Remember a glam rock band called Mott the Hoople? “All the Young Dudes”, “All the Way from Memphis”? Remember the lead singer, Ian Hunter? Always wore black sunglasses, had long curly blond hair...

Don’t remember him, hunh. Well maybe you remember “The Drew Carey Show.” The opening theme, “Cleveland Rocks.” Ian Hunter wrote it, and remember the band Great White? “Once Bitten Twice Shy”? Hunter wrote that too.

He came into the world in 1939 as Ian Hunter Patterson; born in Oswestry, Shropshire, England, Hunter is best known for his years as the frontman for Mott the Hoople, and of course, for his ever-present shades.

I used to lie awake and wonder how he looked behind those shades.

Remember your first crush? Your first unrequited love? 

I remember mine.

Ian Hunter remembered his in a song called “Irene Wilde”:

Her name was Irene Wilde,

oh such beauty for a child,

when she

The past dozen years of American politics (and to a large extent, of world politics) have been marked by populism, and it has been a failure in every way imaginable. It started with conservative politics in 2010, with The Tea Party, and in leftist politics in 2011, with Occupy Wall Street, and since then, it has been doubling down on failure. It has been a failure because it has not produced any better understanding of society and policy, it has been a failure because its allowed people who are

if only
i could confess my sins
but
they catch in my throat,
choking me.

i beg god to forgive me
though i doubt he hears me
over my gasping breaths,
spittle finding its way down my chin.

title from America's Suitehearts by Fall Out Boy.