Hi everyone. Thanks for the emails checking in to see if I’m still alive and blogging. All is well, just very busy, especially now that a band is back in the picture. I had good intentions to write tonight, but got derailed for about four hours by server and WordPress upgrade problems. Pretty good times. [...]
Tagged catching upBack in December, I asked for name suggestions for my new band. Many of ideas were already taken, including Lazy Diamonds, Free Radicals, and even, as a commenter noted, Four Dead In Ohio (and c’mon, folks, I work about 1/10 mile from where it happened — do you really think that would work?). Some were [...]
Tagged Akron, music, Musica, The Marble ChampsThe following was inspired by a question that is going around Facebook. I thought it was worth sharing here as well. This is an interesting question: choose not necessarily your favorite records, but the ones that changed your life. For me, it’s a question with two parts, as some records have affected me as a [...]
Tagged Facebook, jazz, music that matters, rock & rollAll the people gather Fly to carry each his burden We are young despite the years We are concern We are hope despite the times All of the sudden, these days Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever you go. – REM, “These Days” (Flickr slideshow here. Make sure you turn on “show info” for [...]
Tagged hope, inauguration, ObamaThanks to all of you who checked in during these past couple weeks of radio silence. Everything is fine. Generally, when I don’t post for a while, it means that I’m overly busy and/or just don’t have anything to say. There’s enough noise in the world, and I don’t believe in posting just for the [...]
Tagged Bono, Joseph Arthur, local blogs, my music, RED, Ritt Deitz, The QubesFly to carry each his burden We are young despite the years We are concern — we are hope despite the times All of the sudden, these days Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever you go. — “These Days,” REM In the five-plus years that I’ve written this blog, there have been a handful [...]
Tagged election 2008, Obama, unbridled joyThree years ago, Citybeat music editor, Mike Breen, asked me to kick off a series of short columns for the paper. The series, titled “Under The Influence,” featured local musicians writing about “the record that changed my life.” Here’s what I wrote: The Sex Pistols — Never Mind The Bollocks … Here’s The Sex Pistols [...]
Tagged Akron, Chrissie Hynde, David Byrne, Devo, Mark Bennison, music, new wave, Newport, punk, rock & rollI received some very cool news yesterday that I wanted to pass on. A movie group called The Franklin Gang is releasing a a new documentary called “Bleeding Ohio” about Ohio being a battleground state in the 2004 election. The director saw my band, Pike 27, play at the “Sound Off For Kerry” benefit at [...]
Tagged Bleeding Ohio, music, personal, Pike 27, politics[Note to my CityBeat pals: this would make a great cover story. Most locals have never heard of the program, let alone realize that it's based in Cincinnati.] We tend to associate poor parts of the world with diseases like AIDS and tuberculosis. Less often, do we think about seemingly more ordinary things like vision. [...]
Tagged Amy, Gift of Sight, good works, Guatemala