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Cappy Lewis: 1939-2011
On November 10, 2011, lung cancer got the best of doo-wop legend Darryl “Cappy” Lewis. You’ve never heard of him? Neither had I until I cracked open The Sacramento Bee and read Robert D. Davila’s obituary. I couldn’t believe that an eyewitness to so much music history had been living just miles away from me all of these years and I didn’t…
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56. The Brightest Fireplace Glows In Every Face
The Chicago suburbs were in the throes of a great educational experiment: the open concept school. Oakview Elementary had no interior walls, just a series of carpeted sunken living rooms that served as classrooms. We didn’t have desks; rather, we sat on the two steps that defined the classroom while our teacher, Miss Bruce, stood in front…
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Jimi/Janis Graffiti, Sacramento California
Sadly both were towed away before their time.
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Deep Cuts: Seven Decades of Sweet Transvestites
The Rocky Horror Picture Show hardly was rock and roll’s first foray into blurred gender roles, nor was it the last. Since the dawn of rock in the mid-Fifties gender confusion has been a common topic. Here are a few songs where he was a she or vice versa or who really knows.
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55. At the Late Night Double Feature Picture Show
I love movies, always have. My sister had a teacher who collected 8mm prints and would occasionally bring one in for the class. This was prior to the widespread availability of videocassettes, so in my estimation this was the coolest thing ever. You could own an old movie and play it whenever you wanted? Man.
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Dylan Graffiti, Sacramento, California
How many walls must a man walk by, Before he sees such a cool painting?
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On My Turntable: The Great Escape Artist
“You never really change like they say / Oh you only become more like yourself” Perry Ferrell sings in “End to the Lies,” and he couldn’t be more right. Twenty-four years have passed since Nothing’s Shocking blurred the lines separating art rock, heavy metal, and new wave. Back then Jane’s and Guns N’ Roses battled…
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54. It’s So Easy To Fly Through A Window
At age fifteen I should not have been trusted with something as dangerous as a fork, yet the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles issued me a driver license. All it took was two visits to the beehive hairdo lady at the DMV: one for the written exam, and again a few short weeks later…
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Happy Birthday to “Why It Matters”
One year ago today I posted the first “Why It Matters” pieces. It was the opening volley in an effort to overcome a creative block rooted in anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and a fairly crippling lack of self-esteem. Here’s where we are one short year later:
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Deep Cuts: The Bromley Contingent and Then Some
There are a few revered flashpoints in rock and roll history, those moments that sparked the audience to go out and form their own bands — The Beatles appearing on Sullivan, for example. For a handful of English kids the rally point may have been The Sex Pistols first ever concert, opening for Bazooka Joe at a show at St.…
Why It Matters 
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