Curio Curio

I think I was vaguely aware that this existed, but never saw or heard it until today.

Please enjoy the Attractions without Elvis Costello on their own album released in all its glory in 1980.

Retune, Rethink, Refocus

Happy New Year.

Moms Demand Action

Speaking of Jackson Browne, here's a little piece I did from the Moms Demand Action rally commemorating the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings. With part of a new Jackson Browne song about gun violence.

If The Union Don't Mind

From the BBC, 1978:

Three O'Clock And I'm Alone Again

Amazon gave me a free month of Amazon Prime and I've been watching tons of movies they have available to stream for free.

One of them was ROADIE (the 2011 movie starring Ron Eldard, not the 2012 short with Jack Black and Kyle Gass or the 1980 movie with Meat Loaf):



The movie itself is all over the place, but there are at least two fantastic performances in it (Eldard and Bobby Cannavale) and it's definitely worth watching if you've got the time.

There's a scene in the movie where Eldard (fired after more than two decades as a roadie for Blue Oyster Cult) and his High School girlfriend (now married to the guy who bullied Eldard in High School) listen to what at first seemed like a fantastic pastiche of pretentious blue-eyed soul.

Imagine my surprise to learn that the band Eldard was obsessed with was a real band, the Good Rats. And they were exactly the kind of band I might have been obsessed with when I was growing up - a woulda/coulda/shoulda been stars band from Long Island who never gave up their dream.

The song from the movie is far from flawless (but that just enhances its appeal in my opinion), but it drips heartache and yearning all through the performance. From 1976's Rat City in Blue, please enjoy the Good Rats (featuring the late, great Peppi Marchello):

Four Christmas Songs I Never Get Tired Of

Ring those sleigh bells one more time

Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)"

And these three:
Kinks "Father Christmas"


John Lennon "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)"


The Three Wise Men (aka XTC) "Thanks for Christmas"

Darlene Love is a National Treasure

That is all.