A reader squeals: FINALLY one I recognize at first glance! I can’t pinpoint the exact location (Google Street View is limited in the marshy/industrial areas by the Bay), but I could drive there on my way home from work. The yellow building is San Quentin Prison. Another is thinking Reyjavik, while this one looks to mainland Europe: Reminded me … Continue reading The View From Your Window Contest: Winner #228
The submissions keep pouring in: Manfred Mann’s “Blinded by the Light.” Very few people actually realize this song was originally written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen. Manfred‘s version is dramatically different: Another: I would like to nominate The Beatles cover of “Twist and Shout”, which was originally recorded by the Top Notes in 1961 and the … Continue reading Best Cover Song Ever?
Jillian Mapes reflects on the musical taste she inherited from her father: These days, there’s a phrase for the classic rock my Baby Boomer father raised me on: Dad Rock. Some say Dad Rockers are forever stuck in 1976 or 1985 or even 1994, when the music was real, man. Prominent in Urban Dictionary’s most up-voted definition of Dad … Continue reading Pop Rocks
A reader writes: This looks to me like a view of the Alexandra Bridge that connects Ottawa, Ontario with Gatineau (Hull), Québec, taken on the Gatineau side (call it 2km NE of Parliament Hill). I used to ride my bike along the Ottawa River, on both the Ontario and Québec sides, and this looks familiar, … Continue reading The View From Your Window Contest: Winner #206
A reader doesn’t quite buy the notion that cognitive performance peaks in one’s mid-20s: Yeah, bite me. Gabriel Garcia Marquez was 40 when he published his most popular and most seminal work, One Hundred Years of Solitude. You hear that? One hundred years. What, are the next 76 going to be in spent in obsolescence? His characters … Continue reading Over The Hill At 24, Ctd
Spurred by the use of Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” in the Breaking Bad finale, Ben Greenman explores the increasingly sophisticated use of pop music in TV shows: Pop music has been a valuable part of film for years, but television, as a result of smaller budgets and the repetitious nature of a series mentality, tended to make its … Continue reading Tuning Up Television
Louis C.K.’s existential rant against smartphones went crazy viral this week: Derek Beres applauds: Louis C.K.’s observations caused laughter, but a specific kind: the acknowledgement that yes, he’s right, that is how it begins and ends for all of us. Avoiding the fact harms us more than it does us good. … Today there is no more … Continue reading Embracing The Ability To Just Sit There
by Brendan James E.J. Dickson worries that Springsteen’s music, unappreciated by millennials, won’t survive longer after his death: [H]ere’s the thing about Bruce’s fan base: It may be huge, and it may be rabidly loyal, but it is old. Like, Peter, Paul and Mary fan old, to the point where David Brooks, in a recent … Continue reading When Dinosaur Rockers Go Extinct
Move over, Lydia Callis – meet Holly Maniatty, whose signing of the Wu-Tang Clan’s Bonnaroo show is burning up the Internets: [Besides] memorizing their lyrics and watching past shows … [h]er prep work also includes researching dialectal signs to ensure accuracy and authenticity. An Atlanta rapper will use different slang than a Queens one, and ASL speakers … Continue reading America’s New Favorite ASL Interpreter
Larry McMurtry reviews a book written by the legendary folk singer: House of Earth was completed in 1947 but discovered only recently. It is a novel about farming; there aren’t many such. The one great one, Edith Summers Kelley’s Weeds, was reprinted not long ago by the persistent professor Matthew J. Bruccoli, who was given it by … Continue reading Woody Guthrie, Novelist
