From the category archives:

Stories of the Flag

Tribes, “true” fans, and everybody else

December 22, 2009

Despite my excessive comment at the bottom of the page, this article is an interesting exploration of music fandom and the conflicts inherent to classification and group identity:
“The Language of Tribes: True Fans and Outsiders”
by Kyle Bylin
The difference of opinion, or lack thereof, that occurs between members of the same tribe, is what characterizes what [...]

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Strange Things Happen: The Green Flag

September 29, 2009

Today is my eighth wedding anniversary. (Hi, honey.)
Today is also the official U.S. release of Stewart Copeland’s Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies. (Hi, Mr. Copeland.)
Which means that today is also the official U.S. in-print debut of the Green Flag. (Hi, Flag.)
I’ve known this day would come for months. I’ve had evidence [...]

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Appropriation is the sincerest form of flattery

June 5, 2009

My friend foobella has decided that my article on stewartcopeland.net embodies her Police reunion tour experience so well that she no longer has to write about the experience herself. Which is enormously flattering. Cheating, but flattering.
Thank you, foobella.

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Strange things happen: I have a byline on the Official Site of Stewart Copeland

June 3, 2009

A 2999-word summary of the flag that ate my life.
Eventually the page will feature photos of the flag’s appearances around the world, but the site’s redesign is still a work in progress, so I’m waiting until it’s finished before I send the link to my three aunts as my mother would have wanted to do.
But [...]

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Sometimes you can’t jump; sometimes you need to be pushed

March 18, 2009

You know, I had a whole post ready to go up on Thursday morning. This was going to be the first time that I would get a second post up in a week as scheduled. I had been compelled by an email from a friend and a fortuitous web of link-following to write that post. [...]

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Foresight; or, How not to choose a username

March 16, 2009

name |nām|
noun
a word or set of words by which a person, animal, place, or thing is known, addressed, or referred to
• someone or something regarded as existing merely as a word and lacking substance or reality
A name is a powerful tool. To name a thing is to identify it, and to choose a name is [...]

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Fandom, Dead Bands, & Reunion Tours

March 10, 2009

A couple of years ago, I joined a fan forum.
I had never joined a fan forum before. In truth, I had never done anything properly “fannish” before at all. Like most people, I have been a fan of things—bands, writers, poets, products. I live in a Mac household; I own multiple copies of Leaves of [...]

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The Book: Once upon a time…

March 8, 2009

Months ago I decided to sit down and chronicle the story of a most extraordinary project that has occupied my last couple of years. I really should have launched this blog at the beginning in order to capture the whole writing process, but then I really should have launched this blog at the beginning of [...]

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I’m writing a book

February 1, 2009

For much of the past week, I have been stuck in the mind-numbing quagmire of routine and repetition that is jury selection.
In addition to bestowing upon me the newfound identity of Juror #5 on an upcoming case (on which I can’t elaborate obviously), the selection process provided me with some much-appreciated reading time, during which [...]

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