Beethoven"s 2 Symphonic Masterpieces 'Floored" Me

 Today I have listened through two diffrent, complete YouTub presentations to ludwig van Beethoven's 7th and 8th  Symphonies which he composed in 1811 and 1812..some 15 yearsbefore h prematurely succumbed to illness in 1827, only 5ee6 years old.  He had severe alcohol-induced liver disease and lea poisoning. when he died on March 17,1827.Whil not officially credited with being born on December 16rh,1770, hi birthday was faithfully celebrated through his lifetim onthat date.Hence little Schroeder ofPeanuts would make a point o wishing everyone a happy Beethiven's Birthday fo December 16th. KNown for rhhisshort temper andsocial awkwardness, hi music'squality fo me ...wespecially the nine symphonies...were by far his greatest creations.  The Seventh Symphony is one of my all-time favorite classical music pieces. At 41-plus minutes in length,whene I first heard it a couple of days ago, i was stunned myself by how deeply 2emotionally compelling it is: Ican't get enough of it!If you go out toYouTube, y can hear just about anything Beethoven did..or the works any other notable musical artists.  Of course, you'll probably have a nice picture or video to look at while listening...

Good Day Today, With Moderate Physical Training

 Well, I'm midway through today's evening, having passed up on early rising.  I was a bit restrained with my running/walking training but managed some Martinus Evans-level "slow AF" brief runs back and forth across my backyard, along with a few minutes of running-in-place.  I'm brewing a pot of flavored decaf coffee, and then I'd like to get through a few minutes more of ipf and/or rock-running.  I still feel like I'm encountering an undue amount of resistance to my workouts, bu I'm sticking to the late Jesse Jackson's immortal quote: "Keep hope alive!" Earlier during the afternoon while Melissa was having her teeth cleaned, I lied down in the back and listened to the entire Sufjan Stevens album (from 2006) titled The Avalanche..my favorite tracks from it are The Henney Buggy Band and Pittsfield and the title song.After 9:30, I'm shutting things down in the front of the house and watching baseball with the sound lowered...and the air conditioning on while I bundle up and hide under a blanket. Getting up early tomorrow morning may well be a "hit" for me, for I could well do some more exercising and writing. Hope you all had a wonderful day as it is now winding down, and that tomorrow carries with it many blessings and things to be grateful for...Sweet dreams!...

Some Perspective About My Past in 1971

 It's Friday morning on what used to be a typical weekday.  55 years ago I would have been showing up in the ninth grade at Nova in Davie as the weather outside was transitioning to a stench of chronic Everglades fire smog.  Lobo's debut hit Me and You and a Dog Named Boo was getting its radio overplay...soon I would tire of hearing it.  I was fourteen and a half, thoroughly tired of having to go to school for  a year. After school I temporarily stood up to a bully leaving the bus one afternoon and go t a little beat down in a fist fight)The esxperience taught me what contemptible ghouls the unwelcome onlookers were who were staring at me in a circle.  The next morning I received some sympathy from busstop classmates for what I went through, and that creep Arnone laid off me, never to be a friend. Later that summer during the early 10th grade I would return to school more serious in my studies.  On prime time sitcom television, some new series like All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore were starting their runs...my family became good fans.That fall "my" Miami Dolphins, coached by Don Shula, were good enough to make it to the Super Bowl...which they convincingly lost to Dallas. Overall, I was not a happy camper and tended to slip into daydreaming for much of my high school class time.  At home, my father would overdose me with talk of his dog racing betting strategies and philosophies. Still, I appreciated his efforts at weightlifting to the point of getting good at the bench press, pull-up, and standing press (I could lift up my own weight from the ground).   Growing up during this period was a confirmation of me not having an easy life. In my home neighborhood, my neighbors were raucous and out of control, loudly playing music deep into the night.  

Cancer Chemo, Martinus, Baseball TV includes Florida, Carbs and Hydration for Training

 Yesterday Melissa drove me down to UF Health Davis Cancer pavilion for my periodic Avastin anti-cancer infusion.  First I had a blood lab draw, after which I gave a urine specimen.  Then Melissa brought over an Opus hot latte coffee.  First I waited for the test results to come in, after which the nurse connected the IV line to the incoming infusion.  While sitting there waiting for it, I listened to some Amazon Prime Music on my Android.  Then I tuned in to my public library Libby app, which played the audiobook Slow AF Run Club, written by Martinus Evans.  It's a good, compelling piece of literature about running, and how you can swing it if you stick to the author's suggestions, backed by his own life experiences.  He says he's completed some eight marathons and more than 100 other races, simply by going through the prescribed courses without ever trying to pick up the running pace.  For the neighborhood I live in, I can see me running around the block "slow as F" and then applying that standard to longer road distances.  I'm already doing a tapered version of this in the back yard, trotting back and forth between the east and west privacy fences.  While at the doctors', Melissa got me hooked up receiving the 2026 regular season live schedule featuring visual coverage of the Florida teams Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins.Today I plan to review the rosters of Tampa Bay, Miami and Atlanta...should be fun.  Speaking of running slowly (for long distances} Martinus impressed me discussing pre-run carb-loading, along with his wise emphasis on proper hydration.  It makes me want carry a long a little bottle of Propel fitness water, easy AF to tote as I go..for this early morning, I was faithful in getting up just before three, when I did some bathroom business and ran in place for 16 minutes before writing this.  And now, another good day to look forward to...

