Here is just a sample of my published articles and interviews starting in 2005. For a summary of each, read on, or see this list for quick links:

Punk No More? - Is punk-pop actually punk?
Big D Not So Angry Anymore - Dave McWane has mellowed out... a little.
Coach of the Year at Long Last - Profile on 2007 Ohio track coach of the year John Keller.
Turning in the Wrong Direction - The Chargers made a mistake hiring Norv Turner. [Editorial]
35 Year Teaching Career Still Strong - Dale Kelley has had an illustrious career at Orange High School.


"Punk No More?" Guitar Digest, Summer 2008

As I was taking a look around the crowd at the Alternative Press Tour in Cleveland May 2, comprised almost entirely of teenagers, girls running to hug each musician as they come out from backstage, and guys fitted caps, I was struck by the question, “Is this punk?” ...

When Zack Merrick, bassist of the AP Tour’s headliner, All Time Low, has appeared on MTV’s Exposed and introduced himself by saying, “I’m a rock n roll god who’s gonna make this girl my groupie!” such questions have merit.

"Big D: Not so Angry Anymore" Guitar Digest, Summer 2007

The man who once recorded a song with 24 uses of the word “f**k” says he isn’t really very angry, at least not as angry as your average American.

Dave McWane, lead singer for the Boston ska band Big D and the Kids Table, may have achieved his greatest success by trashing Los Angeles elitists in the song “LAX,” (sample lyrics: “F**k your f**king attitudes, how can you be so f**king rude?”) but he has since simmered down.

For example, in a 2002 interview, McWane took many shots at various musical institutions: “All that Chump Rock on MTV sucks and all those LA manufactured bands can eat my bum… and Linkin Park… all those R&B girls who go Ooo HEEYyy la la dum dum… and Alicia Keys really sucks.”

When asked about Linkin Park in 2007, he said simply, “I don’t listen to their music, but I saw some specials on them on VH-1, and they seem like nice guys.”

Clearly, this is not the same person who recorded fifteen f bombs in a one-minute segment of his most popular song. So what has changed between 2002, the year of “LAX”’s release, and now?...

full article

"Orange Teacher State Track Coach of the Year" Orange Outlook, March 2007

Orange track coach John Keller was the ridiculed by the coaches and officials at the 1993 CVC Championships, and almost disqualified, too, for actions that would initiate a feud between him and Solon coach Tom Iwan. So, how, fourteen years later, did Keller win the 2007 Fred Dafler state track coach of the year award?

It might have something to do with his seven CVC championships, five district titles, four regional runner-up finishes, and a state runner-up finish.

His first CVC title in 1993 caused controversy. The championship was supposed to be held at West Geauga, but because its track was being renovated, it took place at Orange. Orange’s track at the time had only six lanes, and the top six placers in each event received points. Well, Keller had an idea…

full article

"Turning in the Wrong Direction" Orange Outlook, January 2007

When the Arizona Cardinals fired Dennis Green last January, the team said they were rebuilding. So what were the San Diego Chargers doing when they fired Marty Schottenheimer? Deconstructing?

Schottenheimer, coming off a 14-2 season, has a 200-136-1 career record. In the past five years, he has coached the Chargers to a 47-33 mark. The only knock on him is that he can’t win playoff games. In fact, the last time he recorded a playoff victory, the President was contemplating what to do about the attack on the World Trade Center. Keep in mind that the president then was Clinton.

So if Schottenheimer’s 5-13 playoff record was the reason that the Chargers fired him, they did the right thing. Because, if you can be sure of one thing about their new coach, it’s this: He certainly won’t lose any playoff games...

full article

"Old Lion Connects with New Generation" Chagrin Valley Times, May 2008

“I’m 57 years old, and I’ve been enrolled at a school for 51 consecutive years,” the Old Lion laughed. “Isn’t that nuts?”

The Old Lion is Dale Kelley, the longest tenured teacher at Orange High School. Mr. Kelley, an English teacher, teaches classes with a loud and boisterous style that was described by one administrator in an early performance evaluation as using, “a plethora of teenage jargon in an ostensible attempt to somehow hook up and relate to the 70’s generation teenager.”

“As I got advanced degrees and got my masters in English,” Mr. Kelley remarked, “I guess I learned to subvert perhaps the ‘plethora of teenage jargon’ with perhaps polysyllabic words of a Latinate origin in order to camouflage what is essentially my spirit.”...