Chandler Fritz

It happened in a forgotten place. The thick fog of a mid-August morning lingered atop the pines, drawing moisture from the tributaries feeding the Cahaba River as I turned onto Main Street from Bibb County Highway 1, the blue highway. Heading north towards the towns of Brent and Centreville, trees … Continue Reading

While Charlie Kirk was arguably the most influential political activist since the 1960s, the manner in which he has been memorialized is largely without precedent. There are, evidently, five books penned by Kirk. Having read most of them, I can confirm that there is no “Letter from Scottsdale Jail” … Continue Reading

“The last time I went fishing with Captain Jehovah I hooked myself under the back of my hand,” Richard Ford said as he scanned the ethnic food aisle at Hannaford’s, searching for a jar of tapenade. “I tried to push it through the underside of my skin so we could cut the barb off. But skin is … Continue Reading

The Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound contains over half a million physical recordings stored in individually labeled slipcases so as to be easily retrieved by the hard-working archivists at the New York Public Library. The archive contains recordings of Billy Sunday preaching … Continue Reading

The first time I read Against the Country my wife rolled over in bed and swatted at the reading light — it was 4 AM and my laughter had woken her up. I had found the book earlier that afternoon while perusing the stacks at the New York Public Library. Its cover, of simple white font floating on a … Continue Reading

Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, Steve Lamos, and Chris Strong lived a mere five-minute walk from each other’s homes in Urbana, a mid-sized city in a midwestern state that is often thought of as the heartland of America. (The geographic center of the lower forty-eight is actually a solid nine-hour … Continue Reading

Arriving in Nashville to cover July’s 2024 Bitcoin Conference — a celebration of digital currency — my first order of business was to check in at the Music City Center to fetch my press pass. A press pass, like money, used to be a tangible commodity. One could fidget with them on a lanyard or tuck … Continue Reading

Ernest Hemingway found his joie de vivre in the sweat on a wine bottle. I get mine from a cold can of beer. It helps if you’re holding that can of beer at a Marcus King concert, which is where I found myself on a recent Saturday evening up there at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York. I … Continue Reading

It’s a bright and sunny Saturday morning in Phoenix, Arizona, and I am driving a cream-colored Hummer H3 with side decals in the style of a Lake Havasu tramp stamp. This car is the real deal. It has shiny, star-shaped hubcaps and a rack of LEDs on the grill that can turn any pedestrian parking lot … Continue Reading

The Prairie houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in the leafy Oak Park neighborhood of Chicago abide by a principle known as “compress and release.” The entrances and hallways of these homes are tight, cramped affairs, often with low ceilings and few windows. Wright’s goal was to compress the … Continue Reading

The latest self-titled record from the Brooklyn-based, Ohio-born band Cut Worms opens with an ending. “Don’t Fade Out,” the instant classic which starts the album, sounds like the track that plays as the credits roll on a movie about summer love: “Don’t fade out / Don’t fade out on me / Stay right … Continue Reading