Jesus H. Christ on ice and Mary in the penalty box!

You know the Prince song where the girl’s phone rings but she tells him, “whoever’s calling couldn’t be as cute as you?” I long to live out this moment in real life.

Pearl JAM! Pearl JAM! Now this is rock and roll! Jeremy’s SPO-ken! But he’s still al-LIIIIIVE!

There are all kinds of mix tapes. there is always a reason to make one.

I was helpless in trying to return people’s kindness, but also helpless to resist it. Kindness is a scarier force than cruelty, that’s for sure. Cruelty isn’t that hard to understand. I had no trouble...

The dilemma of the eighth-grade dance is that boys and girls use music in different ways. Girls enjoy music they can dance to, music with strong vocals and catchy melodies. Boys, on the other hand,...

The way I pictured it, all this grief would be like a winter night when you’re standing outside. You’ll warm up once you get used to the cold. Except after you’ve been out there for...

I get sentimental over the music of the ’90s. Deplorable, really. But I love it all. As far as I’m concerned the ’90s was the best era for music ever, even the stuff that I...

I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language. Without her to talk to, there was nothing to say.

It’s the same with people who say, ‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Even people who say this must realize that the exact opposite is true. What doesn’t kill you maims you, cripples you,...

One of Renee’s friends asked her, “Does your boyfriend wear glasses?” She said, “No, he wears a Walkman.

But bringing people together is what music has always done best.

I’d shut the whole world down just to tell you

When you stick a song on a tape, you set it free.

When I was a junior, my school introduced badminton, which was clearly a P.E. department ploy to get me away from the wrestling room, and it worked, since the first time I played badminton was...

The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with — nothing brings it all to life like an old mix tape. It does a better job of storing up memories than actual...

A song nobody likes is a sad thing. But a love song nobody likes is hardly a thing at all.

I had never been so extravagantly proud of having blood that clotted.

Our lives were just beginning, our favorite moment was right now, our favorite songs were unwritten.

bitch power is the juice, the sweat, the blood that keeps pop music going. Rick James helped me understand the lesson of the eighth-grade dance: Bitch power rules the world. If the girls don’t like...

It was bewildering and humbling to keep discovering how many brave things people can fail to talk themselves out of doing.

When we die, we will turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other.

I was totally clueless about social interaction, and completely scared of girls. All I knew was that music was going to make girls fall in love with me.

Monogamous musicians are like vegan hockey players.

I’ve never heard of anybody getting rid of their prized Exile postcards, much less actually writing on them and sending them through the mail to a girl. I watched these two, laughing over this story...

Tacos will grow on Christmas trees before I learn to carry a tune. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter. In karaoke, talent means nada; enthusiasm is everything. What I lack in talent, I make up for in...

Back home, my favorite part of Mass was during communion, when I’d stand at the rail and hold a little gold platter under people’s chins. The pretty girls would line up for communion (I confess...

We couldn’t believe how exciting it was to be together, a pair of young Americruisers on a roll. We’d lived for just twenty-five years; we weren’t planning to die for fifty more. We danced and...

Something I really enjoy about older couples is that they really have given up on getting everything right. They don’t sweat the imperfections.

It’s better to burn out than fade away,” but these memories could be deceptive.