Wednesday, November 28, 2012
The other day, my friend Andy posted the following question to all his Facebook friends: What is your favorite holiday-season song? Not just “I like Jingle Bells,” but the SPECIFIC VERSION you like best. Almost immediately, he started getting some very interesting replies. The Little Drummer Boy as sung by David Bowie and Bing Crosby [...]
One of the funny things about listening to what the various members of the Beatles have to say in the interview snippets within the Beatles Anthology documentaries is how they themselves view and think about “the Beatles.” To them, it seems, “the Beatles” is something that happened to the rest of the world while they [...]
One thing I’ve been realizing while re-watching the Beatles Anthology documentary is what incredible songwriters Lennon and McCartney were. I suppose that’s as obvious as saying that I suddenly realized that Tom Cruise is a pretty good movie star … but it’s not just that John and Paul could write great songs. It’s that ALL [...]
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been re-watching the Beatles Anthology 8-part documentary that the BBC did back in 2002 to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary. I remember learning a lot the first time I watched these shows and, despite having done fairly extensive reading about the group, the individuals, and their histories, feeling like I [...]
I’ve always been a big Beatles fan. I’m too young to have been a fan during the life of the group (though I was alive during that run … born almost 9 months to that day after they appeared on U.S. TV for the first time … funny that), but I remember distinctly getting “I [...]
For Christmas in 1972 I got From Beyond the Grave, a the Spider-Man “rockcomic” — that’s a “rock & roll comic,” even though there really was more like a groovy soft-rock illustrated radio show … but I’m getting ahead of myself. I didn’t have any idea how cheesy the music, writing, or acting were … [...]
The other night, I was out at Applebee’s with a friend (and anyone who IS my friend will find nothing strange about that). The music, as often happens during the Late Happy Hour in “the Neighborhood,” seemed to be custom selected from “songs Stan! really dug in 1979-1984.” As we were getting up to go, [...]
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
For some reason, I’ve been listening to a lot of my ’80s music recently. Not just ANY ’80s music … specifically stuff that came out between 1982 and 1986. I haven’t done this consciously … it’s just what I’ve been in the mood for. This trend started before Gen Con, when I found myself listening [...]
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
In the last week of the year, John Allison, the brilliant mind behind the webcomic Bad Machinery (previously Scary-Go-Round … previously Bobbins), generally lets some of his characters spend a few days running down his top twenty “Albums of the Year.” Invariably, these are bands I’ve never heard of (and I think that even in [...]
In the wake of my Comic Con review post, a handful of people have asked for more details on the Barenaked Ladies concert. How was the show? Do I really know Ed Robertson? How did THAT happen?So I thought I’d elucidate. (For those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time, [...]