Joe's Got Ideas

Call me a smelly hipster; call me a pretentious non-conformist; call me a snob. I appreciate the underappreciated. I'll freely admit that I have a certain kind of attraction to things outside of the popular sightline; this applies to public policies, movies, people, and the medium at hand, music. Thankfully though, an album's non-notoriety is not by any means the only factor which determines my enjoyment of it. On several occasions, I've picked up a random CD at a thrift store, given it a listen, and never played it again. But, every once in a while, an unassuming and not particularly successful record will truly become a personal favorite. Not just one song, but an entire studio recording. That doesn't happen often, but through the years I've come across enough of them to make up a short list of my favorite anomalies. And so, I present to my non-existent readers, Joe's Top Five Un-Heard-Of Albums. (Note: I have excluded from consideration those albums which ...

I really had no idea I was taking this picture. My phone does this weird thing where if you flip or bump it in a certain way, the camera app opens. Then if anything conductive brushes the touch screen, it takes pictures. Ever since I got the phone, I've viewed this feature as a useless quirk at best, an irritating memory-sucker at worst. But today as I write, I smile because of that crazy camera. Without my knowing, it gave me the only snapshot I have of a beautiful experience I had at a busy train station. ---------- Quick-step down the concrete floors of Poughkeepsie train station, eyes on the prize, Tracks 1 & 3 staircase, train departing at 12:45. Bet I look crazy to the man in the orange safety jacket as I ask him where my train is. I'm wearing a full three piece suit, minus a tie, and tennis shoes instead of black dress shoes. Train's late. Awesome,  I say to myself sarcastically. As I wait where my train will (hopefully) show up, I notice a guy standin...

A few different projects coming soon. Among them are: -a recounting and reflection on a story about my chance meeting of someone at a train station who really needed some compassion -a perspective paper on the Federal Reserve (essentially attempting to examine and critique claims that the Fed is evil) -any variety of research compendiums on interesting topics I find! Talk to you soon, nonexistent readers!!! XD