I was introduced to the music of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Cream, Talking Heads, and Jimmy Cliff all in the same evening in September 1994. This led to a set of domino effects, the least interesting of which is owning a staggering number of Johnny Cash CDs throughout the CD era. The act that evening was an a cappella quartet called The Bobs, who were passionate about cover songs and also originals in their style. You’ve probably never heard of them. That’s okay. I picked up a CD of theirs and listened to it dozens of times in the following years. Not long after, my friend Katie & I started referring to each other as Neil Bob and Katie Bob, as is the custom in the group. The covers sent me down various paths of discovery including at the public library. Can’t say I investigated Leonard Cohen, maybe I should have. What’s this “White Room” song by Cream, anyhow, I wondered? Talking Heads, as previously nodded, pop up time and again in my young days. “Psycho Killer” directly led to me and three other a cappella dorks getting banned from using computers in high school because of an incident with a printer. (There's a longer story here, about an underground newspaper we weren’t responsible for.) I eventually purchased the other Bobs cover CD and kept an eye on the Bobs listserv.

Fast forward to late September 2002, and my friend Brandom and I decided to rent The Harder They Come from Video Americain. I hadn’t engaged with any other Jimmy Cliff songs between the Bobs CD and that moment.

All this came to mind in November 2025 when Jimmy Cliff passed away. I should point out that “The Harder They Come” does pop up in Jerry Garcia Band concerts over the years and I heard it there. But really, we should all have more Cliff in our musical lives. Maybe more from The Bobs, though they broke up, I learned tonight.

Okay that was that. Let’s look back at the traditional slices of my life since October?

Reading
Kelsey & I listened to How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing which was enlightening.

Here are some articles I read of which I saved links:
things that aren’t doing the thing
Finding Motherhood in Fatherhood
Memory Keeping Made Easy: Practical Ways to Save and Celebrate Your Memories
Knowledge is Worth Your Time
'I am melting, help me': The 30-year-old drug website that transformed psychedelic research
I No Longer Enjoy The 'Process' of Getting Coffee
The drug that taught me how much I should suffer
For true cultural immersion, get a haircut on your next trip
A guide to have the most creative year of your life
The Lessons Learned in Goo Goo Dolls songs

Eating
Jeez Louise, condensing four months here? Highlights at home include the marry-me gnocchi soup, a vegan apple cake, and Starbucks egg bites knockoffs. Restaurants of note: Tabachoy, Fiorella, and the Airways Inn of Frederick which is effectively a diner on the tarmac of a general aviation airport. Surely there were other good things I ate but I can only find so much at this point, even with cloud computing.

Beating
The Cranberries’ MTV Unplugged performance finally has been released. That led me to revisit 10,000 Maniacs’ unplugged album which I listened to a lot in the latter half of college, because it was one of the tapes that lived in my roommate’s car. I also got a lot of Phish listening in before, and after, two nights of MSG shows with DK for the New Year’s run.

Deleting
I’m making a real effort to delete podcast episodes that I’ve downloaded but am unlikely to ever listen to. I also have a new system for processing stacks of old postal mail.

Retreating
Currently I’m in Lewes Delaware. As a family we’ve had overnight excursions to Frederick and Richmond. Do you have tips on favorite spots in Frederick? Send them! Outdoor walks have been on hiatus for the season.

Meeting
I appear in an N Crowd every month or so, though I have no confirmed appearances any time soon. I’m directing a Philly Theatre Week show that’ll have a two-night run in late April, details to come in this space before then I swear. I’ve had a professional project about substance use disorder with the Philly Department of Public Health that should hit their YouTube channel this spring. And speaking of my work life, we’re taking submissions for my 2026 WHYY project, The Time I Felt American. Last professional plug is that 2/25 at 7ET I’m hosting the Penn Nursing Storyslam on their Youtube.

Hey! I did it! Thanks for reading. I’m going to go eat ice cream cake.

Neil