The biggest of the music awards shows was yesterday. I didn’t watch it. It used to be exciting knowing my band was up for an award, but it’s gotten to be too much, so we’ve lost interest. Kermit the Band won its first award in 2008. We actually won two of them, but it was for the…
Have you ever heard a song where they set up an obvious rhyme and then don’t deliver on it? The most famous example I can think of is the song “In Summer” from the movie Frozen. Olaf sings, “Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle/But put me in summer and I’ll be a…
On New Year’s Eve, my brother and I went over my parents’ house. Not being college football fans, we decided to watch a movie. (Although, we did see the end of the Ohio/Georgia game and it was really exciting.) We had some trouble picking a movie. We had seen everything we were really interested in,…
My kid is at a friend’s house, so I spent the afternoon listening to records. I listened to The Rolling Stones’ 12″ single of “Miss You” b/w “Far Away Eyes”, ? and the Mysterians’ single of “96 Tears” b/w “Midnight Hour”, Warren Haynes’ “Tales of Ordinary Madness”, Dr. John’s “Things Happen that Way”, Mavis Staples’…
I just got home from band practice. I play bass in Kermit the Band. My brother plays guitar, and two friends are on drums and vocals. I used to play the French Horn. I played that in everything from a trio to a 70-piece orchestra. So, I’ve been playing music for a long time. I’m…
About three weeks ago, my brother got me a used vinyl copy of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes. It’s the original 1970 pressing and in really good shape for something more than fifty years old. I was in the middle of my Christmas music binge, so I just listened…
Anyone who knows me probably knows that I love live music. Going to concerts might be my favorite thing to do. And I have to say, it just hits differently when your kid is the one performing. A middle school orchestra sounds as good as any world class symphony. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but school…
I saw The Nutcracker this afternoon. It was my first time seeing a professional ballet company perform it. Plus, my kid was in it as a member of the mice regiment. The mice regiment was, of course, the highlight, but instead of bragging about my kid, I wanted to give some thoughts on the ballet…
I’ve read a bunch of retrospectives about Deep Space Nine over the last couple of years. They agree that it’s the best of the Star Trek series, and have various reasons why it’s superior. They usually point to either the grittier tone, the use of serialization, or the Dominion War as the main reason for…
This year was going to be different. Every year I promised to participate in National Novel Writing Month, and every year November slipped by with me barely putting any words down on paper. Not this year though. I had my story idea, my outline and notes. I even had a whole Chrome window dedicated only…
