Friday, October 13, 2006

Pointer

When I can't think of anything to write about on the Web, I can always write about something I wrote for the Web on another Web site.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

You had to be there

To you pop culture mavens I commend this Nashville Scene article, from last August, about the Music City's rock milieu in the 1980s. I was a youth there in those days, and it was a heady time, when the alternative-country genre known as cowpunk seemed on the verge of breaking through in a big way. That was thanks especially to the musical pyrotechnics of Jason and the Scorchers, a truly marvelous '80s Nashville band.

The breakthrough didn't quite happen -- quick, how many other cowpunk bands can you name? -- but there was a kind of fervor going around in that small network of clubs and bands. And then, suddenly, it was all over. Mainstream country's commercial triumph under Garth Brooks was about to get underway, and there was not much room left in Nashville for quirky alternative types.

After the Scorchers, my favorite group in the scene was Raging Fire, which combined the twangy urgency of cowpunk and the psychedelic swirl of another '80s musical subgenre, the paisley underground. Check out Raging Fire's magnum opus, "A Family Thing."

Monday, October 09, 2006

Oneupmanship

The Grand Old Party must have wished upon a star, since really, no news development could knock a pederastic congressman and an accompanying swirl of corruption out of the headlines four weeks before an election. Absolutely no news development. Well, maybe one news development.

KIM JONG IL WITH A FREAKING NUKE.
Lacuna

I read with interest this article about gossip columnist Lloyd Grove, who after a three-year stint has left his job with the New York Daily News. If you watched the reality television series "Tabloid Wars," which aired on Bravo last August, you'll recall the moment in the debut episode when Grove reveals that he does not know who Sheryl Crow is. Yes, a New York gossip columnist who does not know who Sheryl Crow is.

But surely that's not why he left his job.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

In the paper

Check out my cover story in the latest Isthmus, about how religious groups are organizing for and against Wisconsin's proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.