Why It Matters

Blog

wimwords.com/

Profile

wimwords.com/author/jostafford

Homepage

jamesostafford.com

  • 89. Radio’s On and I’m Moving ‘Round the Place

    Summer 1984 saw the release of Bruce Springsteen’s Born In the U.S.A.  My buddy and Camelot Music coworker Alex was so excited that he bought his copy down the mall at Record Bar because they received their shipment two hours before we did.  He spent the next year (and the next thirty for all I…

  • The Who Brings Quadrophenia Tour To North America

    Regular readers, friends, and neighbors with thin windows know all too well my fondness for The Who.  I’m just a couple of years too young to have seen them when Moon the Loon was still alive, but I did manage to see them before Entwistle went out in majestic rock star fashion. But this is…

  • From The Stacks: Ariel – Starbody EP

    I picked this up for a buck at a local record store figuring that it would be a fine edition to the Controversial Album Cover Gallery.  Surely an album cover featuring manga characters twisted into various activities must have rated a complaint or two, right?

  • The Rise of the Planet of the Lemeloes

    Politics and observational bitching aren’t my wheelhouses.  There are plenty of places out there for you to read that stuff, so I stick to music and true tales of puking strawberry daquiri into my neighbor’s bushes circa 1979.  There’s enough snarkiness on the intergooglewebtubes without me piling on. But recently I attended a family reunion…

  • Deep Cuts: Songs For Fresh Starts

    Perhaps the single most powerful tool we each have in our tool boxes is that great big hammer we use to knock down our house of cards and start over again.  (Note:  A swipe with the back of the hand works just as well but isn’t as fun.) Whether it’s a hairstyle, wardrobe, job, career,…

  • 88. Oh I Have Been Out Searching With the Black Book In My Hand

    Lee G. and I sat on my bedroom floor doodling while we listened to The Alarm’s Declaration.  I bought the album because when I saw Nigel Twist on the cover with his fucked up mouth and his Yoko sunglasses I thought that maybe — maybe — he was Ace Frehley unmasked. (I’ve spent two minutes…

  • From The Stacks: The American Song-Poem Anthology

    Song-poems were a hustle back in the sixties and seventies that still persists in the form of various publishing scams.  Here’s how they worked:  Sleazy bastards placed ads soliciting lyrics in the backs of magazines.  They claimed that they would review your lyrics and if they were good enough they’d turn them into songs.  Of…

  • On My Turntable: Rush – Clockwork Angels

    Clockwork Angels, the new album from veteran prog rockers Rush, is a masterpiece in the truest sense of the word.  The nineteen albums preceding this one enjoyed varying degrees of success both artistically and commercially, but if forced to pick a single disc to demonstrate the band’s brilliant forty year career this would be the…

  • Deep Cuts: Summer 1984

    Almost thirty years have passed since I met Chris the cool guy at the beach.  That was a great summer for music, even if you weren’t a Purple Rain fan.  Born In the USA came out that summer, too, along with albums from The Bangles and Miami Sound Machine.   Okay, it was a pretty good summer…

  • A Summer Rerun

    I just returned from a family reunion at which I visited with people I haven’t seen in many years.  Among those long lost relatives was my cousin, Lindsey.  I wrestled with whether to share the following piece with her. What if I offend her?  What if I embarrass myself?  What if, what if, what if?…