Warm-to Hot Saturday Afternoon with Additional Backyard Exercise

 Now that it is mid-afternoon, 80+ degrees outside, I'd like to report that after Melissa so lovingly and graciously drove me out to Depot Park, just a few blocks south of downtown Gainesville, I walked one solid lap during that Parkrun 5K before returning to the car.  Early on, E,J., one of their volunteer parkwalkers, got a nice, friendly conversation going with me.  We talked about the birds at the park and their beautiful and sometimes funny songs.  I brought up the fact that before my brain cancer diagnosis and surgery late last year, I had achieved a pretty fast speed-walking pace for Parkruns.  Now, I said, I can't even keep up with 80+-year-old visually-impaired Jon, whose walking pace seems nearly effortless as he seems to float along the path.  Next weekend I'd like to try the same course and extend my walk, hopefully for the full 5K distance.  Now I just came in from our back yard, immersed in the afternoon sunny heat, where I walked its inner perimeter for six minutes while our dog Peewee enthusiastically ran with me...it was pretty tiring! during this effort I listened in on Sufjan Steven's opening segment to his album-concluding track Impossible Soul. That 25-minute song now stands as my "Song of the Month" for March 2026 although it is now 16 years old. Now I'm sipping on some recently brewed coffee typing this after the close of my Saturday home exercise.  i plan to relax and watch some TV, maybe looking a bit at Khan's Shadow Magic novel...maybe not.  Let's all enjoy the rest of today and be thankful for the wonderful things we've been blessed with. Happy new spring season...

Take Back That Data Center They're Trying to Build Outside My Door

 In 1987 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came out with a wonderful, rocking singles hit titled Jammin' Me.  It's still my favorite of his, and I dig the sometimes cutting and always funny lyrics.  That last line about country clubs I just changed to reflect the billings insult that these new AI centers, which consume way too much electricity while often added to customers' bills without their permission, are a blight upon our community.  AI has done very little for me, and I don't see substantial improvement in it for the next two or three years, assuming that God is willing and I'm surviving well.  This morning I got up early and have already performed 20 minutes of floor c-v exercise, including 15 of running-in-place.  I'm still imagining plopping my day's homework on the dining room table to do alongside my nice instant coffee.  I'm determined to enjoy a good day today, practicing avoidance of schteool along with its myriad hassles.  i'd like to check out local bookstores while the Dawg's at Scenthound for foreign language books and change my voter registration to Republican, giving me more real choices during the approaching primaries in this 2026 off-year election.  Looks like i'm going to follow in the footsteps of fellow conservative old geezer voters in faithfully going to the polls! Trump delivered his State of the Union address yesterday evening.  The opposition response was personal and largely condemnatory, with obscenities against Trump freely flying about.  Don't know how that's going to transfer to voting attendance in November.  But get ready for yet another tired old local protest rally in a few weeks..."democracy in action" my ass when folks simply won't vote and then they complain later!   We're looking forward again to today to see Anita and Jim, and some real dining room table foreign language study looks like it is reallygoing to happen...maybe I can use Wikipeida articles in different languages like Russian, German, Spanish and even Chinese. Still, Chatgpt looks good for the moment.  Now time to listen to my TV music, languages and self-improvement podcasts. Oh, it seems like I slept well last night. I am not showing my exercise minutes on the blog,, preferring to write the figures in pen on the inside of a puzzle book...I've done 20 total combined ipf and rock-running minutes so far with some more planned to come.  Y'all have a wonderful day, too...

Keep Quiet, and They Come After You

My lament: 

In the first Godfather movie, Don Vito Corleone refuses to enter the narcotics trade, staying quiet and put.  This only invites his enemy Virgil Solozzo to attempt assassination and start a gangland war.  In the same way I wonder whether calmly going about my postal duties on the job (back in 1998) wouldn't have welcomed harassment and bullying from the folks finding themselves with some floor supervisory authority over me at the time.  I refer here to Henry Lang., Art Green's Lorraine, Menal, Jose and the two Lisas. If I were Tom Petty or Bob Dylan I might add a few pointed lyrics for their great Jammin' Me song. Glad to be finally done with the lot of these bullies: completely useless people on every level  Oh, and near the end there was also Willy, a young, ignorant hyper-macho boo-butt bent on crushing people with his alpha-male persona and cutting, combative tongue.  Bye-bye, creepos.  Nothing wrong with me being reasonable and a good worker, but sometimes a little bluntness and confrontation can work well. Later today I have scheduled an infusion chemotherapy treatment at the Cancer Pavilion...I've reacted well so far to chemo in the past.  No ninth grade nonsense and discouragement today, and I've already done about 3 minutes of home exercise. Looks like the bigshots in state and nat'l government are at it again, trying to roll back my already-confirmed citizenship and voting status.  Leave me the eff alone, fascist jerks...

