J. Eric Smith Archives - Page 2 of 6

October rambling: wrackful

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a multimillion-dollar ballroom on the eastern side of the White House. (Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)

Wrackful. Meaning – adjective: Ruinous. In Sonnet 65, Shakespeare laments time’s “the wrackful siege of battering days.” You can almost hear the timbers groan and the sigh of loss.

AWS outage spotlights the global economy’s fragile foundations

The AI that we’ll have after AI

How a Fringe Movement of Gun Nuts, Backwoodsmen, and Free Marketers Paved the Way for Autocracy

American e-waste is causing a ‘hidden tsunami’ of junk in Southeast Asia

The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water. What Happens If We Do? The pace of freshwater depletion is staggering. An area twice the size of California is drying up annually.

Does Brazil have an app that can upend digital finance?

One of 20 Million in the US With Long COVID. RFK Pulled the Rug From Under Us.

Americans remain pessimistic about the country’s direction and the state of the country.

Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

The Big Budget Act Creates a “Deportation-Industrial Complex” —The result will be a lopsided, enforcement-only machine that will be hard to dismantle.

“Divisive”? (BHO)

The shrinking future of Ph. D.s

Medicare Advantage: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Response

The Resistance Stiffens and “No Kings” — Loving America

Labor Unions, EFF Sue Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online

John Dickerson: What Hamilton warned in the Federalist Papers #1

June Lockhart obituary: American stage and screen actor who enjoyed huge success on the television shows Lassie, Lost in Space, and Petticoat Junction.

Baseball Obituary: Mike Greenwell (1963-2025)

The Jewish Prisoners Who Escaped From a Nazi Death Camp

Ernest Shackleton’s journey was most likely doomed before it began

Why Paris Designed Its Peculiarly Popular Grand Graveyards to Evoke a Celebration of Life Amid All the Death

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal, History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1 (1906)

These Airport Codes Make No Sense

Now I Know: Where the Other Two Musketeers Went and Hackers, Pre-Internet Edition and The $10,000 Blade of Grass (Dali and Ono) and The “Baseball versus Beer” Loophole and Our Anti-Photographic Memories?

The dog that was twenty times smarter than Lassie

Wrecking crew

The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history

Demolition Seen as Potent Metaphor for His Destructive Presidency

Daily Kos: “Normal people looked at the demolition… and asked, ‘Hey, shouldn’t an official body, like the National Capital Planning Commission, have to sign off on the demolition?’

“No, you sweet summer child. According to him and his allies on the NCPC, the planning commission need only sign off on the construction of buildings, not their demolition.

“What kind of person who heads a planning commission charged with the overall planning of the nation’s capital would agree to this?

“Oh, that would be Will Scharf. Scharf is the White House staff secretary, and he is also now the head of the NCPC. Does Scharf have any experience in urban planning or architecture, or anything really?

“Nope. You all get one guess as to why Scharf has not one, but two high-level government jobs? Yes, he was one of his former criminal defense attorneys.”

Borowitz: FOTUS “would continue his father’s proud tradition of gleeful destruction [Steeplechase Park] when he demolished the Bonwit Teller Building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to clear the site for his Tower. After saying he’d try to preserve the building’s priceless Art Deco friezes so that they could be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he discovered that it would cost $32,000 to remove them intact. As a clever solution to his problem, he had his workmen smash them to bits.”

MUSIC

Take Me Down To Stewy’s – Jackson Simpson (feat. Azel & Grey Mizzy), a tribute to the many Stewart’s Shops, a chain of convenience stores located in Upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Last Time (I Seen the Sun) – Alice Smith and Miles Caton

That Thing You Do! – The Wonders

I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow – The Soggy Bottom Boys with Dan Tyminski

La Academia – Peter Sprague

Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, Moonlight, by Ludwig van Beethoven

That Song In Every Musical That No One Likes – Sarah Smallwood Parsons

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Take 27) – The Beatles [Anthology 2025]

Bonehemian Rhapsody– 28-Trombone collaboration

Coverville 1553: The Bruno Mars Cover Story and 1554: The Tom Petty Cover Story V

New Moon in the Old Moon’s Arms by Michael Kamen

Over, Under, Sideways, Down -The Yardbirds

How Lucky Can You Get -Jason Graae, the voice of the Leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials for several years

Take On Me– a-ha

You’ll Be Back (from Hamilton) – Primer (Barbershop Quartet)

Theme to Top Cat – Hoyt Curtin

On Your Shore -Enya

Theme from Jurassic Park – John Williams

Oh Sheila – Ready for the World

J. Eric Smith’s blog, Genre Delve #4: Gospel, with links to the intro, Jazz, and Africa

What Makes Surf Rock Sound Instantly Recognizable?

