POP-A-LOOZA: The Number You Have Dialed Is Not In Service

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is a look back at my history with landline telephones, "The Number You Have Dialed Is Not In Service." 

I gave up my landline in 2019. I don't miss it, but I still half-expect to hear my answering machine beeping impatiently when I get home. Conditioned reflex. My kitty's also been gone for a few years now, but memory compels me to think she's going to meet me at the door, demanding food. Memory is a stubborn thing.

Although the Pop-A-Looza piece also contains a link to my most terrible landline memory, the landline was the resource for my brief career as a freelance interviewer, talkin' to rock stars and writing about it for Goldmine and The Syracuse New Times. This very blog contains my Goldmine interviews with Cyril Jordan of The Flamin' Groovies and Lou Whitney of The Skeletons, my otherwise-unpublished Nuggets interviews with Lenny Kaye, Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sal Valentino of The Beau Brummels, Dick Dodd of The Standells, and Barry Tashian of The Remains, as well as an SNT interviews with The Flashcubes and Maura Kennedy. 

I also pitched some comic book ideas over the phone (as detailed here and here), though nothing came of those. I'm currently working on a book project (no, not that one) that will make use of some of my telephone interviews. I'll tell you about that when there's something to tell.

Meanwhile, there's no need to leave your message after the beep. "The Number You Have Dialed Is Not In Service" is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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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.

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