L Extreme is billed as a novelization of the album A Love Extreme by Benji Hughes, though it actually pulls from his entire catalog through early 2021. January 31, 2025 marked the release of three new Benji Hughes jams via the soundtrack to the film Home Free. Since I spent years mapping out how to…
LBDG Commentary 26: Lyin’ Eyes
Our apostophe’d segments come to a conclusion with this chapter. That’s the truth. Eagle Scout’s honor. Much like the ends of parts 2 & 3, this is a coda chapter designed to ease Local Boy back into his present day with newfound confidence from the future before pulling the rug out. Early readers were mixed…
LBDG Commentary 25: Livin’ In The Woods In A Tree
Nerdy, encyclopedic musical knowledge comes in handy when you have a chapter set in a treehouse in need of a song title containing an apostrophe. Bonus points that it’s also the title of Sybil Rosen’s memoir of her life with Blaze Foley (though she and/or her publisher added the missing G back in). After recreating…
LBDG Commentary 24: Hoverin’
This change of pace chapter switches up the time travel dynamic—or does it? More overtly Quantum Leap inspired than what we’ve read so far, Local Boy occupies the body of his future self while the redhead takes over a future version of his wife. He lives the original history described in Timely Persuasion from a…
LBDG Commentary 23: Ain’t Misbehavin’
The list of 27 is key to the plot and has an iterative behind the scenes origin story worthy of its own blog post. Thankfully it’s pretty much the singular focus of this chapter, allowing time for a deep dive here. My list twist was to originally have Local Boy (and by extension the reader)…
2024 DFRAAs (Dangerous Folk Rock Appeal Awards, fka “Of the Year”)
Welcome to my 2024 annual best of music list, rechristened The Dangerous Folk Rock Appeal Awards (DFRAAs) after Local Boy’s favorite phrase. (Since this is a time travel themed blog, maybe I’ll go back and retroactively change past years…) Despite the name, we like all kinds of music around here—not just folk. Onwards to the…
LBDG Commentary 22: People Talkin’
Two people. Both talkin’. Sometimes talkin’ makes you sound stupid, but they manage to pull it off. Especially the gal with the red hair. Lucinda Williams didn’t have red hair, but people still talked about her. —Remixing the opening lines of Local Boy Done Gone Chapter 22 in the style of the dreamy non-dreams from…
LBDG Commentary 21: Keep Fishin’
For no particular reason except to see if I could while still respectin’ the greats, all of the chapter/song titles in Part IV contain words endin’ in apostrophes. Due to either a fun coincidence or my future self havin’ fun with me, the first two were Dinosaur Jr. and Weezer doin’ the singin’. If “Start…
LBDG Commentary 20: Start Choppin’
Part IV of Local Boy Done Gone is titled “The Kids are Alright,” respecting the greats in The Who while signaling Local Boy’s two kids will be just fine even though the sequence of their births may have changed. This isn’t the first time the Timmons family tree had some leaves unnaturally re-grafted. In Timely…
LBDG Commentary 19: Wrong Way
Originally this was part of the previous chapter, but a desire for shorter sections with cliffhanger twists earned it a number (and title) of its own. The namesake Sublime song is fitting, with “Wrong Way” coming on the heels of the “wrong girl” reveal. The scene here is mostly an internal rant debating the right…