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The Department of Tangents Podcast


Years ago, playing a sort of improv game with friends in which we all picked super powers based on our personalities, I dubbed myself “Tangent Lad.” I was not a very strong superhero, and I could not defeat a super villain on my own, but I could distract them with Monty Python quotes and football trivia. I have many times since apologized to an interview subject in my capacity as a journalist by saying, “I am either very good or very bad at tangents, depending on how you feel about tangents.”

I had a rough time coming up with the concept and naming this blog/podcast. I knew I wanted to create a place where I could address things I’m passionate about – comedy, music, and horror. Finding a name that communicated all three of those things proved a bit impossible. I bugged my friends, and they all tried to help. To no avail. Then I thought, maybe I’m approaching this from the wrong angle. Maybe my lack of focus should be the focus.

As a journalist, I have written for The Boston Globe since 2000, starting out writing CD reviews and then writing a regular column on comedy for seven and a half years. I still contribute there, and to Kirkus Reviews, and other publications. I’m also a musician, and released my debut full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in March of 2015. And I’ve been publishing short horror fiction for a couple of years.

I like to climb into things I love and see how they operate. That’s what the Department of Tangents is for. The main thing here is love. To talk about the things that make I’ve loved forever, and some new things that might stand the test and be around, at least for me, for decades to come. I’ve had to be critical in my writing at times, and it might not all be nonstop roses here, but in the end, what I really want to talk about is the good stuff. That’s why I will regularly write about things I think are “Perfect,” even if someone can demonstrate empirically that they are flawed. Still perfect to me.

Also, fish.

I hope you, dear anonymous surfer person, will come to expect only the highest-quality, free-range, grass-fed tangents. And I hope some of you love the same things I do and find it useful. Or at least a welcome distraction until the others get here.

Jan 26, 2017

Tim Harrington and Paul Wright, better known as Boston-based folk duo <a href="http://www.tallheights.com/" target="_blank">Tall Heights</a>, are taking a little time to breathe to start off 2017. Last year, they released <em>Neptune</em>, their second full-length album and their first for major label Sony Masterworks. Neptune added some electronic wrinkles to the sound they had established on their first EP and album - two-part harmonies, cello, and acoustic guitar. It also took them around the US and Europe on tour, and landed them on <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2015/09/09/438541978/tall-heights-on-world-cafe" target="_blank">NPR's World Cafe</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/event/music/508085632/tall-heights-on-mountain-stage" target="_blank">Mountain Stage</a>.

I caught them at the end of the last tour, playing a hometown show at <a href="http://www.sinclaircambridge.com/" target="_blank">The Sinclair</a> in Cambridge with local group <a href="http://www.sinclaircambridge.com/" target="_blank">The Western Den</a>. They won't be taking too much time off - they have plans to write and maybe record some demos while they're home before they hit the road again in March, and they hope to have a new album out this year. That’s Tim, by the way, mostly in your left ear, and Paul with the deeper voice.