Last week I had the extreme pleasure of heading over to The Echo Nest for a couple of days to help out with a tiny project. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my professional life. I feel like I have a new crush.

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Wicked Game by Chris Isaak
Cattle and Cane by The Go-Betweens
Alex Chilton by The Replacements
Thirteen by Big Star
Love Vigilantes by New Order
Pineapple Face (Big Day Out mix) by Revenge
Getting Away with It by Electronic
Rearrange Me by Criminal Hygiene
Sea of Love by The National
The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Never Again by Slumber Party

→ An audio version of this article is available.

In 1992, for my father’s 30th anniversary in the United States, he designed and printed trading cards of our family’s history. They start in pre-war Eastern Europe and span the the Holocaust, life in Romania, growing up in the ’70s in Brooklyn, and his reign as king of advertising on Madison…

I’m in New York all month for my annual homecoming plus a bit of reconnaissance. I’m working on a personal project (all will be revealed!) that, at this stage, requires me to sift through old family photos distributed between my mom’s house, my dad’s apartment and my grandmother’s…

My mother tells me that today would have been my grandmother’s birthday. She died in 2011 of complications from a stroke. She was relatively young. Depending on your tolerance for the diversity of human behavior, you could describe my grandmother as either a recluse or an introvert. In 1996, she…

June is a month for hotties. Jonathan Pryce was born on June 1st. Jonathan Pryce? More like Jonathan Spice! Why? Because he’s hot! Angelina Jolie was born on June 4th. Apparently she is the hottest woman in the world. Hugh Laurie was born on June 11th. I have frequent dreams where we’re…

A horse on roller skates. What do you think? It’s the most humiliating thing you can do to a horse, right? Unfortunately, I’m not the first to have thought of this. Then there’s the preoccupine. It’s a porcupine, but it’s way too busy to give you any attention. Please…

I pulled my shades up for the first time in months to witness the torrential apocalyptic rain. From work I watched the rain ricochet off the pavement like diamonds and wished I could be in it. The sky went dark around 2, hauntingly dark, eerily dark, and it was so scary but it felt so good, safe. I…

Seemed like the real thing.

The last creative thought I had came in the form of a dream in which male nipples had Bezier handles that allowed you to adjust and stretch them to great sizes (radii of 6 inches each and more.) When stretched tall and wide enough, they acted like video cameras, and you were able to see yourself in…