Photo by Mike Castro Demaria on Unsplash Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper as he grapples with a brain-worm that has turned into a brain-snake in the form of the 1948 hit song “On a Slow Boat to China.” Brain-worms are more of a problem in the keeper’s ancient age group as old brains tend to …
Read
Category:Music
Kickass and Unusual Music
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis, having recently been shown the way to the Overture Center, returned last night to hear the big concert-hall organ do its thing with a trombone and a set of drums. While that might seem like an odd musical line …
Read
Kickass and the Symphony
Photo by Samuel Sianipar on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis heard the Madison symphony and pianist Benjamin Grosvenor Sunday in the big room of the Overture Center through the courtesy of good friend Tom Humphry. They are not regular concert goers, at least not under the stylized symphony circumstances, …
Read
Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter The boomer generation has hung onto the remnants of their youth like a terrier shaking a rat. They just won’t let go, unlike members of the Greatest Generation who accepted aging with dignity and aplomb. They didn’t mind sporting beer bellies or fret if their hair was thinning. …
Read
A Road Less Traveled
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter On Friday nights, my wife and I will typically open a bottle of wine and settle in to watch some streaming TV, usually a movie or a limited series, but this last weekend, after supper, I went into the family room and started sorting out some of our …
Read
Blue Christmas
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally posted December 2020) As we were trimming the tree last weekend, my wife asked me to bring in the laptop so we could listen to Christmas music. I complied—as any trained husband will—and set up the sound system in our dining room. And so we trimmed the …
Read
The Pen in Hand Guide to Spinning Classic Christmas Vinyl
Photo by The Retro Store on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December 2019) While the Couch Potato will always be slavishly devoted to his TV home entertainment center, this week he will be putting down the universal remote in order to turn his focus solely on another entertainment form—music. Part of the reason for this departure …
Read
Kickass and the Accordion
Tetopa, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, recognizing today as the autumnal equinox with equal amounts of stupidity and intelligence, will be contacting the public high school across the street to offer to help with endowing an accordion chair in the new music department addition …
Read
Spin Party
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I went to a little get-together at my in-laws the other night. Since we’ve all been suffering from post-Covid burnout (although I guess it’s technically not post-Covid—not yet), they decided to invite a few friends over for drinks, and—since my brother-in-law Michael is an avowed Abraham Lincoln aficionado, …
Read
Kickass and Old Black Joe
Stephen Foster, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis occasionally share the songs from their distant past when one or the other of them sings a fragment of lyrics and the other then joins in to make for a duet that frequently breaks down …
Read
The Couch Potato’s Guide to Spinning Classic Christmas Vinyl
Photo by The Retro Store on Unsplash By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December 2019) While the Couch Potato will always be slavishly devoted to his TV home entertainment center, this week he will be putting down the universal remote in order to turn his focus solely on another entertainment form—music. Part of the reason for this departure …
Read
Blue Christmas
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally posted December 2020) As we were trimming the tree last weekend, my wife asked me to bring in the laptop so we could listen to Christmas music. I complied—as any trained husband will—and set up the sound system in our dining room. And so we trimmed the …
Read