A record of our preparations for the music festival and vacation originally scheduled for November 2020 in Punta Cana. Getting Started For a number of years, I toyed with the idea of going on the Cayamo Cruise which annually gathered a bunch of my favorite musicians for a week in the Caribbean. The cruise was …
Events that crossed my radar and memories, these many years later. This effort is aided and abetted by reviewing Wikipedia’s listings of each year’s events, in this case, 1971, 1972, 1973 and 1974. 1971 We arrived in Hong Kong on August 15, 1971 with Typhoon Rose. It took us a while to come to terms with Hong …
Events that crossed my radar and memories, these many years later. This effort is aided and abetted by reviewing Wikipedia’s listings of each year’s events, in this case, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1971. These five years, as I aged from 8 to 13 in Florida and New Jersey, were pivotal in forming my personality, memories and tastes. …
Events that crossed my radar and memories, these many years later. This effort is aided and abetted by reviewing Wikipedia’s listings of each year’s events, in this case, 1965 and 1966. The Sound of Music film debuted in early 1965 and we probably saw it that summer when we returned to the States for vacation. We also …
Events that crossed my radar and memories, these many years later. Note: I think it may be interesting to consider which events of each year — political, cultural, music, movies — actually made an imprint on me. These are things that go beyond the photo album memories of the other posts. This effort is aided …
I’m sometimes surprised to learn that songs I’ve associated with one artist are covers from another generation. Here are some that surprised me, some that I suspected were covers but didn’t know the original, and others where I think someone did a great job of interpreting someone else’s song. Istanbul, Not Constantinople. For years I’d …
These are songs I associate with various members of my family, and why. Not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to them, but there are family stories with each, and they seem worth relating. America, West Side Story. Dad played this soundtrack a lot and the exuberance, wordplay and eventually the cynicism of this …
I’ve been to more concerts than I can remember, but here are some notable ones from the years before Covid. Much appreciation to Setlist.fm for making it easier to look up old dates and venues. Jake Shimabukuro and Sierra Hull, February 2020 at Strathmore Music Hall, Bethesda. I went on my own to this show, …
Johnny Cash had The List of 100 Essential Country Songs he gave to his daughter Roseanne. Herewith a list (53 songs at the moment, give or take, in no particular order, yet) of songs of all sorts that have some ongoing resonance with me. These are the ones that keep rattling in my head or …