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Postcards from The Pug Bus

Lifting a satirical leg on popular culture

Persons in the Ether

Question of the Week

Sneakers or boots?

MB

Marnie Blotch, freelance sidewalk analyst

Currently overexplaining herself in Scranton, PA

Sneakers. Boots imply you have a plan, land, or at least a place where mud is respected. I need footwear that says I may exercise, flee, or stand in line for coffee while reconsidering my values.

DR

Doyle Rusk, seasonal gravitas consultant

Allegedly headquartered near Missoula, MT

Boots. Sneakers are for people who still believe life rewards agility. Boots admit the truth: the world is wet, uneven, and waiting to make a point. Also, they make disappointment sound better on gravel.

TC

Tilda Cramp, assistant deputy of unnecessary errands

Last reported circling a mall in Paramus, NJ

Sneakers in theory, boots in public. Sneakers suggest optimism. Boots suggest I have endured weather, retail lighting, and at least one conversation about parking. At my age, credibility begins at the ankle.

Sony software llustration of an angry gatekeeper holding a barred gate locked with a DRM padlock, symbolizing control and restriction of music playback.

Sony as the self-appointed warden of your music, guarding every one of your 100 precious plays.

Music Technology

Sony Software Will Limit CD Plays (Tech Satire)

philmaggitti music, tech satire 8 months

Editor’s Note: This relic from our digital catacombs proves that some jokes never go out of date, even when the jokes were on us. Consider it… Read More

In an open letter to Jason Isbell the recipient is sitting on a cloud, wearing a halo, strumming a guitat.

What a friend we have in self-righteous Jason.

An Open Letter to Jason Isbell, Patron Saint of Self-Righteousness

philmaggitti blog, music 8 months

Dear Jason Isbell, You don’t know me, I’ve got better taste in friends, but I sure as hell know fools like you. I know the… Read More

Psychedelic poster featuring a smoking alien, Santa with a joint, a grinning skull, trippy flowers, a talking mushroom, and a stoned pug — all surrounding the text “The Top Ten List of Best Stoner Albums of All Time.”

Music Top Ten Lists

Ten Best Stoner Albums Ever

philmaggitti music, top ten lists 8 months

10. Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath (1970)Best Track to Melt Into: “N.I.B.”The first album ever to say, “What if we tuned our guitars to the… Read More

Aged, ghoulish Rod Stewart in a leopard-print lounge suit singing under a spotlight — the perfect visual for the ten most embarrassing Rod Stewart songs.

"D'ya think I'm sexy?"

Music Top Ten Lists

The Ten Most Embarrassing Rod Stewart Songs

philmaggitti music, top ten lists 8 months

Once upon a time, Rod Stewart was a raspy-voiced singer who gave us Every Picture Tells a Story – a record so perfect it should… Read More

Roger Daltrey of The Who in performance, hitting himself in the head with a swinging microphone, his pot belly visible beneath a tight navy t-shirt—capturing the tragic comedy of aging rock stardom.

"Ouch! Mother-fucker.

The Who Threatened with Deportation by President Trump

As told to The Pug Bus cultural commentary, music, trump 8 months

Look, I’ve always been a huuuuuge fan of rock and roll. Big fan of The Who. Tremendous music. But what’s happening with them–The Two, really–is… Read More

Beatle George Harrison playing a terrible guitar solo.

"What note comes next?"

Music Top Ten Lists

The Ten Worst George Harrison Guitar Solos

philmaggitti music, top ten lists 9 months

George Harrison, the so-called “quiet Beatle,” has been canonized by know-nothing fans and rock critic fanboys as some mystical slide-guitar guru, a saintly arranger, a… Read More

A truck driver shouting out the window of his truck.

"Six days on the road ..."

Music Top Ten Lists

Ten of the Stupidest Truck Songs Ever

philmaggitti music, top ten lists 9 months

Buckle your seat belt, crank up the CB radio, and grab a six-pack of lukewarm Schlitz. We’re about to roll through the pothole-ridden boulevard of… Read More

In cultural commentary a young man holding a basketball while a ghostly image hangs above the court

"He started singing ..."

The Day the Music Died

philmaggitti blog, music 11 months

A long, long time ago, a large jukebox hunkered in one corner of the cafeteria of the prep school I attended. With few exceptions, I… Read More

The Pug Bus Breaking News

The Pug Bus Breaking News requires no email address, no mother's maiden name, no first pet's nickname, and no DNA sample. You simply mash the link below and read.

Deliver It

⚡ The Department of Interior Weather requires all adults to carry a small overcast condition with them at all times. Officials described the phenomenon as “partly functional,” with scattered chances of pretending the sky is falling.

⚡ Researchers at the Center for Applied Futility report that 73 percent of household drawers contain at least one cable belonging to a device no one remembers owning. In drawers that contain more than one cable, the cables are thought to be breeding quietly behind the tape measure.

⚡ The National Council on Mild Alarms has upgraded the phrase “We need to talk” from a conversational advisory to a full-frontal emotional evacuation order. Residents are urged to remain calm, gather their dignity, and avoid replying, “About what?”

Adverse Effects

The following lines of prose cleverly disguised as poetry may induce brief clarity, misplaced certainty, and the sense that something has already been decided without your approval.

There is a moment, just before sleep,
when the mind loosens its tie
and admits what it spent all day denying.

Read It All

There is a moment, just before sleep,
when the mind loosens its tie
and admits what it spent all day denying.

You remember the thing you said—
not the words,
but the angle of them,
how they leaned slightly wrong
and stayed there.

A life is not ruined in grand gestures.
It goes soft at the edges first.
Corners round off. Standards blur.
You start calling things “fine”
that would have once kept you awake.

Which is the problem.

Because now you do sleep.

Beautifully. Efficiently.
Like someone who has made a series of
very small, very reasonable surrenders
and arranged them into a pillow.