Category Archives: Arts and Culture

Ringo Theory: On the Challenges of Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due

So, I have a few pet “theories” that I keep running in the background of my mind and pull out during those times when I need to let out a gigantic sigh and mutter, “All right, let’s be reasonable here,” … Continue reading

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Bad Advice Musicians Hear, Part 3: Can a PR Rep Fast-Track You to Fame?

Today, we’re going to get into this not-so-great piece of advice: If you hire a PR rep, you’ll fast-track your band’s rise through the ranks. When I was about 21, I asked an acquaintance of mine who was already in … Continue reading

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The Collected Brian LaRue New Yorker Caption Contest Submissions

For reasons I can no longer remember, but that probably had something to do with needing another vector through which I could scream my frustrations and disappointments in being forced to exist as a human being in the physical world, … Continue reading

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The Thing About the Mountain Analogy

I spent my late teens and half of my 20s as a serial monomaniac. I wanted to be a professional musician. I wanted to publish books of fiction and poetry. Basically, I wanted to be an “artist,” and I really … Continue reading

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Bad Advice Musicians Hear, Part 2: Start Your Own Music Scene

In the second installment of the Bad Advice Musicians Hear series, we’re going to get into one of the more daunting pieces of “advice” young musicians will hear as they’re coming up and trying to gain a foothold in their … Continue reading

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Introducing: Bad Advice Musicians Hear (The Series)

I’ve been playing in rock bands since I was a teenager, and while the realities of being a gigging musician have taken loads of wild turns over that time, one truism has held throughout: When you’re a young musician, you … Continue reading

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Cryptonet Theory: Where the “Advanced” People Hang Out, When They Can

One afternoon some years back, I was texting with my friend Andrew about our reliance on social media for informing our IRL social and cultural lives. Neither of us was thrilled about it. “There must be this set of people … Continue reading

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Video: Brian LaRue Performing on Live at Main Drag

Right around the Fourth of July, 2020, I appeared on an episode of Live at Main Drag, the webseries filmed at Main Drag Music in Williamsburg, playing three songs by Shelter Dogs solo, on a guitar that is not mine. … Continue reading

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Product Review: Żywiec Session IPA

I lived for about six and a half years on the outskirts of Greenpoint, Brooklyn (New York City’s Little Poland), and for the last two and a half years I’ve lived in Ridgewood, Queens (NYC’s other Little Poland). In that … Continue reading

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In Appreciation of the Fourth of July, the Greatest of the Cookout Holidays

There are a lot of positive, cool things about the Covid vaccine becoming widely available here in NYC, and one of them is the timing. If you’re a reasonably social person, losing a social summer is a gigantic bum-out. Two … Continue reading

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