Crying and dying music

Hymn To Joy

This continues my response to J. Eric Smith’s The Honest Playlist prompt, with his answers here. It turned out to be crying and dying music.

Crying

The song that makes me cry is “A LOT OF MUSIC MAKES ME CRY,“ and it’s become more frequent over time. Sad songs such as these can be tied to failed romance. Also in the category is “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young. A friend was playing that song by Cassandra Wilson and wondered if it made me feel down; no, it’s the specific cadence of the original.

Lullabye by Billy Joel, especially after I heard an a cappella group from Binghamton, NY perform it c. 1995. It’s the bridge.

The inverse pedal point.

Silent Eyes by Paul Simon. The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel; see the description here. Biko by Peter Gabriel, specifically at the end. There are quite a few songs.

I wrote here about my mom in 2016, five years after she died: “I went to church [back in Albany] that last Sunday of the month when we sang Lift Every Voice and Sing, which I’ve sung for years. But I can barely get through it anymore without crying, and it started that day when I knew, profoundly, that my mom, and my last living ancestor, was gone.”

There’s a Lenten hymn called “Ah, Holy Jesus.” The second verse ends with “I crucified You.” It always makes me verklempt.

But it doesn’t always have to be sad. Lots of organ music affects me; it often offers power chords at the end. I’m a sucker for the very last, very high note Julie Andrews sings in Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music. Or the growl by Paul Carrack in Squeeze’s Tempted. The modulation in She’s Gone by Hall and Oates; that song won me $48. There are a slew of them. But they don’t always affect me the same way every time.

Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye

The song I’d like played at my funeral: Coincidentally, in the spring of 2025, folks in our adult education class at church talked about what music, scripture, etc., the participants would like to have at their funerals. I wasn’t there because the choir rehearses at the same time.

If you want to play music in the lead-up to my funeral, I’d suggest the Barber adagio or Raindrop Prelude by Chopin. The Chopin begins and ends simply, but the middle (the inverse pedal point section) is the stormy section.

At the beginning, I’d love to have a recording of My Prayer by the Beach Boys. It’s not very long but effective.

How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place from the Brahms Requiem, in English, would be nice during the service. Also, I Will Not Leave You Comfortless by Everett Titcomb, or Come Thou Holy Spirit by Pavel Tschesnokoff.

I want someone to sing the response to Psalm 29, the arrangement by Hal Hopson, as one of the scripture pieces, along with readings of Psalm 150 and Matthew 25:34-40.

Hymns

Pick some hymns with harmonization; I don’t want a bunch of boring unison singing. Here are some options from a previous Presbyterian hymnal. They are in page order, not by any preference:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Nicaea)—I now know the blessed Trinity refers to God’s manifestations, but it evokes in me my first church in Binghamton (Trinity AME Zion) and in Albany (Trinity United Methodist). And it’s the first hymn in what a late ex-girlfriend used to refer to as the “real Methosdist hymnal.”

It Is Well With My Soul (Ville Du Havre) – sung at several Trinity UMC funerals

God of the Ages, Whose Almighty Hand (National Hymn). I always loved the trumpet opening. We sang some version of this in elementary school around Thanksgiving.

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise (St. Denio)

Guide Me, Oh Thou Great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda)- I always loved the bass vocal flourish in the last line. It reminds me of someone specific.

How Firm A Foundation (Foundation)

My Hope Is Built On Nothing Less (Sold Rock)

O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go (St. Margaret)

Precious Lord (Precious Lord)

Lord, You Give the Great Commission (Abbot’s Leigh) – this has a great bass line.

