I loved this popular satire section of the magazine, so I tried to write some funny satire myself. All my attempts fell flat. Or did they? You decide. An introductory note: I wrote this one in the form of a high school newspaper article. “Poopooing Shampoo, Before It Was Cool.” …

AP Photo/Capital City Weekly, James Brooks I know as much about classical music as I do car mechanics, which is close to nothing, but I do know I like it. Not choruses. I’m not a fan of things like Bach’s choral works. And as much as I appreciate Mozart, his…

AP Photo/Richard Vogel It’s always 420 somewhere, especially here in Portland, Oregon, where a cannabis dispensary seems to stand on every other corner. I smell weed while biking with my daughter through quiet residential neighborhoods. I smell weed while driving with my windows closed. I smell it at the food…

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images “On psychedelics,” Dr. John Halpern, head of the Laboratory for Integrative Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, told The New York Times Magazine, “you have an experience in which you feel there is something you are a part of, something else is out…

Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, and Max Roach performing. William Gottlieb/Redferns I am a jazz devotee, the kind with shelves of jazz books and photos of John Coltrane and Charlie Parker in his home office. …

Music legends from Tom Waits to Joni Mitchell immediately heard Dylan’s genius in songs like “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands,“ but not me. It took me two decades to warm to Bob Dylan. It’s a common story. He’s one of those artists that people say will “grow on you,” or…

Revolutionary times call for revolutionary music Those of us who love the Bad Brains always will, but recent vocal protests to end the violent, systematic oppression of Black Americans have revitalized the band’s message of unity and resistance. Founded in 1977 by four Black men in Washington D.C., Bad Brains…

“The Ballad of Johnny Butt” is one of the California band’s most moving songs, even if it’s the least-serious sounding “Lovin’ is what I got. Said remember that.” –Bradley Nowell For a perpetually stoned band that took very little seriously, the California band Sublime played some seriously powerful music. Twenty-plus…

Inexpensive beef bowls make good friends while traveling in Japan. Matsuya is a 24-hour beef and rice bowl chain that has over a thousand stores across Japan. You pay at a ticketing machine, called a shokkenki or kenbaiki. The cook takes your ticket when you find a seat, and after…