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Deep Cuts: Intro to WockaWoll Guitar
Back in the meedly-meedly-meedly ’80s when speed was the name of the game, a guitarist friend of mine said to me: “Nobody at a party will ask you how many notes you can play per second. They’ll ask you what songs you know. People want to hear songs.” In that spirit I offer you the…
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33. I Don’t Know How You Were Inverted
My sister’s boyfriend Mike, the crown prince of The Guys In Black Tee Shirts Who Jam, and his brother Neil were the first guys like me to dip their toes into the “music as participant” pond. Overnight their room was filled with cheap electric guitars, complete no-names with thin plywood bodies and poorly grounded pickups. Mike…
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Rush Photos and Set List: Sleep Train Pavillion, Concord, California, June 26, 2011
Outstanding venue, outstanding show. Three hours overall with a half hour intermission, no opening act. That’s a lot of Rush. And what can I say about a stage design that includes a steam punk time machine and sausage maker, and cameos from a giant chicken and a gorilla?
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32. What’s Your Favorite Color Baby?
There is a fine line sometimes between romance and memory. I am guilty of putting on the rose-colored Bootsy shades, but I try to keep it to a minimum. Sometimes, though, it is awfully tough: The summer after seventh grade, for example. I find it hard not to remember those three months in amazing Technicolor. No…
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31. I Was Walking In He Was Walking Out
“Your tennis shoes are good enough. It’s just little league,” my father said. “It’s Pony league, and it says I have to have spikes.” I handed him the registration form and equipment list. He scanned it. “That’s where they get you. They keep the registration fee low, then they make a deal with the sporting…
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You Don’t Need To Hear From Me This Week
Kelly Mahan Jaramillo can tell you why music matters much better than I can: http://kellymahanjaramillo.wordpress.com/
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30. Strewn With Time’s Dead Flowers
Andrew Gold passed away a couple of days ago. Cancer, age fifty-nine. Only fifteen years older than me. I don’t really know much about the guy other than two of his songs are synonymous with bright, happy, sunshine Seventies pop,. He had good hair and a good beard and nicely pressed slacks. He was that…
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29. You Don’t Know What the Sound Is, Darlin’
Summer 1985, early afternoon — the slow time. Dwayne and I are the only employees in the store. I’m fresh out of high school, he is thirty-five with a bachelor’s in history. Dwayne is tall, soft in the middle, thick glasses and a Mondale haircut — very soft-spoken and Christian in that quiet yet devout way. This…
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28. Leaving the Things That You Love From Mind
Only at thirteen is it acceptable to own both a hamster and a Bo Derek wet tee-shirt poster, one of which serves as a compulsive masturbation aid (don’t judge). My bedroom was in a transitional state. I still had slot cars and Evel Knievel stunt cycles, airplane curtains and a Stretch Armstrong doll; but I…
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Pardon Our Dust In the Wind
As a result of the Why It Matters merger with Universal Globomegacorp, we have been experiencing intermittent production issues. Our on-shore staff of 5,000 researchers, writers, and creative types has been replaced by three eight year olds in a Burmese shoe factory. They do great work, but they get a little behind on WIM during the…
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