Ratdog and the Allman Brothers: My First Boring Concert

I was a latecomer to the Grateful Dead scene, and was by no means a serious Deadhead. I was into them in their final years, from 1987ish to 1995. During that time, when they were hot, they were smokin’, but there were a few shows I saw that never seemed to get off the [...]

No Anthems for Ugly Chinese Kids

So far I’ve refused to fall into the trap of Olympic jingoism, but this time I think those godless communists have gone too far. This is just one human rights abuse too many.
It seems they found the cherubic voice they needed to sing their national anthem, but the angel’s face didn’t quite [...]

Yesterdaze: REM and Living Well is the Best Revenge

I used eat, sleep and breathe REM for a period of my life. Then after the Monster CD I kind of lost track of them. I like their hits, but nothing new really tripped my trigger until the “Reveal” cd came out. That reminded of the REM I used to know, love [...]

What do you Want on your Tombstone?

I think this was a line from a spaghetti western, which the Very Big Food Corporation of America co-opted into a Pizza ad.
I hadn’t thought about it much until the Queen of the Universe and I took a hike to the local cemetery. There was an abolitionist guy who worked on the [...]

Eagles: Meandering Road out of Eden

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the Eagles’ new release “Long Road Out of Eden.” I was reasonably sure from the title that I would get a good dose of anti-imperialism from Don Henley, my favorite angry white California Muslim. I wanted at least a glimpse of greatness that is “Hotel [...]

Songs of Mass Destruction: Not Anti-War but good Anyway

Songs of Mass Destruction - Annie Lennox
I looked at the title and I thought this was an Anti-War album. It’s not. I guess it could be metaphorically, but it’s not. Once I got past the disappointment and expectations of that, the rest of the CD was okay.
The title is apt [...]

Top 10 “Hatin’ on People” Songs

As long as there have been songs with lyrics, musicians have probably been expressing their hatred for certain people in their music. Here are my ten favorite “Hatin” on people songs, with an opera thrown in for good measure.
1. You’re so Vain - Carly Simon
This song has probably inspired the most speculation [...]

More Reasons to Hate I-Pods

Medium turned ten and wanted an MP3 player for her birthday. So my choices are the Zen Nano 1G and the I-Pod Shuffle 1G. Both comparably priced, both come in pink. As you probably have discerned from the title, I’m not an I-Pod guy. I’m also not a Mac Guy. [...]

Top Ten Wedding Song SUGGESTIONS

After posting my list of overplayed wedding songs, a reader named Ashlee asked the next logical question… so what do you play then? As it turns out, that question was a lot harder to answer than I thought it would, and made me appreciate the job of a wedding DJ a little more than [...]

Big Leg Emma: Heron Hill Winery 7/1/07

I first saw Big Leg Emma a few years ago in a tiny town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. I had heard of them performing in Western New York but had never seen them. They were really really good. It was a small venue, and there were a [...]