The Church’s One Foundation (Aurelia) – I’m a sucker for old Wesleyan hymns

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Theee (Hymn To Joy) – roll over, Beethoven

For The Beauty of the Earth (Dix)

When Morning Gilds The Skies (Laudes Domini)

And in the end

Near the end, I want God Be With You Till We Meet Again (Randolph) or Now The Day Is Over (Merrial), and most importantly, I want a seven-fold Amen. We don’t sing enough Amens in our service.

I need a postlude, something I could feel viscerally if I sat in the choir loft. One option would be the Toccata from Symphony V by Charles-Marie Widor, which I first heard in 1992 at my graduation from library school. But there are others.

Finally, I want someone to play a recording of In The Mood by The Henhouse Five (Plus Two), the nom de poulet of Ray Stevens, purveyor of eclectic songs such as Gitarzan, Mr. Businessman, Everything Is Beautiful, and The Streak. I have the song on a Warner Bros. Loss Leader. He showed that, and I’ve known this ever since, almost anything can be done in chicken. (See, for example, Ode To Chicken by TwoSetViolin.)

I suppose this is all subject to change, with music I’m not thinking of. (I’m REALLY bad at remembering names of instrumentals.) And since I’ll be, er, dead, I don’t want to handcuff the planners of my funeral TOO much. But I thought it was a pretty good first draft.

The Honest Playlist, part 1

inverse pedal point

It’s J. Eric Smith’s fault that I’m doing the Honest Playlist. He is an old blogger buddy of mine—well, he is not that old—who used to live in the Albany area but now resides in Arizona.

He explained the setup, which you can read here. It involves, in part, Flight of the Conchords, which I have never seen, but that is not required for this exercise.

“The premise of the recurring feature is that artists are given a set of song-based questions which they must answer, honestly.” And I have to do this because Eric namechecked me, curse him.

The first song I remember hearing: I don’t really know, but it is likely one of my father’s 45s. It may also be Be Kind To Your Parents. I’ve written about this before, but the previous link is the correct version. It was on a red 45 that my sister Leslie and I played on our record player all the time.

The first song I fell in love with: From my father’s singles, 45 Men a Telephone Booth by The Four Tophatters.

The first album I bought: Beatles VI from the Capitol Record Club, which I paid for with proceeds of my newspaper route delivering the Evening and Sunday Press in Binghamton, NY circa 1966.

The song I do at karaoke: I seldom do karaoke, but it’d be Talking Heads’ version of Take Me To The River.

Party!

The best song to play at a party: I initially thought of songs my daughter and I know and like. The first thing that came up: Motown Philly by Boyz II Men; she was jealous when her mother and I saw the group at Chautauqua in 2024. Then I thought, maybe some Motown, such as the obvious Dancing In The Street by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas or the obscure, though it went to #2 on the pop charts, I Heard Through the Grapevine by Gladys Knight and the Pips. How about Twist and Shout by that Liverpool group? Ultimately, I landed on Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, which is slower than the video suggests.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to: The Ballad of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler. It WAS the song that spent the longest at #1 pop in 1966, at five weeks, when I turned 13 and was listening heavily to the radio. (The Monkees’ I’m A Believer started their run in ’66 but most of it was in ’67.)

The third and final verse and chorus:

Back at home, a young wife waitsHer Green Beret has met his fateHe has died for those oppressedLeaving her his last request

Put silver wings on my son’s chestMake him one of America’s bestHe’ll be a man they’ll test one dayHave him win the Green Beret

Even then, I wondered about rhyming oppressed with request – I’m pretty sure Stephen Sondheim would not have approved – but after hearing Defying Gravity from Wicked pronounced “gravidy,” I’ve surrendered on the point.

Ick

The song I can no longer listen to: Oddly, I don’t think there is one. After making lists of songs that hit #1 from the first third of the 20th century and listening to songs that are boldly racist, I have tough skin on this.

Now, I do hear songs that have changed for the worse. I’m thinking of The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun by Julie Brown, which appears on a Dr. Demento CD I play every April for his birthday. It makes me reflect that it was supposed to be funny in 1990—it really wasn’t—but in the last quarter century of school shootings, it’s even less comfortable.

Back in 2019, Arthur asked: About your Rolf Harris song [Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport] – it raises a question: Are we under any obligation to erase performers or songs we once liked because it later turns out that they were either allegedly or actually terrible humans or allegedly or actually did terrible things, like Rolf?

