Saturday, July 4, 2022. Typical Saturday morning. Waited for my copy of Barrons to arrive; fed two guinea pigs and two cats; grabbed something for self from the fridge; read something quietly so as to not disturb anyone; retrieved said paper; ate breakfast while reading paper; watched tv; and, performed house/yard work as necessary. But this was …
My pre-order copy of WJBP came yesterday. Listening to it at work now. Can’t say I have a favorite song; I prefer the total vibe that seems to channel Prince. He was born today in 1958. Gawd I miss him. Please continue his message of peace+love, Xavier Dphrepaulezz! CU in Chicago! https://www.facebook.com/fantasticnegrito NEW MUSIC: @MusicNegrito …
A tip from the great Mark Erickson brought this 1969 classic back. Wikipedia describes this band’s early work thusly, “Wasa Wasa retained a heavily blues influenced sound that was hard-driven and propelled by Edgar Broughton’s gritty vocal style, which was similar to that of Captain Beefheart and Howlin’ Wolf.” http://www.edgarbroughton.com/ Complete List Of Edgar Broughton Band Albums And Discography …
The other day I listened to WNUR, which is the student-run radio station at Northwestern University though students do not host all shows. For example, Chuck Mertz @thisishellradio has conducted long-form interviews on an array of subjects for over 20 years and Erick Ricks has exposed me to jazz and contemporary classical music just as long. …
I was involved in a car accident on a snowy evening in Minnesota during the Christmas break of my freshman year in college. I sustained numerous injuries: a broken clavicle; ligaments torn from the spine; a fractured elbow; and, a fractured pelvis. I remained in the hospital for three weeks. I had to suspend my …
April 5, 2002 – the day Layne Staley of Alice in Chains died due to heroin addiction. 20 years ago today. (Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died on April 5 also, eight years earlier. It’s a rough calendar day for Seattle musicians.) AIC, from the Pacific Northwest, got the “grunge” label along with Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl …
On Sunday, I attended a memorial service for a deceased neighbor whose family could not have a proper Jewish service due to COVID gathering restrictions. Ruth would have turned 85 years old yesterday. The outdoor service, situated next to Ruth’s headstone and that of her husband who had died 106 weeks earlier, started with a …
Between 1851 and 1910, approximately 1.6 million Swedish people – 86% of whom were under 35 y/o, left the fatherland to establish themselves in the United States. Swedes established the Swedish Lutheran Mission Institute in Keokuk, Iowa, in 1873. A banker in Knoxville (near Galesburg, IL) persuaded the Institute to relocate and it was renamed …
Last weekend I headed to a small Chicago venue called the Beat Kitchen to see Yakuza headline the Forever Deaf Fest. Yakuza has been my favorite Windy City band for quite a while…long before the frickin’ pandemic started. Over the years three musicians have remained constant: Bruce Lamont (vocals, saxophone, clarinet); Matt McClelland (guitar); and, …
Not too long ago I wrote about North Park College’s 1985, senior-laden men’s basketball team’s journey to the school’s FOURTH national championship. Coach Bosko led that team in his first year after working as the top assistant coach for many years. Preparing for the 1985-86 season, Bosko now faced fielding his first recruiting class as …
In March 2014, Russia illegally annexed Crimea and the city of Sevastopol – a violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine – in order to have access to the Black Sea. The USA and Europe did nothing to stop the invasion. The former was still mired in Iraq and Afghanistan and Ukraine did not have …
My alma mater, North Park College (now University), completely dominated NCAA Division III Mens Basketball just prior to my arrival on campus. With a cumulative record of 86-10, in 1978, 1979, and 1980, NPC won the national championship three times in a row. Growing up in Minnesota, I never saw any of those early championship …
I stumbled upon a rabbit hole known as archive.org. What a trove of information! If you are a Grateful Dead head (I am not), the website has 15,778 Dead audio files. https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead Are you an Apple geek? https://archive.org/details/manuals-apple Peruse 969 Apple computer manuals. There is a Swedish folk instrument called the nyckelharpa. ‘Tis a strange instrument that …
“Fossil fuel combustion has increased at an exponential rate over the last 100 years” reads the first line of a report with the subject line, “Release of Fossil CO2 and the Possibility of Catastrophic Climate Change.” This was known in the Carter administration. Governmental reports have existed in every administration since then with compelling warnings …
In the early 1980s, George Clinton experienced legal problems with his massive body of musical output after a record label merger. As such, he had stopped his musical career and the P-Funk juggernaut. He did, however, produce Freaky Styley, the second release of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Then rap discovered P-Funk and sampled quite …
Last night I read on www.theguardian.com about a new music documentary, Bitchin: The Sound and Fury of Rick James, will be released soon, but ONLY (WHY???) on Showtime. James Ambrose Johnson Jr, aka, Rick James, rocked my world as an upperclassman at North Park College. Aerosmith, step aside, and let me funk to Street Songs, which included …
“The United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Why is the U.S. government so reliant on the use of threats, coercion, and military force around the globe, and why can’t our “policymakers” admit it is not working? The latest death and destruction in Afghanistan, with …
Visited the George Floyd Memorial and Prince’s home/recording studios today. In the first pic (above), the blue chalk locates the exact spot where George was murdered.
