Today is the 50th anniversary of The Day The Music Died. On 3 February 1959, in a field outside Clear Lake, Iowa, a small plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, crashed and killed everyone on board, including pilot Richard Peterson. As we all know, Waylon Jennings gave up his […]
Tatterific—My Favorite SuperBowl Ad
Actually watched the Super Bowl this year. I liked the Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head ad, Taters, the best. Only problem being, I don’t remember who the sponsor of the ad is…
Groundhog Day
Think what you will of Bill Murray or Andie MacDowell, their performance in Harold Ramis’ 1993 movie Groundhog Day is a delightful little romp through the world of PunxsutawneyPhil and small town America. One can take Groundhog Day as a simple comedy, a diversion from our mid-winter blahs. Murray’s self-centered TV weatherman gets what’s coming from […]
At the Root of the Music
Uncle Tupelo is the fulcrum of my ROOTS music universe. All things good, bad and ugly; happy, melancholy and sad, flow thru the music and the people and the places of the boys from Southern Illinois. The melancholy is mine–youth is wasted on the young they say. While I was navel-gazing up at Urbana, potential […]
Vigilantes 1864
Cold cruel winds blow down intent upon the Bannack mining camp…
All Alone In This Together
there are a very few times in this life when a melody hits me
Far & Away 2008
Freeform American Roots DJ picks for 2008
A River Runs… Through a Book
Friends don’t let friends see movies before they’ve read the book.
The Marfa Spark with Tift Merritt
Over on Last.fm, Marybeth d’Amico put up a very short journal last week. It doesn’t get much better than this. Tift Merritt recently interviewed Patty Griffin on her radio show, Spark. Listen here: http://www.marfaspark.com/audio/pattygriffininterview.mp3 Don’t know how soon Marfa (TX) Public Radio will cycle to a new interview, but go listen to this now. Grab […]
Plan on it
The National Planning Conference of the American Planning Association (APA) is coming to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April 2009. APA’s National Planning Conference is the world’s premier educational event for planners and planning officials. With hundreds of sessions, workshops, mobile workshops, and networking events to choose from, you can build your own conference — one that’s just […]