quit regular jobs to take part in multiple black box theater projects. Painting, currency trading, and excessive drinking. After a time I was able to support myself somewhat by being a handyman. Then it all ended. I couldn’t afford New York anymore.
So I moved back to my hometown… which had become a beautiful tourist destination. Vast green esplanades have replaced grubby trash-strewn riversides. I am sure many people live there who never thought it was dingy and grubby. A rethinking of the entire downtown gave way to lots of gleaming metal and glass. Parts are truly unrecognizable. Everything is convenient and just right.
The move felt abrupt. I feel now like I am getting a sneak-peek at my Akashic record. I can easily visualize my time in New York as a single large tome with a front and back cover. I can think objectively about the entire adventure and see myself as though it is a movie.
I am dropped into the midst of everyone I knew growing up and everyone is almost 70 years old now! We all spend time thinking and talking about our meds. I had a conversation recently about the difference between metoprolol succinate and metoprolol tartrate. Later I need to remember to research the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Finding out the fates of my contemporaries: some are dead, some have moved, many struggle with the ravages of life. The race is run. Now we all stand around our personal finish lines. We rushed around and tried or we stayed in one place and tried.
DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Adam McGovern | Mandy Keifetz on FAITH | Heather Quinlan on THE GRATEFUL DEAD | Carlo Rotella on SMOOTHER GROOVES | Art Wallace on MICHIGAN | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on TAYLOR SWIFT | Josh Glenn on ART | James Scott Maloy on BE-BOP DELUXE | Jake Zucker on LIGHT SLEEPER | Gabriela Pedranti on THE BIG BANG THEORY | Adam McGovern on DOGS | Tana Sirois on COLLABORATIVE EVOLUTION | Rani Som on LED ZEP | Holly Interlandi on HOT SAUCE | Jeff Lewonczyk on TWIN PEAKS | Nikhil Singh on PRE-TEEN DAVID LYNCH PROBLEMS | Christopher Rashee Stevenson on O’NEILL & THE SEA | Fran Pado on SHARKS | Juan Recondo on BEN GRIMM’S INNER LIFE | Miranda Mellis on KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD | Mimi Lipson on SOBRIETY | William Nericcio on ELYSIUM | Crockett Doob on SLEATER-KINNEY | Marlon Stern Lopez on PAT THE BUNNY | …and more!
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!