I have never seen Jello Biafra perform, witnessed one fantastic performance by The Melvins years ago, and have communed with Ministry at least nine times. Mr. Biafra and The Melvins once collaborated on Never Breathe What You Can’t See, released by Alternative Tentacles, which is Mr. Biafra’s recording label. On this recording, the musicians used …
Al Nakba, 1948 Like the loss of a child, I cannot fathom the emotions and turmoil that Palestinians share while being ruled by military order. In “Is Israel An Apartheid State?,” a summary legal study funded and coordinated by the Government of South Africa, apartheid regimes rely on three pillars to maintain domination. The state codifies into law …
Five years ago today, Prince boarded the Mothership. Yesterday, he sprinkled some Purple Dust on Minnesota. (Chauvin verdict) Live music is returning to Chicago! Less than four miles from my house, https://northshorecenter.org/event/fareed-haque/ Fareed Haque has collaborated with Billy Cobham who is the favorite drummer of my son’s long-time (age 5-16ish) drum instructor. The warmup band, The …
SMHSMHSMH. “I woke up this morning and I got myself a [rude awakening].” George Floyd Part II. WTF! I wrote in August 2020 about George Floyd and my familiarity with the site of the civil unrest in Minneapolis: https://www.eastportlandblog.com/2020/08/24/bola-wrap-non-lethal-police-tool-for-use-in-mental-health-crisis-interventions-by-mark-erickson/ This morning greeted me with the murder of Daunte Wright, another unarmed Black Male being murdered …
On Saturday, I heard an interview on my favorite radio show, This Is Hell, hosted by Chuck Mertz on WNUR (89.3 FM in Chicago), with Flint Taylor and Jeffrey Haas. These two guys founded the People’s Law Center. Go to episode 1288 to listen to the interview. https://www.thisishell.com/Haas wrote a book about the Fred Hampton murder. The …
I planned to visit a cemetery this morning on the north side of Chicago, situated less than six miles from my house. On Thursday I called the office to obtain lot information. However, as I drove amidst the works of art, aka grave markers, I realized my incomplete coordinate was no reason to search endlessly. …
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pioneer in the women’s rights movement and the second woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, died Friday at age 87 due to complications of pancreatic cancer. She was a survivor of previous battles with cancer. I have read that Justice Ginsburg could not get a job with a law firm …
A couple of weeks ago the local “alternative” radio station, WKQX aka Q101, announced it would devote the entire weekend to playing the “greatest alternative music from the last 50 years”. So all the way back to 1970, I guess! Now, I do sometimes listen to this station for one or two songs, but only …
This past weekend, three months after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, which sparked national protests, and protests which are continuing in Portland, a white police officer in Kenosha , WI overreacted and shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back multiple times as he walked from the officer to get into his car with his children inside. …
In 2019, Iceland’s Hatari (meaning “hater” in the native tongue) qualified for the Eurovision music contest, which was created in 1956 in the aftermath of WWII. Tel Aviv, Israel, hosted the event that year, a year that also included the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to support Palestinians trapped in the Israeli apartheid state. …
I coordinated volunteers and drove a long van (now deemed unsafe due to being prone to tip on its side) and a short bus to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which is located near Chicago’s Midway airport. The present facility’s size will boggle your mind! Philanthropist Ann Lurie donated money to help construct the building, …
I think the stress of these days-whether stemming from management at work, seeing complete moronic citizens in public who believe they are invincible from the pandemic (or that it has passed them), to, of course, having a President who embarasses the country on a daily basis. I have worked at home for over three months …