They say don’t meet your heroes and I didn’t but I got to see David Lynch in person just once. It was 2014.
I got dressed that morning and put on a suit and went to my very-not-suit-wearing-startup-office at Broad and Chestnut and had to explain to everyone I was going to see David Lynch do a Q&A at PAFA. Not sneaking off to a job interview. Not going to a funeral.
On my way out the door my wife said I overdressed. I didn’t. Almost everyone was wearing dresses, heels, ties, jackets, etc. We took a tour of David’s art. I saw a painting with dead flies glued to the canvas. A short movie of people throwing up. They passed out cherry pie and Blue Velvet donuts. In 2014 I had never seen an interview with Lynch and I wondered, “What would this man would be like?”
“What if he’s a complete idiot?” I asked the strangers next to me at the Q&A session.
“What if he’s an asshole?”
In person, David was the sweetest, most normal, most hand-shaking-golly-gee Grandpa. Combine Woody and Coach from Cheers, that’s him. The audience was full of freaks, but David was the most normal and genuine person I ever saw in my life. His movies aren’t perfect but they spoke to me at formative times. Twin Peaks is my favorite show.
So long David, and thanks for everything. On to 2025.
OM world finals – Sasha and Owen’s teams both made another trek to Michigan for the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. Sasha’s team finished 5th in the world and she was also awarded a scholarship. I wrote about our ten years in the program here. The kids were paired up with another team from Shanghai and got to hang out with them all week. Highlight of the year.
Franklin Square – We got a new PATCO station! Ok, it’s an old station they re-opened but it’s been closed for 40 years. I went to the opening ceremony and have used it a few times going to Chinatown, Phila Moca, Franklin Music Hall, etc.
Travel – Made it to Ireland (Dublin, Galway, Cork), Montreal, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, NYC, and Delaware
Theater – Got to see both kids in Little Shop of Horrors and Owen’s community theater debut in Freaky Friday. He did another great performance in Game Over for One Night of Comedy at Collingswood High School.
Carolyn and Mothballs – Another great year with this lady. Carolyn has been hosting a storyteller series at Peak Secondhand called Mothballs where people tell stories about their clothes.
Gerri – At Common Paper we built an AI agent that reviews your redlines and filmed a commercial about it.
Cursor – I think last year I switched to vscode to try out co-pilot, but ended up liking vscode even more. I have since switched almost all of my coding to Cursor, which is an AI assisted fork of vscode.
NYC Dataviz meetup – I gave a talk at the New York Data Visualization Meetup, hosted by Cameron Yick and Naomi B Robbins. We also hosted a bunch of great events in Philly in 2025
Bird karaoke – Got really into Bird Karaoke after buying one of those bird houses with a camera on it.
Twin peaks events (michael horse + scottish rite) – Went to multiple Twin Peaks events this year and got to see Michael Horse, Dana Ashbrook, Kimmy Robertson, Harry Gaoz and the incredible Ray Wise.
Carnegie Hall – The Collingswood High School choir performed at Carnegie Hall!
Wawa closed – Sad day in town when the Collingswood Wawa closed.
Music
I posted a song every day on BlueSky between my 46th and 47th birthdays. Here are all the songs.
Some live shows I saw:
Nine Inch Nails @ Xfinity
Franz Ferdinand @ The Filemore
Polo and Pan @ The Filmore
Lisa’s band @ sammich fest
No Regrets @ KFN
SUUNS @ KFN
Universal Girlfriend @ God’s Auto Body
Mom’s 70th – We threw a party for mom for her 70th’s birthday.
Sugar moms – Carolyn, Stefan and I did some kind of art escape room in the old Sugar Mom’s bar. I went there for my 30th birthday in 2008.
Movies – Some things I watched and enjoyed this year:
Beau is Afraid
Babygirl
The Whale
Anora
Alien Romulus
Phantom Thread
One Battle After Another
Night of the Living Dead
Television
The Rehearsal,
Chernobyl
White Lotus
Breaking Bad
Pluribus
Books
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Masters of Doom by David Kushner
Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson
Previous years
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
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