Why It Matters

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  • Happy Birthday, Wimbot

    Today marks the second anniversary of Why It Matters.  Last year was a busy one.  Here’s what happened, and also what’s coming up:

  • 104. You’re A Daisy If You Do

    Fifth period, study hall.  I’m not sure who came up with the idea for a study hall, but I have a couple of thoughts.  The first is some well-meaning educator intent on not overburdening kids with inordinate amounts of homework.  Can’t we give these kids just a little time each day to get their heads…

  • From the Stacks: Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart

    Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart is a 1976 album from two of The Monkees and the writing partners who for all intents and purposes were The Monkees, at least at first.

  • The (Kind Of) Complete Woodstock: John Sebastian

    Woodstock wasn’t the best organized event, to say the least.  Woe unto the poor musician who found himself standing around backstage during a lull.  That’s how Richie Havens came to open the festival, and how Country Joe McDonald ended up playing a solo acoustic set. And it’s why former Lovin’ Spoonful John Sebastian had to…

  • From the Stacks: Hot Damn! – Big Fat Lover

    There are album covers that are so bad that they are good,  and then there are those that are so good that they are bad.  And then there are those that try to be so bad that they are good, but just end up being really bad.

  • Why It Matters To Jon Butcher (Plus A Big Announcement)

    Jon Butcher and I go way back; well, okay — Jon Butcher’s music and I go way back.  When Along the Axis came out in 1985 I played the hell out of it both at home and in the record store.   Any Guy In Black Tee Shirt Who Jammed who came within a hundred feet…

  • You’re A Bluebird On A Telegraph Line

    I like social media, but sweet Berners-Lee, people, the things you post.  The other day I stumbled upon a message that led to the discovery that one of my childhood sweethearts committed suicide days before. Without social media tools I may never have learned this.  On the other hand, maybe somebody would have picked up…

  • Deep Cuts: Eighties One Hit Wonders

    Every decade has its one-hit wonders.  I just happened to be the right age to be aware of those acts who hit the top forty during the eighties, never to climb those lofty, payola-ridden heights again. Keep in mind that just because an act was a “one hit wonder” doesn’t mean that they were otherwise…

  • Todd Rundgren and Ethel Workshop, 11/3/2012

    My boy suffered his first loss recently,  a friend who simply didn’t wake up one morning.  That’s the way to do it, but not a week shy of your sixteenth birthday.

  • 103. Take Me By the Hand This Is All I Can Offer You

    You probably know Modern English as the “I’ll Melt With You Guys,” which makes sense.  That is one of the most iconic songs of the eighties, a decade littered with tasty one hit wonders.  Also, Rockwell.