Winter
When you work in a record store, rather, if you worked in a record store when I did you were always listening to music. It was your vocation and your avocation and it was what you spent your money on. In my early 20s I spent, conservatively, 14-16 hours on any given day listening to … Continue reading
Phonies
Have you ever encountered a band you just don’t like? For reasons that you yourself are unclear about, you just don’t like them. It may be their music, it may be their person; whatever it is about the band just puts you off. Isn’t it amazing how the feelings that make you absolutely love one … Continue reading
Christmas pinnacles
You had to know it was coming. Jimmy Fallon hosting Saturday Night Live the WEEK before Christmas? You had to know that the show, at some point, would feature the wacky little ditty “I Wish It Was Christmas.” Many years ago the number, written by Fallon and Horatio Sanz, was premiered before the 30 Rock … Continue reading
The war against Christmas music, part 2
In all the time that I worked in a record store there was generally one genre of music that we never really looked forward to playing: Christmas Music. Well, that isn’t really true. There were lots of things we never looked forward to playing and rarely did, but Christmas music always felt like such a … Continue reading
The shadow of the 90s
Last Friday, while waiting for one of my kid’s PBS programs to begin I saw a commercial for that evening’s American Masters program. I was surprised to find that the ad was for Cameron Crowe’s documentary about Pearl Jam Twenty. I set the DVR with plans to watch the show either in real time or … Continue reading
Interview with Peter S. Beagle
Peter S. Beagle is one of the greatest fantasy authors of our time. He is a novelist, poet, screenwriter, songwriter and — in the words of Tad Williams — “a bandit prince out to steal readers’ hearts.” He wrote his first novel A Fine and Private Place (1960) when he was only nineteen years old. … Continue reading
Missing in action
Greetings readers (both of you). Due to recent schedule wackiness I have been stuck on a few items these past few weeks. I hope to get my mind out of this downward spiral in the next few days but thought I would offer up a small video sample (with article text) of what I’m working … Continue reading
Radio gaga
In the Winter of 2004, at the behest of our store’s promotions coordinator I participated in my first radio show. In Lansing there is a local city newspaper named City Pulse, founded and edited by a fellow named Berl Schwartz. I was asked to call in on a Saturday morning to comment on something, in … Continue reading
Uncover version
On any given night, in any given bar across the globe, one can find a band, onstage, playing the music of another artist. Many years ago I stopped for a drink at a local establishment. Four lads were on stage and as I nursed my drink long since lost to the sands of time, they … Continue reading