I was disinclined broadly, though Eric was eloquent in dismissing several artists, notably Michael Jackson. He is incidentally correct that Off The Wall is better than Thriller. I think of all those Phil Spector-produced songs I wouldn’t want to give up. Generally, music is a multifaceted endeavor.

Non-musical sidebar: I STILL remember chunks of Bill Cosby routines verbatim from repeated listening.

But it’s weird because if I were watching films, I might experience a greater ick factor. I’m thinking Woody Allen’s Manhattan or American Beauty with Kevin Spacey.

Guilty Pleasures?

The song I secretly like: I have a soft spot for Seals and Crofts. I saw them with my then-girlfriend on November 12, 1971 in New York City. (Why do I remember that date? Because it was the birthday of Baháʼu’lláh’, who founded the Baháʼí Faith. Anyway, I was listening to them recently, and i think Yellow Dirt is a hoot.

The best song to have sex with: Eric wrote, “I’m a gentleman, yo. That’s none of your business. Sheesh.” Sure. That said, I can’t think of an answer anyway.

The song I’ve always hated: You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone, You’re Having My Baby -Paul Anka, several others. But I can easily avoid them.

The song that changed my life: Quintet/Tonight from West Side Story. Can you do multiple melodies like that? This is why this musical was my favorite.

The song that gets me up in the morning: Never a single album or artist fits the category. Generally, it’s something my wife wouldn’t mind, so John Hiatt/Ella/the Duke/world music (I’ve been listening to Playing For Change a lot)/my wife’s K girls (her designation) Alison Krauss and Diana Krall rather than Led Zeppelin/the Who/the Kinks.

That’s enough because the last question in particular took up a lot of space. I’ll finish it next week.

September rambling: Tohubohu

a dangerous assault on democratic oversight

Word of the Day: Tohubohu – A state of chaos; utter confusion.

Threatening Vulnerable People Is No Way to Mourn Someone Who Was Murdered. Those who had nothing to do with the violence against Charlie Kirk are being menaced—just like always.

Big Tech Data Centers Compound Decades of Environmental Racism in the South

Scholars’ group cites mass civilian killings, starvation, and official incitement as evidence, while Israel and the United States reject the genocide label.

Pentagon press clampdown sparks First Amendment alarm. Journalists and free press advocates warn that new restrictions requiring pre-approval of even unclassified information represent a dangerous assault on democratic oversight.

Robert Reich on FOTUS’ Calamitous Crypto Corruption

Cartoon: The road to fascism

FOTUS to U.N.: ‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell.’ Read his full address at the U.N. General Assembly.

Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez lays out what she found about the degree to which every New Yorker is being tracked, the harms that tracking is already inflicting, and the reasons to fear that things might get much worse, here and across the nation.

Modern dogs now occupy roles historically reserved for close human relationships and often receive greater moral concern than people.

RFK Jr., HHS secretary, “is correct that reported autism rates have exploded in the last 30 years — they’ve increased roughly 60-fold — but he is dead wrong about the causes,” the psychiatrist Allen Frances writes in The Times Opinion. “I should know, because I am partly responsible for the explosion in rates.”

FOTUS Has ‘Strong Feelings’ About Autism; the Issue Is Personal

Rural Health Clinics Begin to Fall Under Crushing Weight of Big, Ugly Bill

Nanoplastics are not just in seafood; a new study finds small plastic particles penetrate crops

Potential Trouble for Retirees: A Wealth Adviser’s Guide to the OBBB’s Impact on Retirement

History

In October, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine will reach an extraordinary milestone: 1 trillion webpages preserved. Record a video answering the question: “Why is the Wayback Machine important to you?”

The last look at American poverty? New data shows 41% of Americans are poor or low-income, revealing deep racial and regional disparities ahead of sweeping federal cuts.

Netanyahu: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Thieves Steal and Destroy Solid Silver Statue of Abraham Lincoln Created by Mount Rushmore Sculptor Gutzon Borglum

American Hindenburg -“the worst air disaster you’ve never heard of”

Jordan Klepper’s The Daily Show interview of John Fugelsang talking about his book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. There is a lovely George Harrison reference as well.

10 of the Oldest Cities in the U.S.

