Self-Absorbed Boomer

"[A] delightfully named blog", (Sewell Chan, New York Times). "[R]elentlessly eclectic", (Gary, Iowa City). Taxing your attention span since 2005.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Adrienne Young

My friend Barbara Cahn introduced me to the music of Adrienne Young by lending me a copy of Adrienne's CD The Art of Virtue . Here she ...

Thursday, March 05, 2009

S-AB loses a friend: Robert Guskind, 1958-2009

Robert "Bob" Guskind (photo by Hugh Crawford ), whose sudden and untimely death yesterday has stunned the Brooklyn blogging commu...

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Some good news, for a change.

Good, at least for those of us living in The Big Apple , or those planning to visit here. Update: Alas, news on the NYC crime front isn...

Saturday, February 28, 2009

David Lind Band, "Bay Ridge Avenue"

Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwestern corner of Brooklyn, occupying a peninsula that forms the westernmost part of Long Island....

Friday, February 27, 2009

Lets stop abusing apostrophe's.

I've long wondered about this sign, which I walk by two or three times almost every day. Do the St. Francis Terriers bring their suit...

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Woo-hah! Mets win spring training opener.

Spring training began today, so let's give John Fogerty and Keith Urban a listen: I'm not one of those who buys into the "...

Jindal's lame response.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was tapped to respond to President Obama's speech last night. Even though I was groggy from having stuf...

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Beausoleil with Michael Doucet: "Zydeco Gris Gris".

Today's the day to highlight this song (thanks to letstalkaboutstuff for making the clip). Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Bunning's wild pitch.

U.S. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), in his earlier career was a good enough pitcher (3.27 career ERA) to be elected to the Hall of Fame. On ...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

I'm not watching the Oscars.

It's not out of pique; more just disinterest. I hardly ever watch first-run movies anymore; not because there aren't any I want to ...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Now, for you MoPar fans.

Here, thanks to sloanbarri , is Chrysler's answer (their restructuring plan was also filed Tuesday) to the previous post, as sung by Ja...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Pontiac lives?

This morning's New York Times , reporting on the General Motors survival plan due to be released today, said that the company would redu...

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Fifteen albums.

Another Facebook wheeze, which I've reposted here for non-Facebookers. The instructions were to list fifteen record albums (LPs or CDs)...

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy Darwin/Lincoln Day.

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. To mark the occasion, The New York Times has provided a video of a singing ...

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Zagat's the way it goes.

Last week's New York Times "Dining Out" section featured an article by Frank Bruni with the headline " Restaurants Sto...

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sigourney Weaver covers the Beatles.

While searching Google for the Sigourney Weaver photo to which I linked in my immediately previous post, I found this clip (thanks to Blake...

Monday, February 02, 2009

Self-absorption to the max.

Yesterday, I was tagged twice on Facebook to perform a task that is being passed around virally on that site, which is to make a list of twe...

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Best Super Bowl ever?

Maybe not. There's certainly competition. For me, the iconic one will always be III, Jets versus Baltimore Colts, which I watched wit...

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The comfort of the hot stove, and my Super Bowl prediction.

I left Tampa yesterday, just ahead of Super Bowl insanity. Back in chilly Brooklyn this morning, I was delighted to find, tucked on page th...

Thursday, January 29, 2009

O Florida, venereal soil (take 2).

By South Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa, January 29, 2009 (once again, apologies to Wallace Stevens ).

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Obligatory post-inaugural post.

I wanted something more. I wanted that deathless sound bite; that "Ask not what your country can do for you...", that "nothin...

Friday, January 16, 2009

Andrew Wyeth, 1917-2009

The summer before last, we visited the Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center in Rockland, Maine. I'm afraid I'd succumbed to wha...

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Take a walk with me.

Walking the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn to Manhattan, from the Cadman Plaza entrance to the East Tower, Tuesday morning, January 13, 2009.

Friday, January 09, 2009

The strange persistence of the Spitzer tie.

You might well think that a distinctive and prominent item of clothing worn by a disgraced politician in the very moment of his public humil...

The Gators have become boring.

They've won the BCS title for the second time in three years, again holding a team many pundits (though this time not the bettors) thou...

Thursday, January 08, 2009

A song for our times?

Uncle Tupelo at The Lounge Ax, Chicago, November 8, 1992 (thanks to Pants Elderly ).

Monday, January 05, 2009

New Year's thank-yous.

I'm a little late with this, but I trust you'll forgive me. Last year at this time I posted a thank-you to everyone I could think ...

Friday, January 02, 2009

Hepzibah the acrophile.

Something in her little feline brain encodes a military maxim: Take the high ground.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Aboard Amtrak's Adirondack, with an R&B soundtrack.

Riding south from Plattsburgh to New York City on Amtrak's Adirondack last Sunday, I was in the rear coach, and noticed a couple standi...

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!

These fireworks are from New Year's 2007, taken from the roof of my building. Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and (may I b...

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About Me

: I was born in a city renowned in Vaudeville humor, Altoona Pennsylvania. My dad was in the military, so we moved many times in my childhood. We lived in rural England from the time I was five until I was eight, and I began my formal education in a county council school, where my being American is likely all that saved me from having my bottom caned. When I was eleven my father retired from the Air Force, and we settled in Tampa.I graduated from the University of South Florida and Harvard Law School. Since then, apart from two years' active Army duty, I have lived in New York City; and have lived in the Borough of Brooklyn for many years. I'm married to Martha Foley, an historian and archivist. We are proud of our daughter, Elizabeth, and our granddaughters, Ada and Sigrid.

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