I wrote this one in fits and starts during the last couple of weeks. Little bits at a time, mostly, because I’ve been under a lot of pressure and stress, and I worked in a couple of audiobooks for the really long drives. Still, I hit on some good selections, including a cross-section of the […]

It seems like the concept of nostalgia is something that is bubbling up quite a bit these days, here and elsewhere. For the last several weeks, I’ve been going back through my music collection and re-visiting the thoughts and feelings those fifteen and twenty year old records dredge up. I’ve written at least three pieces […]

There are several Greatest Hits packages in this edition; quickie releases designed to quickly get new fans up to speed or replace aging cassette tapes, or just to make money to pay off a divorce settlement or wring the last bit of blood from the stone after the band calls it quits. They have their […]

I was recently introduced to the concept of “”blogging as a spiritual practice.”” Not “”spiritual”” in the sense of either my youthful experience (angels, not thinking too hard about god, veiled right-wing propaganda) or “”celebrity”” spirituality as effectively satirized in the form of David St. Hubbins or Terry & Laurie Bohner on film, but “”spiritual”” […]

Being the devoted music fan that she is, Amanda Marcotte put this piece up about the 20th anniversary of the release of Nevermind coming up next month. That record, nor any of Nirvana’s output ever really resonated with me the way it did with a lot of my peers, especially those a few years younger […]

This week, we talk about a handful of other records pulled out of my big box. I guess if there’s something approaching a theme to be drawn from this batch, it’s the presence of hidden lore behind a record that makes it what it is. I almost threw in a review of the newish Wailin’ […]

This weekend brings a new box of CDs to the car, and thus, a new edition of this particular series, in which I examine my somewhat questionable musical taste, as expressed via the great variety of compact discs I’ve accumulated over the course of my life. If anything, this little project of mine shows that […]

…but that’s not really going to stop me. I’m not geographically where I’d like to be this week, and that truly sucks. In the end, I shall manage, but so far, the universe appears to be holding a grudge, assuming that it could acutally do such things. Lots of little (and not so little) annoyances […]

The space shuttle changed the way we view the world and changed the way we view the universe. We have emotion today but one thing is indisputable: America is not going to stop exploring. Thank you Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavour and our ship Atlantis. Thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such […]

So, I’m at it again, with more record reviews. I think it’s kind of fun that I’ve seen all of these artists live at least once, and I’m reasonably sure that I’ve seen three of them on the same stage, but never on the same night. Come to think of it, that would be a […]