On the Last Rock Star

On a hot August evening, the sun was setting over Barricata beach out on the Po Delta. The beach bar was deserted and the lifeguard-cum-barman started up his tractor and began to pick up the sunbeds. To do his work he put on the sound system and turned it up, loud. Sandwiched between the usual …

Evergreen

Note, October 2, 2024: With the news of Tim Ruth’s untimely passing I am re-posting this and posting the Weston and Steve Good demos to a YouTube channel. Previous note still stands. Feel free to check out my other post on Evergreen or leave a comment. Rest in peace, Tim.  Note: Those interested in any …

Thanksgiving Day post

You may be thinking of Ben Franklin as you dig into your turkey.  Recall — as a graffito artist in my neighborhood apparently has — that the founding father also noted, as many a revolutionary did, that “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” …

Weekly digest: more Berlusca, the seriousness of ‘bunga-bunga’, more rain, and more Republicans

It’s been awhile and no updates. Yet, in the US we’ve had the midterms, which happened pretty much as predicted, and here in Italy Berlusconi again dominates the headlines with another sex scandal. At this point I’m so fatigued by his scandals that I’m withholding comment until I figure out just how much of a …

Superheroes

To conclude all this southeastern Europe-focused posting on a positive note, I strongly urge all fans of energetic guitar-based music to check out Belgrade’s excellent Stuttgart Online and to buy their infectious album Radost Svakom Domaćinstvu. They definitely capture the dada-street art sound of late seventies Belgrade as immortalized on the anthology Paket Aranzman — …