Alby's Latest Posts
Song of the Day 2/24: John Prine, “Humidity Built the Snowman”
It’s been just over a year since John Prine’s last concert, at Cafe de la Danse in Paris, one my wife was lucky enough to attend. This tune was on the set list, as it often was since its release on his 1995 LP “Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings,” an album full of songs about […]
About 95% of What the News “Reports” Is Bullshit
This isn’t an earth-shattering conclusion, but it’s still galling to read — or, actually, skip over after reading the headline — most of what shows up in print media or online (TV news, except for the occasional documentary, is an entirely lost cause). It’s not just the constant games of “let’s you and him fight,” […]
Song of the Day 2/22: David Bowie, “Life on Mars?”
Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, landed on the Red Planet last week, and today the space agency unveiled video of its descent from the lander itself. It’s looking, of course, for life on Mars. Bowie included the song, featuring Rick Wakeman on piano and a string arrangement by guitarist Mick Ronson, on his 1971 “Hunky […]
Song of the Day 2/21: The Go-Go’s, “Vacation”
In one sense I can sympathize with Ted Cruz — who doesn’t want a vacation from the cold and snow? Cruz is such a wuss he vamoosed after a cold couple of days. Northerners have put up with it for weeks now. The Go-Go’s released this title song in 1982 as the first single from […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Feb. 21, 2021
Erik Prince, the mercenary billionaire who’s high on the list of Republicans who should swing from the gallows, has violated the UN’s arms embargo on Libya by procuring $80 million worth of weapons, drones and mercenaries to a Libyan warlord seeking to overthrow the government. Republicans are such fucking hypocrites. Reagan talked of a shining […]
Song of the Day 2/19: The Bangles, “Hazy Shade of Winter”
The Bangles had been playing this Paul Simon composition in concert for several years when they were approached about contributing a song to the “Less Than Zero” soundtrack (which doesn’t contain Elvis Costello’s “Less Than Zero,” maybe because that’s who author Bret Easton Ellis stole the title from). Under Rick Rubin’s production, the song reached […]
Song of the Day 2/18: James Taylor, “Mexico”
Sorry for all the James Taylor lately — I’ve been suffering from insomnia — but the chance to belittle Ted Cruz was just too strong to pass up. Cruz is coming home from his “long-planned family vacation” amid an avalanche of criticism, which stands to get worse once more people find out he was staying […]
DL Open Thread Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021
The Delaware GOP, like state Republican parties across the land, has turned itself over to the dimmest among them. While Witless Lauren Witzke — motto: “Cracked? Oh, I though you said crack” — pokes the peckerwoods on Twitter, Dave Lawson performs his Louie Gohmert act for the Joint Finance Committee. Given the News Journal’s abdication […]
Song of the Day 2/17: The Eagles, “Love Will Keep Us Alive”
Gee, sure is cold in Texas. Just goes to show that, on occasion, hell freezes over. That was the name of the 1994 reunion tour on which introduced this tune, with lead vocal by bassist Timothy B. Schmit. The ultimate SoCal soft rockers had disbanded in 1980, and didn’t have much new material for the […]
Song of the Day 2/15: Space Cadet, “Bad Luck”
With apologies to El Som, I actually hear other new music once in a while, though not nearly so much as he does because I’m so technologically inept. I’m so old-school I actually heard this song thanks to my email — I always had my work inbox routed to my personal one so I could […]
Song of the Day 2/14: 10cc, “I’m Not in Love”
Something special for Valentine’s Day: A song Eric Stewart wrote because his wife complained that he rarely told her he loved her.”I had this crazy idea in my mind that repeating those words would somehow degrade the meaning,” Stewart said, “so I told her, ‘Well, if I say every day “I love you, darling, I […]
DL Open Thread Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021
Quote of the Day: You can lead a Republican to objective reality, but you can’t make him pull his head out of Donald Trump’s ass. Trump was acquitted by the Senate, demonstrating yet again that the Republican Party is a collection of greed-damaged shit-maggots. That they would do so in the face of Trump’s attempts […]
Song of the Day 2/13: Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, “You Can Close Your Eyes”
The Senate Republican caucus could adopt this as a theme song, but their voices wouldn’t — ahem — do it justice. James Taylor’s wrote this bittersweet lullaby for his then-girlfriend Joni Mitchell. He was in New Mexico in 1970 filming a movie, Two-Lane Blacktop, about drag racers taking on challengers across the country (Taylor played […]
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