Total Eclipse of the Heart

There was a solar eclipse a few days ago. It wasn’t total in my area, but it was definitely a major event. It must have caused a major spike in streaming revenue for Bonnie Tyler; at least $1.50 on Spotify, as some wags put it, …

Too Much Blood

The 1980’s were a sad time for The Rolling Stones; they, more than any of their peers, struggled with staying relevant and staying a unit. In 1983, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would have happily chainsaw-murdered each other, which is why they lowered their standards …

Tolongo

If I see an album at the record store called Synchro System, I would assume, based on the name, that it may be some underground German house music from the 90’s. I would not expect it to be King Sunny Ade introducing Nigerian juju music …

Times Square

Before Rudy Giuliani cleaned up Times Square and turned it into a temple of consumerism, it was a den of iniquity that symbolized New York City’s seedy underbelly in the popular imagination. You had to be living a life of real squalor to end up …

Time After Time

The story goes that Cyndi Lauper refused to release Time After Time as her debut single because she didn’t want to be pigeonholed as a singer of romantic ballads. Instead, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was released, to wild success, of course, but there’s no …

This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)

David Byrne founded an online magazine that only publishes good news. It’s called Reasons To Be Cheerful. This may have seemed uncharacteristic to people who had had the impression that David Byrne was a little bit of a cynical, aloof character, maybe even a little …

This Is the House

I don’t know why I’m only realizing this now, but Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) is one of the greatest albums of the 80’s. It might be the oversaturation effect; that song is so overplayed, it completely overshadows everything else. And even knowing that …

This Is the Day

I’m one of those people who discovered the The because they once made a Hank Williams tribute album. That’s exactly the kind of random novelty project that attracts me like a bee to honey, but apparently that’s not what this band is famous for. They’re …

This Is a Foxy World

If I had to sum up the world I’m living in, or my worldview, or my view of the world – I wouldn’t call it foxy. Foxiness implies a spirit of sexy fun that the world, in general, rarely musters. But I’ll accept it coming …

This City Never Sleeps

There’s only one city that carries the sobriquet City That Never Sleeps, and she’s been a muse to songwriters for as long as insomniac creative types have been flocking there. The Eurythmics were only the latest to pay tribute to the New York City subway, …