Monday, March 2, 2020

Blogkeeping (Sick Day Edition)



I've been a little under the weather this week. Just a cold, but its effects have been sufficient to prompt me to skip work on Friday, leave work early on Saturday, and to stay home Sunday night, leaving Dana in sole control of this week's exciting edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl

I'm feeling better each day, but I'm tired, and my mojo ain't motivated. Consequently, I haven't done any writing. Still, some ideas have been stumbling through the musty set of cobwebs I call my mind.



I will be starting a new short blog series called This Fool's Gold (My Greatest Hits At GOLDMINE Magazine). This was inspired by a random reminiscence of the power pop issue of Goldmine, and grew into a wish to write separate blog posts about each of the six cover stories I wrote for Goldmine when I was freelancing: the KISS issue, the Monkees issue, the Joan Jett interview, the Ramones interview, the power pop issue, and the bubblegum issue, all published in the '90s. I may add a seventh, discussing my unfinished and abandoned attempt to spearhead a Nuggets issue in the late '90s. Sounds like fun, so I'll probably get started on that once I'm feeling a little more with-it.



Speaking of Nuggets, my series Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (Unexpected Covers In Concert) will continue next with a memory of seeing The Bangles at a club show in Buffalo around '85 or '86, a show which included an unexpected live cover of a noisy, surly '60s psych-punk classic. I mentioned this specific cover to Ramones bassist C. J. Ramone when I interviewed him in 1994, and he responded in disbelief, The BANGLES did that...?!



I'm long overdue to return to He Buys Every Rock 'n' Roll Book On The Magazine Stands, my personal history of the rock rags I read as a mere lad and beardless youth. We've already discussed Circus and Rolling Stone, Phonograph Record Magazine, and Bomp!, and it's high time I got into telling the story of CREEM. Boy Howdy! Trouser Press may follow that one when it's done.



Coverless Comics Cavalcade is coming, celebrating the mutilated and desecrated funnybooks I bought [ahem] TO READ!!!! Get thee behind me, Collector! The Everlasting First will return with tales of my (presumably separate) introductions to Tarzan and The Troggs



Outside of the blog, I haven't written any more fiction since...November? I'm still awaiting word on my most recent short story submission "The Copperhead Affair," and haven't had a compelling urge to make stuff up in the interim.



I have been working on my book, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). There is no progress to report on its completion or its potential placement with a publisher, but its path winds on. After adding and adding and adding to its proposed Table of Contents, I'm getting ready to subtract some entries. It is my fervent hope that I decide to subtract chapters that I haven't completed yet, rather than jettisoning, y'know, perfectly fine, finished chapters. That hope is not guaranteed a favorable result. Without checking, I think I have 105 chapters written, totaling 110,622 words so far. I'm proud of the work.

But right now, I'm a little tired, so it's time to rest a bit and enjoy another cup of tea. We should have a fresh edition of 10 Songs here tomorrow, with more Bops to follow thereafter. Cheers, then.


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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

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