I could go a lot of different directions here, but I decided to be straight-up about my self-interest. I’d like to hear Fiction 8‘s “Hegemony” on the radio, partly because I just love the song, partly because I’m good friends with front man Mike Smith, and oh yeah, partly because I co-wrote it. (More on that process here and here.)
Read moreOkay, I’m afraid I have to punt on this one. Fact is, I never listen to music radio anymore. Never. There’s just no point. Once upon a time, if you wanted to get your ears on the latest, coolest tuneage, you turned on the radio. Now, if you want to get your ears on the latest, coolest tuneage, radio is
Read moreThis is the toughest task yet in the challenge. There are plenty of songs I used to love that I don’t listen to much anymore. There are songs that I tolerated once but my patience has now run out on. But all the way from love to hate – that’s hard because with me love is earned for good reason
Read moreI’m afraid to think about this one, honestly. I know for a fact that I’m complex and contradictory as hell, and it would be asking a lot to come up with a thousand songs that manage to describe me. Further, I know from experience that others see me in ways I often can’t begin to recognize, which only adds to
Read moreAs noted elsewhere, I’m something of a music freak. Thousands of CDs. And I write about it, occasionally with a degree of seriousness. Being a cultural studies scholar (yes, I’ve presented papers on popular music at actual academic conferences), I have to admit that I’ve never fully understood people who don’t care about music as a dynamic artistic force the
Read moreI probably ought to invoke my 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. But nobody made me take on the challenge, did they? So today, instead of one song that’s a guilty pleasure, let’s just go for three strikes and you’re out. If I had to pick just one, I’d start with this, which has to be about the dumbest and most
Read moreWere he alive today, Al Capone would probably be a member in good standing of the US House of Representatives, representing the Great State of Illinois. We’ve all read about Capone, of course, and we know that back in the day thugs and gangsters fought the law. And the law won. These days, however, the brighter minds among the criminal
Read moreI talk a lot about generational dynamics and have been known to criticize the collective shortcomings of the Boomers and Millennials. I’ve also allowed that my generation (X) has some failings of its own, and one of them is that our cynicism can get the best of us. In fact, sometimes it almost seems to define us. As much as
Read moreI know that there’s no such thing as a band that everybody likes, and I’m fine with the idea that some people can’t stand my favorite band, U2. I don’t always understand the objections, but so what. I am puzzled when people flat-out misunderstand fairly obvious poses, like Bono’s Macphisto or The Fly characters, which were explicit Pop Star parodies
Read moreI take it that I’m unusual in at least one respect – most people I know seem to like it quiet when they go to bed, but I have always preferred to drift off to music. There are a number of CDs that I like, including things like Andreas Vollenweider’s Down to the Moon and Irish Heartbeat by Van Morrison
Read moreAre you kidding me? I got so much rhythm coursing up and down my sexy body I can dance to the sound of a light breeze rustling through tall grass. So let’s let all y’all play. Here’s one of the greatest dance songs in history. If you can’t move to “Party Train” somebody better call 911, because you might be
Read moreLast night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game doesn’t get a recap. It gets a post-mortem. I won’t mince words – it was the worst championship game I can recall seeing in my lifetime. Hell, it was one of the worst college basketball games I’ve ever seen, period. That may be because when games get this bad you turn them off.
Read moreHell, I know all the words to lots of songs. So let’s pick something fun. Ah – this’ll do (I said excuse me):
Read moreI think we’d all love to live every phase of our lives in happy accord with high moral and ethical principles. We’d love it if we were never confronted by logical contradictions and cognitive dissonance, by cases where our walk was at odds with our talk. But the truth is that we live in a society that’s complex, at best,
Read moreVerily, it was one of the best days of my entire college career. It was near the end of spring semester of my senior year. That evening my fraternity (Theta Chi, Gamma Omicron chapter) was having its annual Go to Hell Party, which was our big pre-finals blowout. As it happened, the finals of the campus intramural softball tournament were
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