For this, the twentieth(!) edition of this little series of mine, I take on a couple of punk-inspired records and the entire bill of the last concert I attended. Enjoy, or not. Doesn’t bother me any. ♦The Ramones – Halfway to Sanity: I remember the Ramones always being there in the deep background growing up […]

‘Twas a long weekend for me thanks to the Columbus day holiday and my usual Fridays off. Didn’t accomplish much, unfortunately, as I got sidetracked about halfway through last week with something strongly resembling the flu or thereabouts, which I still haven’t totally shaken. That said, I spent quite a lot of the last four […]

A couple of visits to the Lone Star State this time around, representing my slightly less-awkward alt-country phase, a latter day disc from a new favorite, and an underappreciated aberration from a vast, critically praised catalog that I still quite like a lot. Enough explanation? ♦- Dixie Chicks – Taking The Long Way: This record […]

Woke up this morning to the news that Steve Jobs had passed. Wherever you stood on the Mac vs. PC spectrum, the fact that you’re standing on that spectrum at all is largely due to the work of a couple of Steves (this one and Woz) in a garage in Cupertino. I haven’t used Apple […]

This edition hit some interesting notes – two of these records, it turns out, end up defining particular eras in my lifetime, even if I didn’t realize it. The others are just really cool records. Also, I this is another one of those mixes where I’ve all the artists live a lot, which to me […]

In between bouts of wrangling paperwork today, I noticed several mentions on twitter that R.E.M. has ended its run. For me, this is a sad and surprising development, but at the same time, it kind of feels natural. The last two records aside (Accelerate and Collapse Into Now are both VERY GOOD), R.E.M. has been […]

♦ Bret Alexander – Gentleman East: In a lot of ways, this one is probably the best of the half-dozen or so Badlees side projects that came out during the great post-UTDH hiatus, even if it’s not my favorite (that would probably be Perfect Smile). The foundation of what makes(made?) the Badlees great was the […]

Last Friday morning while taking care of a few errands, I stopped at Target to check out the electronics clearance rack, where over the years I’ve found many great deals on video games and computer storage media. While poking around amongst the marked down ipad cases and wii shovelware, I found one of these: This […]

for she is mighty. To any reading in eastern PA, stay safe.