Weekly Newspaper Stories
Occasionally I write something (usually music-related) for one of the local papers. I don’t claim to be a journalist, but I enjoy putting on that hat now and then.
Chris Cornell's passing was an existential punch in the gut. I had the bittersweet opportunity to honor the man on behalf of Seattle. The Weekly wanted 2,500 words; I gave them 3,500, and they ran them all—in a cover story. The response was the best I'd hoped for: the piece has helped people deal. It helped me, too.
Flip through the print version, digitally, at http://www.seattleweekly.com/print-editions/?iid=i20170523155403862. Or get the PDF.


A snippet of the online story, available at http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/how-chris-cornell-shaped-seattle-music/.

I took a unique angle on Seattle's biggest rock act, which was just being welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: showing how Pearl Jam's five drummers made the band what it is today.
Check out the digital version of the printed piece at http://www.seattleweekly.com/print-editions/?iid=i20170328174759934 (pages 19–20). Or see the PDF.

A snippet of the full digital story, available at http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/a-brief-history-of-pearl-jams-drummers/.
Learning that legendary vocalist Mark Lanegan was to play the island I call home, I jumped at the chance to preview the show via the local paper. I couldn’t agree more that it was front-page news.
(Side note for “grunge”-era nerds like me: I don’t typically use that word without quotation marks. This headline was written by the paper’s editor, who didn’t care about my objection. And I don’t blame her.)

The lead of the digital version of the story.