Why Romania Excels in International Olympiads

Internet Archive Designated as a Federal Depository Library

The Facebook Consumer Privacy User Profile Litigation Settlement Administrator has sent me $38.36 USD. I’m RICH!

John Masius, St. Elsewhere, Emmy-winning writer, and Touched By An Angel creator, dies at 75

‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Ben Scripps Dies at 52 After Losing Battle With Cancer

Baseball’s Davey Johnson (1943-2025)

Now I Know: Why The Dot Got Dashed

Jimmy Kimmel

The Death of Free Speech – Legal Eagle

The FCC: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

He is Back!

HCR

Heather Cox Richardson, about the first of her Letters from an American newsletter six years ago: “In that first letter where I warned of rising authoritarianism, I wrote: ‘So what do those of us who love American democracy do? Make noise. Take up oxygen…

“If you are tired from the last six years, you have earned the right to be.

“And yet you are still here, reading, commenting, protesting, articulating a new future for the nation. And I am proud to be among you.

“I write these letters because I love America. I am staunchly committed to the principle of human self-determination for people of all races, genders, abilities, and ethnicities: the idea that we all have the right to work to become whatever we wish. I believe that American democracy has the potential to be the form of government that comes closest to bringing that principle to reality. And I know that achieving that equality depends on a government shaped by fact-based debate rather than by extremist ideology and false narratives.”

MUSIC

Freedom of Speech – Marsh Family parody of “Under the Sea” from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”

Sonny Curtis, member of the Crickets who wrote the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme song, dies at 88; here he was on CBS Sunday Morning in 2022

Love Is All Around – Sonny Curtis; Mary Tyler Moore Show – Seasons 4-7 Intro & Theme

I Fought The Law – Bobby Fuller Four (1966), written by Sonny Curtis; I Fought The Law – the (post-Buddy Holly) Crickets (1959), featuring Curtis

Ouvertüre zum Lustspiel “Ein Morgen, ein Mittag, ein Abend in Wien” by Franz von Suppé

From – Bon Iver

Wuthering Heights score by Alfred Newman, composed for the 1939 film of the same book.

Makin’ Whoopee – Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks, September 9, 2025 – Radio Free Birdland #34

Need A Ride – Kathleen Edwards

Wuthering Heights suite from the 1939 film by Alfred Newman

Elegy by Mark Camphouse

Helter Skelter – The Beatles (Second Version, Take 17) [Anthology 2025]

K-Chuck Radio: Celebrating Earth, Wind & Fire Day

Ivonny Bonita – Karol G

Full Moon by Ludovico Einaudi

Sesame Street: Pentatonix Counts (and Sings) to Five

Flash Gordon – Queen

Coverville 1549: Interview with Jeff Kanan of The Keep Recording and 1550: Cover Stories for Fee Waybill of The Tubes and B.B. King

J. Eric Smith’s Best Albums of 2025 (Third Quarter)

St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) – John Parr

Protein Synthesis (1971)

Money For Nothing – Dire Straits

March rambling: Trimmer

me and Maurice Ravel

Trimmer (def 1): One who adjusts beliefs, opinions, and actions to suit personal interest.

Let There Be Light by Sharp Little Pencil

Fact-checking FOTUS’ address to Congress and CPAC

ICE Detention: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

RFK Jr. Misleads on Vitamin A, Unsupported Therapies for Measles

‘Project 2025 in Action’: Administration Fires Half of Education Department Staff

DEI Is Disappearing In Hollywood. Was It Ever Really Here?

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Meet Everyone Hates Elon, the U.K.-Based Collective Attempting to Take Down Musk: “Let’s Make Billionaires Losers Again”

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Also

The “I Am Canadian” commercial returns!

13 Minutes To The Moon, the podcast about how NASA got to the moon. Produced by the BBC World Service and hosted by Kevin Fong from NASA, with fascinating interviews. Hans Zimmer did the music.

Sports Betting: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Devin “Legal Eagle” Stone is not quitting

The 6668th Central Postal Battalion

Read an interview with Jim McNeal and J. Eric Smith, the authors of Crucibles: How Formidable Rites of Passage Shape the World’s Most Elite Organizations, now available for preorder

John Green reads Chapter 1 of his new book EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS and is interviewed on the CBC

We Will Eradicate Measles

Joseph Wambaugh, L.A. Cop Turned Novelist and Screenwriter, Dies at 88. I used to watch Police Story.

