Happy Birthday Chazz: Mingus at 92
Sean MurphyToday would have been (and, still is) Charles Mingus's 92nd birthday. I've written about him often and I'll continue to write about him, not only because he is one of…
Mark Twain: The Big Daddy of American Letters (Revisited)
On April 21, 1910, author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, died in Redding, Conn. Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is…
Down With The King: Wherein the Mysteries of Easter are Contemplated (Revisited)
Right. So what's scarier: a grown man dressed in a bunny costume, an actual adult-sized Bunny, or whatever chemicals comprise these things? Or, you know, this "bunny". Or Jimmy Stewart…
Read This
Whatever your feelings and opinions regarding minimum wage in the United States, you owe it to yourself (not to mention the people struggling in minimum wage jobs) to read this…
Five Songs for Tax Day
Happy Tax Day! The Beatles: Pink Floyd: Jethro Tull: Jimi Hendrix: Spinal Tap:
Celebrating Herbie Hancock, Again…
First and foremost: Thank you, universe, for giving us the gift of Herbie Hancock 74 years ago, Saturday (4/12). Second, PSA for the uninitiated: everything Herbie did during the '60s…
Giving it up for the Hottest Band in the World…KISS!
A proper tribute to the hottest band in the world has been on my to-do list going back to...1977? So yes, that will happen. For now, in honor of Kiss…
Arthur Smith, R.I.P.
Farewell to the man whose licks launched a thousand imitators. You know you've done your earthly work when you can accurately claim that you influenced multiple generations of followers. In…
Robert E. Simon, 100 Years Young
Robert E. Simon, the man who named the town I live in (R.E.S.ton, get it?) turned 100 last week. As in: one hundred. A century. Born in 1914 (quick trivia:…
For You Blue: The Beatles’ ‘Blue Album’, 41 Years Later
It was forty-one years ago, today. No, really. Check it out: Let us not forget, it’s the “Blue Album”. Before it was the cassette, the eight-track, CD or digital download,…