rock’n'roll whining is here to stay…

It is a time-honored rock-critical tradition to bemoan whatever the current trend is (even if it’s not a trend at all), to claim that this trend is going to kill rock’n’roll dead, and that this new trend is (variously) dull, lifeless, corporate, bland, excessively commercial, and (worst of all) quiet, sensitive, and sappy. A fine [...]

to Hoan or not to Hoan…

As anyone who’s driven it recently can attest, the iconic Hoan Bridge is not in the best shape. The pavement needs to be replaced, and the complexity of the work involved has led consultants to estimates as high as $200 million (which would include reconfiguring the northern terminus). As if that weren’t enough, the bridge [...]

looka me, I’m part of a vanishing remnant!

It’s a bit weird reading an article in the New York Times that is, more or less, about yourself…or more accurately, about people in your situation. As those of you who know me personally know, I do not own a cell phone. But the reasons offered or proposed in the article don’t really describe my [...]

with botches like this, who needs friends?

I was reading an article at the BBC News website last week on Windows 7 – my laptop is a Mac, but inevitably at work I’ll eventually have to become familiar with Windows 7, so I was still curious – and while most of the article addressed the economic importance to Microsoft of Windows 7’s [...]

l’amour?

I downloaded this song from another mp3 site about a month ago. As I do, I backed it up onto a CD-R, which when full became my listening in the car. I try to make a note of which tracks grab my attention, so at very least I make a mental note about the artist [...]

oh. oh. oh. oh. oh. what a feeling.

I recently downloaded (legally! For reals! So don’t sue me RIAA!) the live recording of Lou Reed’s Berlin recorded at St. Ann’s Warehouse a few years ago. (Also, note to self: do not listen to Berlin first thing in the morning – makes you just want to turn around, go home, and crawl back into [...]

sirens, Prius!

Tom Vanderbilt, whose blog “How We Drive” originated as essentially a promotional device for his book Traffic (which, for some reason, I still haven’t bought) but has come to be a fascinating compendium of traffic- and driving-related…blogginess, wrote the other day about the alleged problem that the Prius is so quiet in parking lots and [...]

ushi dumi (yes she does)

Since it’s stuffed at the very bottom of the Beatles box (well, just above the DVD in early editions…but I’ve moved my DVD to the video shelves), I’ll conclude my series of Beatles posts with Past Masters set. First, following up on a comment I made in an earlier post: I suggested it might have [...]

in which Paul McCartney reads Alfred Jarry

It’s unclear, the extent to which various Beatles felt or knew that Abbey Road was going to be their final album together…but in many respects, it feels very much fitting as the band’s finale – most obviously in ending (almost) with a song called “The End.” Since McCartney remained the band’s driving force on this [...]

Doris gets her oats

Although Abbey Road was released first, Let it Be was recorded first (for the most part), so I’m treating it before Abbey Road. Actually, it’s a good thing Abbey Road came out first…following the somewhat half-assed Yellow Submarine (“half-assed” as a product, anyway), had Let it Be been the Beatles’ next release, speculation that they [...]