Adam’s World Weekly 5/18

This past week featured two life changing anniversaries for me, one joyful, one heartbreaking.

First, the good – on Friday I celebrated nine years since my final chemo treatment.

As a survivor, every year is a landmark year, and it’s crazy to think about where life has taken me since then. I mean, I wrote a book about it, I became a mentor to other cancer patients, I’ve done everything I can to make being a cancer survivor as meaningful as possible.

Sunday, however, was more than a little heartbreaking. I had a feeling I was coming up on this, and when I looked back in my calendar from last year I saw that yes, it had been exactly one year since I’d had my weekly family dinner with my parents.

It had been on Sunday, May 18th, 2025. The next Sunday they were in Wyoming, and none of us could’ve possibly known that we’d never have dinner together again.

Those dinners were such a wonderful tradition, and I’ll definitely bring them up at my parents’ dual memorial service, which will happen in two weeks.

While taking some time to clear my head with my customary Sunday walk a groundhog took an interest in me.

He’d cautiously get close to me, then hilariously gallop a few leaps back up his hill. There’s a pretty cool connection here, because back in the day we used to have a groundhog in our backyard, and my mom absolutely loved it. She gave him a name, and everything.

Gotta figure the universe was at work giving me a groundhog sighting on that particular day.

On the human side of things, I also caught up with Maggie Miles on Sunday for an interview (which will go up at the end of the week). It was her birthday, so I showed up in the Zoom looking like this …

Oh, and the side of Pig Milk? I ventured into the city on Thursday night to see one of my favorite bands at Arlene’s Grocery. Not only was it great seeing Pig Milk again, and spending some time chatting with them, I also bumped into Rivkah Reyes at the show. You might remember our interview from last year.

If you haven't seen Pig Milk live, make it a point to, they’re one of NYC’s must-see bands. Here are a few photos from their set

In blog news, this week’s update is led off by my interview with MorganEve Swain of The Huntress and Holder of Hands, a fantastic Connecticut based band that makes heavy music (two bases, and a cello) that’s incredibly cathartic.

In addition to that feature I also have fresh editions of Pop Shots, and my NYC Scene Report for you to check out.

Read the full feature here

Read the full column here

Read the full column here

As always, thanks for reading, and have a fantastic week.

– Adam Bernard