I HATE commercials. The main reason is the music and the actors. Since I don’t watch TV, I see commercials only on the Internet. They drive me crazy. For whatever reason advertising companies use ukulele music or jinga-jinga-jinga acoustic guitar music or tinkly piano kindergarten music or smarmy Wal-Mart slop. And the actors are always…
Who is the audience?
May 7, 2023
Alanis Morissette has recorded “Today” for independent congressional candidate Marianne Williamson. Who is the audience? Have you ever heard more loathsome tripe in your life? It’s fitting, since Williamson is a cheesy self-help entrepreneur who knows nothing about politics. Given that she’s not a politician, this isn’t a political post. It’s a post about rampant…
My second interview since 2002
May 6, 2023
Here’s my second interview since 2002. It’s with bassist Joe Burcaw. We have a lot in common, and we would likely disagree on nearly everything if we got into it politically and socially. But why would I do that to Joe? I like his playing. That’s all that matters. There was one question that I…
A squall
April 24, 2024
I had a very strange experience last night: a squall of uncontrollable emotion. It shows that things are always in flux. I guess I’ve buried some aspects of my life instead of accepting and incorporating them. The work must continue. After I take my nightly meds, I watch YouTube videos for a while, until I’m…
Talking points for Ghosts and Ballyhoo
April 22, 2024
Since I’ve accepted that Ghosts and Ballyhoo can no longer be professionally marketed, I may as well explain what I did to try and publicize it. The overwhelming majority of radio hosts don’t read the books that their guests have written. I had to prepare talking points so that they could fake it. Mike Albee…
For Tony
April 20, 2024
This post is for Tony. It’s part of the chapter titled “Lessons Learned,” from Ghosts and Ballyhoo. Things Just Might Turn Out All Right When I was sixteen, I died. It was an attack of irregular heartbeat, the primary cause of death from cardiac arrest. Medications have kept my episodes under control since 2007, except…
A sign that the apocalypse is imminent
April 15, 2024
We are doomed. The world is about to end. How do I know that the apocalypse is imminent? Because after fifty years, there’s finally a good Japanese pop band. It’s called Tricot, pronouced “tree-ko.” Our destruction won’t be pretty. Tricot may be over before it really begins. Although most English-speaking press say that it’s an…
The men behind the masks
April 12, 2024
The band Kiss was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10, 2014. Here are the men behind the masks, holding their awards. From the left, they are Paul Stanley (guitar, vocals), Ace Frehley (guitar), Peter Criss (drums), and Gene Simmons (bass, vocals). This was the first time the original lineup…
A tour of hell
March 31, 2024
Ever since I was a child, I dreamed of going to hell. I never saw flames and demons. Instead, my hell was full of unreachable, loud people; inexplicable machinery; winding corridors; and a sense of powerlessness, purposelessness, and hopelessness. Today I saw a video that someone made during his tour of hell. Before I post…
The theft ring strikes again
March 24, 2024
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a theft ring in the United States Postal Service. It’s based in New York. The American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, negotiated rules that when mail from a foreign country goes missing, American postal inspectors can’t look for it. Instead, the country from which the mail originated has to investigate. The…