Category Archives: pop music

‘Island of Sirens’


December is a tough time to live in a swamp. The trees are bare and the clouds so low you can almost jump up and touch them. You need music to stop the highway noise. Today I put on “Island … Continue reading

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‘I’m Waiting for the Man’


I’m waiting for my man/Twenty-six dollars in my hand… — Velvet Underground “Twenty-six dollars!” Swamp Rabbit yelled. “That’ll git ya one Oxy from the ice cream man on Staten Island. Maybe two mixed drinks at Death & Co.” He was … Continue reading

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Walter White says bye-bye, ‘Baby Blue’


Walter White to his long-suffering wife Skyler in their final scene together: “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.” Breaking Bad was an unusually good TV show … Continue reading

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Ding dong! Maggie’s dirty deeds live on


From a 2004 column in Daily Mail on what happened to the working class in Britain after Margaret Thatcher’s successful crusade to kill the miners’ union: … What the [coal miners’] strike represented to us was a set of values … Continue reading

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When life feels like ‘Groundhog Day’


I was biking through a school-free drug zone, on my way to a temp job, cultivating bad habits. Not overtly bad habits — Marlboros and meth, and so on — but rather those drab little habits meant to ensure the … Continue reading

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‘The Next Day’ a surprise gift to Bowie fans


David Bowie’s low visibility in recent years led to rumors he might be dying, or simply too bored to record again. At some point, he got over his ennui, if that’s what it was, and began working on The Next … Continue reading

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On the links (Obama and Big Oil)


It will be interesting to see how Rachel Maddow and her liberal-lite colleagues at MSNBC spin the story if Barach Obama ends up backing the Keystone XL Pipeline. They speak no evil of the chief, ever. From Common Dreams: So … Continue reading

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Sun flurries and sportswear in South Philly


On Sunday there were sun flurries. Very pretty, swirling on the parking lot under a semi-clear sky, but only for a few minutes. I was working outside a big-box store that sells sportswear. Ball caps bearing team logos, shiny clown … Continue reading

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Boyz II Men to make sexy time in Russia


Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing his fellow citizens: “I have beeg announcement. American sexy band Boys II Men come to Moscow this week. Show love, comrades.” OK, Putin didn’t exactly say that, but the Grammy-winning R&B band really is flying … Continue reading

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Happy First Day After the Solstice!


Some people work very hard, But still they never get it right. Well I’m beginning to see the light. Dec. 21 was the winter solstice, the shortest and dreariest day. The world seemed a dark, pitiless place where you couldn’t … Continue reading

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