Why It Matters

Blog

wimwords.com/

Profile

wimwords.com/author/jostafford

Homepage

jamesostafford.com

  • 53. Try To Use A Mirror, No Bullet Or Knife

    Despite its sprawl Boiling Springs High School was an oversized shotgun shack.  An uninterrupted hallway ran like an artery from front to back door, the lettered A-B-C-D wings spreading out to either side.  We were not allowed in the wings before first bell, so each morning hundreds of kids aged fourteen to twenty gathered in…

  • Why It Matters to Corey Glover (and How to Score Some Cool Stuff)

    You’re a music fan, right?  Would you jump at the chance to get an autograph?  How about rare live tracks or even rarer memorabilia?  Shoot, why stop there — what about your own personal concert, or a shot at being an executive producer?  Sounds crazy, I know, but I’m going to tell you how.

  • Anomie Belle Live, Chocolate Shakes, and Change

    “Hey, you got a haircut.”  I’ve known Ryan since his hair was black and his biggest concern was finals.  Now his Pierce Brosnan ‘do is cropped short and peppered with the gray that age, fatherhood, and work brings.  He pulled his camera from the trunk, I grabbed my notebook, and we headed for The Blue…

  • 52. Devil’s In the House of the Rising Sundae

    Highway 11 was the back fence of my small world, the northernmost boundary of my known universe.  It wasn’t much to look at — a black two-laner bordered by peach orchards, pine trees, and kudzu.  Big rigs tore down the blacktop on their way to and from Gaffney, sucking my bicycle into their wakes and…

  • Deep Cuts: Ten Songs To Hate School By

    Songs about school date back to the beginning of rock and roll.  Throughout the Fifties and Sixties they focused on just how keen and swell school is, and then Alice Cooper happened.  “School’s Out” sort of created a new genre of school songs, and everyone from The Ramones to .38 Special piled on throughout the…

  • 51. I Hate the Teachers and the Principal, Don’t Wanna Be Taught to be No Fool

    Boiling Springs High School was the newest, cleanest building in town.  The sun and rain had yet to dull the red brick; the huge expanse of lawn leading up to Old Furnace Road was lush and green.  Inside the lockers were painted brightly and the cinder block walls a glossy white free of footprints thanks to the ever…

  • The Cutout Bin Revisited

    Are you still awake?  Sweet Dio’s crucifix,  I started rambling about junior high school nine months ago and  you have sat there the whole time, patiently staring at my record collection while I jabbered.  Your butt must be numb and your legs asleep. But listen, before we put junior high school behind us I want to…

  • Anomie Belle Tour Dates

    Sometimes I forget that the pipes that make up the intergooglewebtubes extend well past the Sacramento city limits, and for that I apologize.  I was in such a rush to spread the word about Anomie Belle’s October 30 show at the Blue Lamp in Sacramento that I didn’t consider the rest of you. March 2012…

  • 50. The Punk and the Godfather (Why It Matters Revisited)

     This is the big number fifty in my ongoing narrative, not including the many sidebars and asides.  This seems like a good of a time as any for a sanity check. I started this project with one intention:  to demonstrate how important music truly is.  It is a wonder drug soothing broken hearts and conjuring…

  • 49. This Is A Public Service Announcement (With Guitars)

    “I’m not driving to Colorado every time your grandfather decides he’s dying,” my father muttered. He jammed the last of the luggage into the back of the station wagon.  “He rotted his stomach drinking and now he expects everybody to feel sorry for him.” This would be our last full family station wagon trip across…