Posts by Nathan Graziano
Last Saturday afternoon, after finishing an interview with a local author at Barnes and Noble[1], I met with my editor and publisher of Manchester Ink Link, Carol Robidoux at The Shaskeen Pub to brainstorm some article ideas.
The former high school senior is now a 37-year-old debut novelist, having self-published an impressive piece of historical crime fiction titled “Malice Aforethought,” a novel based on the murder of Josie Langmaid.
It’s nearing bedtime on Tuesday night, and I’m lying on the couch after a long day, unwinding while watching “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” reruns and cursing Stabler for being a dick. That’s when the itching starts.
For some reason, I experience a vast amount of existential dread—a fear of an eternal abyss—while driving to work each morning.
And I planned to vote for Ralph Nader for president. That was until I stepped into the voting booth and stiffened with terror at the thought of Bush winning. I wanted to vote my heart and my conscience, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There was too much at stake.
So I plugged my nose and voted for Gore.
O P I N I O N Not That Profound I was a high school student in the early 1990s
This isn’t my original idea, of course. I was first introduced to it while watching an interview with author Dennis Lehane, the Boston native who wrote the best-selling novels “Mystic River,” “Gone Baby Gone” and “Shutter Island.” In the interview, Lehane explains how he carried around a three-by-five card with the words “Nobody cares” scrawled on it when he was starting as a writer.
Fortunately, my wife Liz and I have adequately prepared to remain in comfortable clothing while lounging on the couch for days, watching endless stretches of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” and gorging ourselves with a diet that would make our primary care physicians blush at its immodesty—as well as the cholesterol intake.
Let’s cut out the holiday lettuce—the peace on Earth, be kind to each other, family and togetherness nonsense—and get to the real meat of the season. Here in America, where the ultimate goal is to gorge ourselves with as much consumption as humanly possible, Christmas is—and always has been—about one thing: the present.
“I don’t need to be a big rock star,” said Gallo, who opened for the Adam Ezra Group at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage in October. “I’m just happy to be able to play. I’m probably happiest playing at a bar and joking around with people drinking beers.”