My friend Christina Davis Pierce is an avid reader and a history buff, she loaned me this great biography and I’ve been pondering it for some time. It’s called Commander In Chief by Eric Larrabee, came out in the late 1980s and is really a series of chapters on men who were involved in WWII, …
My son Kyle reminds me that much of our attitude is a choice. We can choose to be positive or negative. We can choose to be jealous or appreciative. Entering 2018 I decided that I would be a more grateful person, more appreciative of the people in my life, the experiences I have had, and …
The Minnesota State Fair is a gathering of all souls – the quintessential merging of country, suburban, and city folk – over the course of 12 days, ending on Labor Day. Affectionately known as the “Great Minnesota Get-Together”, it is situated on permanent grounds in St. Paul. My parents took the family to the State …
This is a beautiful poem.
This post apocalyptic Seattle smoke hellscape is deeply concerning and will have grave consequences. But healthwise I am fine. All my friends have headaches, bleeding sores, mutations, cholera. But I hit the sauna. I am both a Shark and a Jet. I am a hybrid. I will survive. But can we really survive the demise …
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Legendary American singer, songwriter and performer Don McLean recently helped raise funds for Teen Cancer America (TCA) and UCLA Health. At the Backyard Concert 2018, McLean joined Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Van Morrison and Roger Daltrey, as well as GRAMMY Award winner Ed Sheeran and others for a once-in-a-generation …
My word, KEXP really scored when they hired Eva Walker as the new host of Audioasis. This woman is a mega talent and I absolutely adore her long view and careful study of history. It makes her music and performances hit so much harder than what a Hipster might do scratching the surface with same the chord …
I have so many wonderful things to say about Rick Beato and his Rick Beato – Everything Music series on youtube. This guy is everything about why some youtube creators are delivering even more valuable content than most television producers. He is hitting a real audience. His peers. Rick is talking about music news, theory, production, business and songwriting …
I like the world-shrinking impact that bleak overseas (I’m an American and a proud East Portlander) podcasts have on me. Hence my love affairs with a Norwegian/British (Death in Ice Valley) and an Australian (The Teacher’s Pet) podcast. American podcasts, produced by the likes of CNN, MSNBC or, for that matter, the Comedy Channel, all …
I know it sucks that THEY are coming for The Showbox. But the fate was sealed years ago when we all swallowed this pill of sh_t that it was OK to drive out the Soul of our city, starting with Black folks in the Central District that gave the world f_cking Jimi Hendrix and Quincy …
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities My wife and I recently spent some time in California. I was disturbed at the human conditions in San Francisco. I wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle (below) and even though my letter to the …
These plants survived the winter pretty good, had some “chicks,” but then about a month or so ago one of ’em started sprouting some serious wood. WTF? I never seen them do this. The last two weeks, especially; a full-on rager, with some sorta buds or something at the tip. And the other one’s become …
For those who are not yet of a certain age, it’s easy to forget that Steve Martin was once the most popular comedian in America. His stand-up appearances filled baseball stadiums, and his guest-host appearances on Saturday Night Live were must-see appointment television events that routinely added a million viewers to the show’s ratings. After …
Driving to work a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see billboards announcing a visit to my neck of the woods by Franklin Graham, son of his recently departed father Billy. An online search found the website of his Decision California tour, intending to bring the Gospel to a state which, as Graham made …
Wednesday night I ventured out to Seattle’s foremost punk club, El Corazon. Yes, I’d seen Less Than Jake only three days prior at the Back to the Beach Festival, but it’s Less Than Jake. If they decided to come back to Seattle this weekend I’d venture out to see them. And if they came back …
Living alone, widowed, with only a cat and 2 mute turtles to hear my voice… my mind occasionally goes to strange places. In times of kismet, I often think of my wife as a sort of Polynesian goddess… a goddess who, as she was in life, can be pleased or angered. Benevolent. Wrathful. More than …
