Latest Post
Ray Manzarek: The Key to the Doors
When it comes to this great American band’s legacy, the best thing about the Doors is also the worst thing about the Doors: Jim Morrison. Blessed with one of the more charismatic and literate frontmen of their—or any—era, it seems inevitable, in hindsight, that the Doors would become icons. Morrison, as leather-legged Lizard King, cut [...]
The Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde or, Art Improving Upon Life (Revisited)
ON THIS DAY On May 23, 1934, bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot to death in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen Ford Deluxe along a road in Bienville Parish, La. Great story. Great movie. From a personal point of view, both Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty turn in [...]
Wagner at 200 or, Get Your Götterdämmerung On
Or, If Loving Wagner is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Reich. (More on one of the most complex and controversial composers ever, who was born 200 years ago today, HERE.) Seriously though, I came across an amazing article on Wagner, written by Nicholas Spice (from the London Review of Books). Check it out HERE [...]
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
I knew I’d have to deal with this one of these days. So many of my favorite old-school rock legends died when I was young, or before I was born (think Jimi, Jim, Janis, etc.), they’ve never been part of my ongoing narrative. Ray Manzarek, one of the three surviving members of one of my [...]
Myself When I’m Real
This Week in Music: 1983
I don’t know what you were up to but I was partying like it was 1983. Due to the miracles of technology, we can see precisely how I was living, almost exactly thirty years ago. Let’s do a quick analysis of that picture. Grey Levi’s cords? Check. Untucked blue oxford? Check. R2-D2 light switch and [...]
A Day To Remember; A Life To Celebrate
August 30, 2002* Everything that is good about me is because of my mother. Fortunately, I was able to convey this simple truth many times in my adult life, but one of the unexpected blessings of the past few weeks was that I had the opportunity to repeat it, often, and in so doing, I [...]
Every Time I Scribble A Thought With Artistic Intent
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I ever do about holidays. But I’m still human. I still recall the almost breathless inability to accelerate time and make Christmas arrive more quickly. Or [...]
Music
Ray Manzarek: The Key to the Doors
When it comes to this great American band’s legacy, the best thing about the Doors is also the worst thing about the Doors: Jim Morrison. Blessed with one of the more charismatic and literate frontmen of their—or any—era, it seems inevitable, in hindsight, that the Doors would become icons. Morrison, as leather-legged Lizard King, cut [...]
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
I knew I’d have to deal with this one of these days. So many of my favorite old-school rock legends died when I was young, or before I was born (think Jimi, Jim, Janis, etc.), they’ve never been part of my ongoing narrative. Ray Manzarek, one of the three surviving members of one of my [...]
Pet Sounds: The Kind of World Where We Belong
5/16/66. A day that changed music, forever, for the better. A case could, and probably should, be made that we ought to refer to rock music as “BP” and “AP” (Before Pet Sounds and After Pet Sounds). Writing about Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and the miraculous release of the (miraculous) SMiLE Sessions, this is [...]
