The title is one of my little rules for life, and one I try to follow if I can help it. There are always exceptions when timing doesn’t work out (U2, Springsteen, Yngwie), and I usually end up regretting them, even if there was nothing I could do about the situation. Even if the performer’s […]

When I was a kid, one of the scout camps I regularly went to had it’s own personal urban legend. Along one of the trails on the property there was a big, roughly grave-shaped dirt mound, which was purported to be the final resting place of an insane Appalachian medicine woman, a witch, if you […]

Les Lye has died. This makes me sad. He was the guy who played most of the adults on You Can’t Do That On Television, a Canadian kids’ show that got picked up by fledgling kids’ cable network Nickelodeon, and introduced both green slime and Alanis Morissette to the world. It also had this guy, […]

The queue at the security door looked like some sort of dead man walking/green mile/death march this morning. None of my systems or passwords work today. Some guy looking for someone who doesn’t work in my building has called me four times in the five minutes, and is unable to understand that dialing the same […]

I kind of love the concept that led to this article: Give a modern 13 year-old a Sony Walkman (first released 30 years ago) in exchange for his ipod for a week, and have him document his impressions. Not surprisingly, he wasn’t necessarily impressed. And rightfully so – I remember the actual Sony hardware, with […]

Since I spend a fair amount of time in this space talking pop culture and music, I guess I ought to comment on the passing of Michael Jackson. I think I can safely avoid the standard tribute blurbage; other than to say that I remember the 1983 Thriller onslaught, the John Landis long-form video, and […]

If you have the means (in this case, 2.3 million dollars), I highly suggest picking one up. Of course… The place is like a museum. It’s very beautiful and very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything. The Ferarri’s 11 million extra. Sorry.

I caught the new Star Trek at a matinee after work this week. For the record, I enjoyed it greatly; sets up a whole new paradigm, with plenty of nods (most rather clever) to the series’ 40 year history. I say this as a fully-steeped Trekkie, of course; I’m familiar with the language of the […]

A little heavy on the 90s “alternative” this week; well heavier than usual. Swap out a few of these for Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr and RHCP, you’ve got my little brother’s high school CD collection (“CDs? bah! We had our music on cassette tapes, and we liked it!”). “Cannonball” – The Breeders “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” – […]