I have a long but wonderful list of people to still tell you about, regarding my journey last month to Jamaica. One of them is the mysterious Kingston based Selecta, Lenny Roots. The German Lennart Tacke introduced me to him and I hung with Mr Roots as he put together this educational mix tape in a peaceful …
Well, the next shoe has dropped in the MSU/USA gymnastics sexual molestation scandal. Dr. William Strampel, 70 y/o, the MSU supervisor of serial molester Dr. Larry Nassar, has been arrested. Strampel came under scrutiny earlier this month, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on 3.20.18. The Journal noted that Stampel, MSU’s Dean of Osteopathic …
Last Tuesday night, I took my daughter Jillian to see the Sacramento Kings play the Dallas Mavericks. She had never seen an NBA game, and the tickets were cheap for two lottery teams playing a game with absolutely no bearing on the playoffs. The Mavericks won 103-97, but the evening was most notable in that …
Wow. I didn’t think anything like this existed. Understood only a few pre-1970 Tonight Shows survived. This must be one of em. It conveys the improvy (im-Pervy?) flavor of the rat pack just about better than anything I’ve seen. Dean still makes me laugh out loud, even when it’s Schtick I should’ve seen coming for …
This is how stupid people are when they debate the complexities of music appropriation. People are questioning Bruno Mars for cultural appropriation based on race, when he is half Puerto Rican and was trained to destroy pop music with real instruments by his Puerto Rican father. I would love for one basic ass bitch of …
On March 6, 2018, Chicago’s fabled classic rock station, WLUP (97.9), announced it was being acquired by Educational Media Foundation (EMF). Since 2014 “The Loop” has been operated under a local agreement with Cumulus Media. However, as part of a bankruptcy filing last month, Cumulus withdrew plans to buy the station, and so the search …
BJ DjSticky AKA Bluejay Hankins has been trying to get a new press release out of me for weeks. We polished one before I left for Jamaica but it was missing something. He needs a KILLER press release to the reach the estimated 1000 DJs that matter in the global Roots Reggae & Dancehall universe that …
This clip of Dean Martin is amazingly good. If only he was always this funny when drunk. If it’s an act, it’s a great act. Note his outfit: years before Miami Vice he is wearing Don Johnson’s trademark white jacket. Note also Bob Hope’s seeming indignation. It’s hard to say whether Dean was truly in …
I finally know the Truth! My parents got their DNA tests back and through my Mother’s Puerto Rican side I am not just a little bit African, I am a melting pot of many African tribes including Bantu, and portions of what comes up simply as Nigerian, the tribes of Senegal, the Congo, and the …
Eating from your yard tip~Jerusalem Artichoke is a hardy beast that grows over 7 feet tall with yellow rebeckia flowers. You can harvest the tubers after the first hard freeze, but I think they taste better in the spring. The women I got them from sliced them raw onto her salad. They are also good …
My friend Jordani Sarreal is putting together a music publishing and copyright workshop that is so incredibly timely for me. As publishing and the ownership of our albums is increasingly in our own possession, rather than Record companies, most of us have no idea what to really do in 2018. I will be attending her workshop and …
Just today, Yahoo! broke the story of federal documents identifying an extensive list of NCAA schools and players that have been involved in the recent recruiting scandals that have been investigated by the FBI. You can find their post here: https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html One reason I’ve preferred professional sports to the NCAA is that the former make …
“What The President Said,” a new protest song by David Poe and Sister C, features voices from the Women’s March and the LAX protest. The song challenges a president who many believe is imperiling American ideals with outrageous falsehoods, divisiveness, brinkmanship and incompetence, aiming to pander to base voters before midterm elections this November and …
Last week, Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed Finn Murphy, whose memoir, The Long Haul, was published last year. The interview was so entertaining that I immediately downloaded the book, and I was not disappointed. From its title and cover, one might think that the book would be a celebration of the open road …