ratiocinations out of thin air/a blog about this that and the other thing
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MY ATTENTION remains focused on Tell It Like It Was, my new publication on Medium. And Tell It Like It Was remains focused on music—mostly music of the ’60s but we will get into the rock & roll and rhythm & blues before and after that decade eventually.
In the past week, Lew Shiner and … READ MORE
MY APOLOGIES for neglecting regular readers of my blogs for the past few months. Fortunately, there is a good reason for this that has nothing to do with those silly rumors circulated by the VRC that I had run off and joined a progressive commune in Vermont left over from those hippie-wannabe days of yore. … READ MORE
ELVIS AND SOCRATES walk into a bar. No, wait—should it be “Socrates and Elvis”? Either way, here’s what this post is all about: I came across a 3-minute video of Indian guru Gaur Gopal Das talking about gossip. Normally, I avoid the advice of “wise” men—especially those I have not heard … READ MORE
THIS MORNING, the question on Quora was, “Who is the most overrated music star of all time?” Rather than answer the question—which I don’t believe can be answered to everyone’s satisfaction—I addressed the assumptions of the question itself.
My answer is indented below between the images of Bert Blyleven (with the ball) and Sigmund … READ MORE
ANOTHER DAY, another question on Quora begging for an answer from me. (Well, maybe not begging, but looking like it requires my attention.) Hopefully, my answer will be unlike others that will be posted and if it doesn’t inform, will at least entertain.
The question was, “Can you name an artist or musician … READ MORE
THIS TIME, the question on Quora was “Why do you not want to be famous?” and I read it at four in the morning. That’s before I’d had the first sip of my Cafe Bustelo (a good coffee to wake up with). So I put on Miles Davis’s WALKIN’ (a good album to … READ MORE
THE REDMOND REPORTER is our local paper here in Redmond, Washington. It’s a typical smalltown paper: twenty pages with local news and advertisements. Unfortunately, I rarely pay any attention to it, but yesterday it was brought to my attention by an article on the front page of the September 7, 2108, edition.
The … READ MORE
FOR THOSE READERS who have their own WordPress sites, I assume you occasionally do what I (alas) consistently do: mistakenly click the Publish button on the right side of your Edit Post work page when you meant to click the Save Draft button. To overstate the situation: leaving the Publish button exposed is like leaving … READ MORE
THE BIG BANG THEORY is an endlessly rewatchable show: aside from the fabulous characters and the intertwining of their personal lives, the dialog is chock-a-block full of humor of all sorts, from the zany to the kind that requires the viewer either have a reasonable IQ or access to the Internet to look things up. … READ MORE
WORDPRESS. I don’t write about it because I am not technically qualified to say much. All my sites were built by me using WordPress and are maintained by me. I was able to follow most directions, even though many were poorly written. It took too much time and was unnecessarily difficult and frustrating—five years and … READ MORE
I SPEND SO MUCH TIME researching the various topics that I write about, I really don’t have much time left to read others’ blogs—which is a shame, because we are living through some kind of golden age of freedom of expression of whatever the hell you wanna say and have the actual possibility of having … READ MORE
I START THE DAY with my usual mug of coffee and while there’s usually too much on my mind, today it’s simple: I can’t get the song “Australia” from the Kinks’ album ARTHUR out of my mind. My head bobs up and down and my body sways to the rhythm and melody and the delightful … READ MORE
BLOODY HELL, but I am fed up with the racism and the homophobia and the misogyny and all the other hate-based ‘isms’ behind an endless stream of comments posted by rightwingnuts on Facebook and in the Comments sections of otherwise decent websites. Now we have to wade through their foul comments fueled by their latest … READ MORE
ON QUORA, a young man asked me to answer the burning question, “What do heavy metal music fans think about modern pop music?” my first thought was, “Wow! Did you come to the wrong person!” Then i though, “I can do this and have some fun along the way.
I’m posting my response here on … READ MORE
AFTER TWO WHOLE YEARS of lollygagging, dillydallying, pussyfooting, and plain old farting around, I finally (FINALLY!) got my new blog off the ground: The Endless Sixties is up and running and waiting for readers. There are half a dozen articles already posted plus the homepage, and everyone should read the introductory homepage first, of … READ MORE
BACK UP AN ARGUMENT by quoting something found on a website and, regardless of your intelligence or your research skills, you’ll likely be told, “You can’t believe anything you read on the internet.” My normal rejoinder is to point out that’s akin to saying that you can’t believe anything you read in … READ MORE