As is my family’s habit on a particular weekend in mid-January, we packed up and hauled ourselves to Williamsburg VA for Marscon, perhaps the premiere fan convention in the general Mid-Atlantic region, and rapidly becoming my favorite con that I get to each year. It’s a great chance to share an experience with like-minded people, […]

For a clever but innocently comic slice-o-teenage-life tune written by Leiber and Stoller, the cover image that Amazon uses for this digital download of the Coasters’ 1958 hit “Yakety Yak” invites some interesting reinterpretations: ♫ You ain’t gonna rock and roll no more ♫ … …not after I smash your head in with this pipe […]

So, we all wandered back to the grind this week after a couple of weeks; off, and in most cases, off the grid. The smartphone spent a lot of time in a drawer, and I largely ignored the telephone and the email and the internet (except to grind a bit on Marvel Heroes and pick […]

As of 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I’m done working for the rest of the year. Had a really nice holiday luncheon with my co-workers yesterday where we all ate way too much delicious Italian food, then spent the afternoon putting a bunch of things to bed and setting up my out-of-office autoresponder. So now, it’s two […]

So, the big weather system that was supposed to cause such havoc ended up just being kinda wet and cold around here. Didn’t stop a bunch of things from being cancelled this weekend, though – which means, among other things, something I was hoping to be clear of after about 5pm on Sunday ended up […]

Being mid-December, all those great year-end lists are rolling out (stay tuned for mine after Christmas). My favorite, though, is av club’s “year in band names” list, which collects the best(?) band names from all the promo stuff they receive over the course of the year, handily organized by categories such as “anatomy”, “food and […]

I expect, like you, I’ll be busy doing the cooking and eating thing all day. More than likely, I’ll be out-of-pocket. You should be too. Go watch some parades and football. (Unlike the subject of the last post, this song has only been around a year. Somehow, it makes me feel old too.)

This song is twenty years old: You’re welcome.

The week itself has been busy, but there aren’t any particular events to which I can point which have exhausted me so. Played some music with friends early in the week, did a lot of user support and document review at work (plus our section Thanksgiving luncheon yesterday), and ran kids all over the county […]

My friend Steve is a very talented musician and songwriter. He’s played all kinds of interesting venues from honky tonks to places of worship. He builds beautiful native american flutes, and plays upright bass (airbrushed with gorgeous Betty Page pinup artwork) in a Rockabilly cowpunk band. He’s written and released lots of material over the […]