Party on, rock nerds!
We hope those of you in the Philadelphia area can make it out. We’ve got the small room on the second floor to ourselves. There’s no admission. This should be a casual, if sometimes heated, event.
Dec 282009
Dec 282009
I’m reading The Nasty Bits, a collection of writings by chef and food essayist Anthony Bourdain. I’ve gotten into his local foods travel show No Reservations in a big way over the last month, and my insightful wife presented me with this book for Christmas. I knew nothing about this guy prior to getting into his show last month, and I’m enjoying the book, although it leans a bit more on his “Bad Boy” image than his tv show, which never fails to show the soft, sentimentalist behind the host’s attitude. The Bad Boy thing quickly runs out of gas with me, but he doesn’t push it in this book.
As part of expressing his Bad Boy side, he does make a lot of references to punk rock. I like when he drops a punk rock reference on his tv show. It’s good to know that “regular” people watching are forced to scratch their heads – or more likely that “we” are now among the regulars. In print, he drops even more punk references, and for some reason print references to music are more likely to bring out my highly judgmental side. Every reference to his love for The Ramones causes me to think, Yeah, of course. References to The Dead Boys help his credibility, but then I think, Man, those guys sucked! At one point he mentions playing Depeche Mode while setting up in the kitchen, and I begin to lose my appetite.
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Dec 242009
Rolling Stone online has a look back at Top 10 lists from the 2000s.
This one has to be the one that will haunt them:
Year 2001,
#3 Mick Jagger
GODDESS IN THE DOORWAY Virgin“There’s not a weak track on Goddess in the Doorway…”
That beats my 1995 statement that Techno/Jungle will be the new direction for classic Rock ‘n Roll artists in the 1990s (only David Bowie took me up on this).
Anyone have any words that have come back to haunt them?
Dec 232009
Townsman Andyr, in the middle of his spiritual journey to the Holy Land of Jerusalem sent me this shocking photo from one of the world’s most famous series of Stations of the Cross paintings. (I’m sorry I forget the name of the church, which he breathlessly relayed to me in an excited transcontinental call.) This is truly a miracle of Boss-like proportions…after the jump!
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Dec 222009
No secrets here!
That Secret Santa practice that’s popular in the workplace and in some families always confuses me. I can’t keep track of how it works, and when I find myself unable to get out of one of these things, I get a bad feeling in my stomach. I’m cool with gift giving being out in the open. The guessing game thing and the ability to trade in a gift don’t sit right with me. Hit me with your best shot!
In that spirit I’d like to suggest Rock Town Hall’s Not-So-Secret Santa Celebration. Choose a Townsperson – one Townsperson – and wish a musically relevant gift upon that person. Try to spread the wealth: pick someone who has not yet received a gift, and don’t hog a half dozen Townspeople for yourself.
This “gift” doesn’t have to be a specific thing, like a particular record. In fact, I think it could be more fun it was more like wishing a musical value or insight for a fellow Townsperson. For instance, I might wish that my close personal friend E. Pluribus Gergely would finally feel the brilliance of the s/t album by The Band, one of my favorite albums since childhood and a constant point of disagreement between the two of us. It’s not just that we disagree aesthetically. I think a little less of him for not getting that album, and he takes pity on me for being so tied to the emotional and historical involvement that I have placed in the album since it was given to me by my uncle when I was about 5 years old. Wouldn’t this be a wonderful world if Rock Town Hall’s Not-So-Secret Santa simply granted him the ability to find a place for that album in his heart?
Dec 212009
Over the course of any year in Rock Town Hall, ideas come and go. For any 5 threads one of us has launched, there may be another thread that seems like a great idea for at least a few minutes but that you never get around to crafting and publishing as a fully realized piece on The Main Stage. Maybe you’re better at following through than I am. This is the case with my rock ponderings in these hallowed halls.
In The Back Office I have a number of thread ideas mapped out – or titles for future threads, if nothing else, saved and waiting for that day I get down to business and flesh out what I once envisioned would be a great topic. It’s not unusual that I eventually complete these ideas, maybe after drinking a late-night cup of espresso or seeing off some friends with whom I’d spent an evening reviewing my ideas. These are satisfying times; I feel like a real writer. Other times the very rough topic just sits there, eventually forgotten. I’m an optimistic guy when it comes to getting around to all the things I procrastinate doing, but sometimes it’s best to face up to my limitations and let some of my rough thoughts float away.
So that I don’t completely waste what might have been some decent ideas, following are topics that I have sat on for the past 2 years. Consider these threads I can no longer expect to ever complete in 2009. Maybe posting these “lost” topics here will inspire others to pick up where I left off. Maybe doing this will simply give these topics their proper burial place. By letting go of these topics before they clutter up The Back Office filing cabinets any longer, I envision a clearing of my own mind and the coming of new ideas, the kinds of threads that really need to be written. I sense I will experience a Sting-like feeling of contentment and self-satisfaction. Here goes!
Dec 212009
