It was another beautiful Spring day in Chicago, and the song on the next page has been running through my head all day. From XTC’s Skylarking, this is a little tune about the seasonal changes and who’s behind it all. (It’s also a display of Andy Partridge’s wordsmithing, in his ability to rhyme “umbilical” and …
Pączki Day
If you’ll remember last year’s posting about Pączkis… well, today being Fat Tuesday, Glenn did it again. I had a dozen of these things sitting in my cube at about 9:00 am, and it’s now about 3:00 pm and there are three and half left (yeah, a half…). I only had one today, so I …
Yes, Everywhere It’s Christmas
Everywhere it’s Christmas, Everywhere it’s song London, Paris, Rome, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong Oh, Everywhere it’s Christmas, and I’m off to join the cheer! Everywhere it’s Christmas at the end of every year! Oh, Everywhere it’s Christmas at the end of every year! That little bit from the Beatles’ 1966 Christmas record, “Pantomime,” keeps …
Satan’s iPod V: Holiday Edition
This is a tough blog entry to write because I could go on for days about Christmas songs that belong on The Dark One’s player. I’ll try to restrain myself, though. The other day, we were at Pottery Barn and were subjected to the most God-awful rendition of holiday “music” I’ve ever heard. Some idiot …
…As Long As Their Soda Cans Are Red White and Blue Ones
Our governor is talking about allowing soft drink companies to bid for the title “Official Beverage of Illinois.” Here’s an article about it. This seems an astonishingly stupid idea on a number of levels. Both Coca-Cola and Pepsi have huge bottling operations headquartered here, and this seems like a good way to give one of …
Continue reading …As Long As Their Soda Cans Are Red White and Blue Ones
I’d Like Some Kaffi Tunnulik
Suppose you’re wandering around Greenland and you get a hankering for some really good Chinese food. Well, you no longer have to dream about the place around the corner back home: you can just mosey over to the Misigisaq Restaurant. The menu is interesting, and as far as appetizers go I’m torn between the
C30 C60 C90 Go
A couple weeks ago, I was listening to Bow Wow Wow’s “C30 C60 C90 Go” and realized how appropriate the song is today, 20-some years after its release. It’s a tribute to portable cassette players and the beauty of being able to record what you want and carry it with you. The song also promotes …
A New Day For You
A Basia song that helped me get through a really tough time in my life. This one’s a shout-out…
Waiting For The Blessed Dark
As I mentioned in Sunday’s blog entry, the soundtrack in my head covered a lot of territory while I was riding my bike through the woods. At one point, I thought of XTC’s brilliant Skylarking, because that album was practically glued inside my Walkman during the summer of 1987. It is, as the band’s Andy …
Poppies
As we approach Memorial Day, veterans all over the country will be accepting donations and distributing poppies in honor of the people we’ve lost in war. This effort seems much more poignant these days. The significance of the poppy and its relation to veterans goes back to World War I. During the conflict, there were …