AwkwardSD

AwkwardSD goes beyond being a follow-up to my celebrated column "Well, That Was Awkward." It also serves as an evolution of the former San Diego CityBeat.

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Is this band good: Primus

1 month ago | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

Welcome to “Is This Band Good?”, a semi-regular feature where I, with the help of a knowledgeable and accomplished musician, try to determine—quantitatively—if certain bands are actually good. Check out past entries on Cake, Soul Coughing, B-52s, Ben Folds Five, They Might Be Giants, late ‘00s indie darlings, Social Distortion, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Korn, Oingo Boingo, and Hole. Primus sucks. Ask most people with discerning music taste. Ask most women. Hell, even ask Les Claypool, Primus’ frontman.
Remembering Weezer's teal album

1 month ago | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

On January 24, 2019, Weezer put out their teal album, an album that felt like a Very Bad Omen. The band hadn’t really been great since the ‘90s, yet this album of mediocre covers seemed especially pointless for a once-great band. It wasn’t just the cash-grabiness of the thing did me in, but the idea that the band’s cover of “Africa” was the result of a rabid internet campaign.
What your crush’s favorite blink-182 album says about them

2 months ago | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

Fuck astrology—we all know the only true way to determine person’s personality, fortune, and cosmic predetermination lies not in the stars, but what album by San Diego’s most cherished pop-punkers is their favorite. Buckle up. Cheshire Cat-heads can still get “high on life” because they were born before the numbing advent of the internet. They often drink to blackout, which they’ve been doing for almost 30 years, but can somehow run six miles without training.
A supposedly fun thing I did again

Jan 26, 2025 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

On December 20, 2024, I fly to Fort Lauderdale to jump on an eight day Caribbean cruise. The date marks two things I never thought I’d do: voluntarily go to Florida, and step foot on another cruise ship. Not that I hate cruises. I’ve only been on one, but unlike David Foster Wallace, I had a good time. It was a supposedly fun thing that I’d do again. After COVID, however, it was hard for us to justify vacationing in a floating petri dish.
Five things David Lynch did better than anyone else

Jan 18, 2025 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

I don’t often feel the need to comment on celebrity deaths, but David Lynch has been a huge inspiration on me since my dad let me watch Blue Velvet at the young age of 12. His death wasn’t surprising, but it still hits hard. David Lynch has his own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary:Lynchian: juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace.
AwkwardSD’s best of 2024

Dec 8, 2024 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

1. Alkaline Trio - Blood, Hair, and EyeballsI was going to make a joke about being a 40-year-old who still listens to Alkaline Trio, but I think that’s probably the age of most fans. Being an AK3-head is for life. I can’t think of another band that I’ve held close to my heart since the age of fifteen. And this year, my boys brought it. They haven’t made a record this good since I was in high school.
Exploring the dumb new downtown kiosk

Nov 29, 2024 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

On a Tuesday afternoon, the corner of 4th and B in Downtown San Diego is dead—strange, considering that it took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot. Foot traffic is sparse. I see maybe three people, all sitting on benches or other cement perches around Torrey Pines Bank. They’re all looking at their phones. Wouldn’t necessarily call this spot bustling with urban activity. And at the center of all this hustle and bustle is IKE.
Tapping out

Nov 11, 2024 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

It felt like 2016 all over again. I was at a friend’s house watching the voting numbers roll in. It didn’t look good. Not that Trump’s reelection was surprising to me, but it’d be nice for surprises to be pleasant for once. Around 8:30, that familiar feeling settled in. “I can’t really watch this anymore,” I said to Jessica. We came home, and I put on David Fincher’s Se7en. Somehow, it was more comforting to watch the bleakest movie ever released by a major studio than the election results rolling in.
Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Oct 30, 2024 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

One of the most important lessons I ever learned was in a stand-up comedy class. This was 2003. It was my first year of undergrad at UCSC, which—for a boy from Utah—was a culture shock. People swore! In class! And we were getting grades for it. I had never imagined transgression and subversion of this nature could exist in an academic setting.
12-Foot Skeleton

Oct 26, 2024 | awkwardsd.substack.com | Ryan Bradford

I’ve never posted fiction on AWKSD, mostly because it’s not really what my readers come here for. It’s jarring, like hearing a fiction NPR. But I’m in Chicago this weekend for a friend’s wedding and everything is just so Halloween-y here, so I thought I’d share this short story that I wrote earlier this month. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the brain capacity to write any sort of fiction, and this month I challenged myself to carve out something scary.