Kevin Drum, writer of solid political commentary, died

Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, dies at 82

A collection of the Mickey Mouse shorts from 1929, including Mickey speaking his first words in The Karnival Kid

Captain America Co-Creator Jack Kirby Getting Definitive Documentary ‘Kirbyvision’

Now I Know: Bombs Away! (Cat Version) and The Jigsaw Puzzles Worth Their Weight in Gold? and A Whopper of a Way to Pay For Your Wedding and How Homer Simpson’s Comical Gluttony Saved Lives and A Classical Way to Save the Whales and Why 19th Century Britons Lost Their Heads

Albany Public Library

Two Open Seats on APL Board. Albany voters will select two trustees for the Albany Public Library Board in the May 20 election. Both positions carry full five-year terms, which commence on July 1.

The library is hosting the following public forums:

“So, You Want to be a Library Trustee” Information Sessions

March 22 (Sat) | 10-11:30 am | Howe Branch | 105 Schuyler St.
March 26 (Wed) | 6:30-8 pm | Pine Hills Branch | 517 Western Ave.

Hear from current trustees about what it’s like serving as an APL trustee, how to get on the ballot, and tips for a successful campaign.

Meet the Trustee Candidates Forum and Library Budget Session

May 6 (Tue) | 6-7:30 pm | Washington Ave. Branch | 161 Washington Ave.

Bad news for libraries: ALA’s statement on the White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library Author talks/book reviews in April, Tuesdays at 2 pm, 161 Washington Ave, large auditorium:

April 1 | To Be Announced

April 8 | Author Talk | C. M. Waggoner, who as a youngster ‘spent a lot of time reading fantasy novels in a swamp,’ discusses & reads from her mystery, The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society.

April 15 | Book Review | Piranesi, a novel by Susanna Clarke. Reviewer: Sarah Reiter, prolific local fiction writer & artist.

April 22 | Book Review | Tracing Homelands: Israel, Palestine, and the Claims of Belonging by Linda Dittmar. Reviewer: Jim Collins, PhD, professor emeritus, Linguistic Anthropology, U at Albany, SUNY.

April 29 | Book Review | Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion that Science Underlies Our Transportation System by Wes Marshall. Reviewer: Jackie Gonzales, PhD, environmental historian & project manager, Capital Streets.

MUSIC

Beethoven’s Opus 72 (Fidelio), Overture, which, of course, is all about me!

In February 2014, my wife and I attended the Albany Symphony Orchestra concert, which included Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. We got the tickets from friends at church who gave them up because one of them hated that piece of music, thinking it was boring. Seeing and hearing Bolero live was exquisite.

Flash forward to March 2025, and blogger buddy Kelly linked to a performance of Ravel’s Bolero despite his long-standing disdain for the piece. He wrote, “This one’s really very good, and the camera work in this video is pretty terrific.” Not incidentally, this being the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth this year, ASO is performing Bolero again on April 5, 2024, at the Palace Theatre in Albany. We are not going because of a conflict, but I recommend it. Incidentally, Maurice and I have the same birthday.

Lisztomania -Phoenix

Bach at Home: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 Movement III by Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Defy Democracy – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Bored in the U.S.A. – Father John Misty

Hello, It’s Me – Evan Marks & Rebecca Jade. Vote in this year’s San Diego Music Awards for this song in Category 21 every day through March 27!

Personality Crisis – New York Dolls; Hot! Hot! Hot! – Buster Poindexter. David Johansen, Flamboyant New York Dolls Vocalist and Co-Founder, Dies at 75

Name of God – Mustafa

Mambo Lido – Peter Sprague

Oh! You Pretty Things – Lisa Hannigan

Lupron – Time Wharp

One O’Clock Jump – Buddy Rich

Joy, Joy! – Valerie June

Look What I Found – Lady Gaga (from A Star Is Born)

Bulletproof -La Roux

Death of Samatha – Yoko Ono

Coverville 1525: Cover Stories for Missing Persons and New Bohemians

Intro -The xx

Concern – William Tyler

Pique Dame by Franz von Suppe