Once upon a time, people used to make mix CDs. One of those people was a friend of mine, Aaron Caplan, and he started what he called a Burning Circle. It was a simple and delightful concept. 12 people. Each month, one of the 12 would make a mix CD, burn 11 extra copies of […]
Make your own holidays
I don’t know if I could articulate clearly what a “normal” way of using Facebook is — if only because there is probably more than just one — but I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t match up very well with my own uses of the platform. I don’t spend a lot of time on the […]
Video of the week
…or, perhaps, the year. Even if it’s evidently been online for more than a decade. Somehow, though, this did not cross my path until this past week. A Japanese orchestra playing German music with a boogie woogie beat on Russian instruments (embedded in Russian nesting dolls, no less)? I have sooooo many questions. But also: […]
You Can Look
As I promised (threatened?) last week, I’m going to start sharing a range of “lost”/ephemeral presentations here on an occasional basis. I don’t plan on making any revisions to the texts themselves (a bit of format-cleaning and typo-fixing notwithstanding) — and this also means that there will be citational shortcomings, since I have always edited […]
Reminds Me of Somethin’
So I did a thing tonight as part of this thing. And though I know no one came to see me, when the real stars of the show were Shelby J and Dr. Fink, several people said kind words to me after about my talk. So I figured I’d share it here, with a few […]
Name that status: The rules [Rerun Sunday]
If you’re my Facebook friend, you have probably noticed that I don’t use some of the site’s main features in the way that they were intended to be used. And while it’s been a while since I’ve toyed with Facebook’s check-ins, for several years I’ve held pretty steady to my routine of using my status […]
Accidental haiku of the day [Rerun Sunday]
Mother– “Shut yo’ mouth!” But I’m talkin’ about Shaft! “Well, we can dig it.” You can find a brief explanation of “Rerun Sunday” here. The post above originally appeared on 4 January 2012.
60 ’65 45s [Rerun Sunday]
A fella only turns 45 once (time travel and reincarnation notwithstanding). And, being the pop music geek that I am, I decided to honor the occasion by making a couple of suitably themed mix CDs to give away as door prizes (first 45 celebrants only!) at today’s birthday bashes. And, just to make folks who […]
None of us are free
I made this mix CD almost a decade ago. The two most recent tracks on it (the first and the last, as it turns out) are from 2002. None of the others are more recent than 1989. The oldest track turned 75 earlier this year. These days, however, the whole mix feels far, far too […]
Last week’s link
You’ve definitely been cheated. Not only did I skip “Last week’s links” last week, but this week, I’m only giving you one new link. But, oh, what a link! I could play with this beautiful little toy for hours on end. “Long as she got a dime, the music will never stop…” And now you […]