Category Archives: arts

Music to haunt you on Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

There are at least three varieties of scary songs — novelty numbers, done for laughs; songs that have dark lyrics but aren’t all that scary; and songs (“compositions” is a better word) that actually sound scary and give you the … Continue reading →

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Back in the saddle. Bike thief still at large.

Posted on October 30, 2011 by oddmanout215

I forgot to mention weeks ago that I finally found an affordable used bicycle to replace my Iron Horse, the theft of which left me in a funk not unlike Jimmy Stewart’s in Vertigo after he failed to save his … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, bicycling, humor, movies, The New Depression | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Ain’t nothin’ I wouldn’t do, sugar…

Posted on October 22, 2011 by oddmanout215

The perfect Saturday night song if you’re looking to sit at a bar and drown your lust for someone, or to start a fight if you can’t drink enough to drown it. I don’t sit at bars anymore, but I … Continue reading →

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Don’t judge me by my shoes…

Posted on October 16, 2011 by oddmanout215

The Band was peaking as a creative force when “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)” appeared on their second album. The song’s subject is a rural victim of the Great Depression who joins a labor union to avoid starvation. His plight … Continue reading →

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As sure as the sun will shine…

Posted on October 14, 2011 by oddmanout215

This was ripped right from the movie, I think. It simmers. Great rhythm section. The whole band is the rhythm section. Check out the sinister bosses sizing up Cliff’s commercial potential.

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Nicos Gun, laughing at tornadoes

Posted on October 12, 2011 by oddmanout215

From Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test: Coming up over the Blue Ridge Mountains, everybody was stoned on acid, Cassady included, and it was at that moment that he decided to make it down the steepest, awfulest windingest mountain … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Do you know a gal, or guy, like Nicole?

Posted on October 8, 2011 by oddmanout215

I was re-reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night (1934) and ran across this masterful description of the great divide between rich and poor, in the 1920s and now: … She bought a dozen bathing suits, a rubber alligator, … Continue reading →

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Fiction reading Wed. at Rutgers-Camden

Posted on October 3, 2011 by oddmanout215

7 pm Wednesday, Oct. 5 Walt Whitman Arts Center, 2nd Floor 101 Cooper St. Camden, NJ David McKenna, a.k.a. Odd Man Out, will read “Chokepoint,” from Idiot Lights, his collection of thematically related short stories set in Atlantic City and … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, Camden, fiction, NJ, Philadelphia | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

‘You’re way wrong… I read Erica Jong’

Posted on September 30, 2011 by oddmanout215

Whither the zipless fuck? I’ll back up… One thing you can count on these days is the bizarre ubiquity of Facebook, which is always “on” and always ready to introduce you to new friends — or, more accurately, to friends … Continue reading →

Posted in arts, fiction, humor, mainstream media, movies, Politics, The New Depression, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Adios, summer girl. Or is it ‘sun-eyed’ girl?

Posted on September 22, 2011 by oddmanout215

Summer’s gone and good riddance, I’d rather any weather than a heat wave in Philly. But I still like the idea of summer, which I associate with old memories of hitchhiking, seashore towns, and chasing girls who enjoyed being caught. … Continue reading →

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