Now that that's off my chest, I'd like to shift a little into gratitude mode.  Those folks were probably, in their own minds, just doing their best and maybe to them I wasn't quite measuring up to their expectations.  Today I had a chemotherapy infusion session at the UF Health Davis Pavilion.  The techs seemed at first unable to find a stick in my arm or hand to draw the needed lab blood, but later all went well.  I'm tired after a long day and would like to rest under pleasant temperatures at home in this warmer than seasonable weather.  Tomorrow's hump day Wednesday.  I've concluded already that the Smiths' How Soon is Now is my Song of the month for February and for the year 2026 as well.  It's a profound anthem on asserting myself in the face of my shyness and deep feeling of social alienation: the ultimate Goth/melancholy song!  Go Morrissey, you hit it out of the park.  As for Bad Bunny, sorry but he just comes across to me more like a gangland hoodlum street pimp than a true musical artist with that phony woke demeanor of his.  Maybe someday one of these folks will produce something musically memorable...but maybe not.  As for Super Bowl halftime shows, though, that does it for me.  A close runner-up to How Soon is Now is Zebra's chilling Who's Behind the Door, with Tom Petty's 1987 Jammin' Me Right Behind in third with its relevant, funny and pointed lyrics.  What a rocker... Running-in-place (IPF) updated counter after today: 22 minutes...

Songs of the Month and Year, Exercise and Cancer Treatments

 Today was an open Sunday spent at home, with me largely withdrawing to our living room couch.  I did exeerise a bit, doing a total of 3.1 virtual miles...don't feel like I did anything, though.  I have Steve Miller Band's minor 1968 singles hit Living in the USA as my Song of December.  Also, Garbage's 2025 song There's No Future in Optimism gets my nod for 2025 Song of the Year...more about that one later.  I'm due to get another round of brain cancer radiation treatment at the UF Health Davis Pavillion.  To all of you a very good and blessed day... 

I'm a Sick Billy-Boy, They Say

 Up until the October 21st ct-scan done on my head that determined a presumably cancerous, rapidly growing golfball-size tumor in my brain, my general state of health, medically speaking, was determined to be good.  But after the brain surgery done three days later, it was confirmed that I am afflicted with an aggressive variant of brain cancer called GBM, or Glioblastoma Multiforme.  It's an open question as to whether treatment strategies like chemotherapy or radiation will arrest the GBM development or reduce it, but I've been enthusiastic about going along with the prescribed program.  So far, my adverse reactions to treatment...mainly radiation...have been brain inflammation and headaches, partially remedied by steroid capsules and OTC capsules like extra-strength Tylenol.  But I'm still susceptible to getting tired over the course of a typically long day, and on weekdays I usually spend a substantial amount of time with Melissa meeting doctor and radiation therapy appointments at UF Health.  Doctors like my oncologist and the skillful surgeon who operated on my brain encourage me to be physically active while listening to my body in a cautionary way.  I've already scaled back my running training, avoid gym treadmills and show up consistently to Saturday morning Parkrun 5K events in which walking takes center stage, usually with Melissa and me.  Still, it can be a matter of testing my will power to cover the race's course from start to finish.  At home, I have been using my living room floor...with a lot of rug covering...to exercise while watching TV and dutifully record  my times spent in Zone One movement.  Today I covered (virtually) the equivalent of 4.4 miles before finally calling it a night.

The medical authorities say I'm sick with an aggressive variety of brain cancer and the prognosis for a reasonable number of years ahead to live is limited and subject to how my brain responds to the prescribed treatment regimen.  Yet, by all acounts, I do well with blood tests and vital signs.  I have a good appetite and food gets easily digested and passes though my body without trouble.  I don't know how much time I have remaining on Earth before my body dies...or the Earth around me from my own subjective point of view.  That far-reaching video by the alternative rock band My Chemical Romance titled Welcome to the Black Parade vividly presents this notion, and I recommend it if only to broaden your perspectives.  Just copy and paste the title, once you're on YouTube, into the site's search engine.  It is , in my opinion, that band's crowning achievement and can really bring on the tears for how the singer deeply honors his father.  As for my own life, I'll just carry on, although at this stage it seems like I'm in a decaying orbit, destined to burn up and crash.  Let sustained life and quality of life be my true destination, both short and long term...

End-of-Month Commentary

 It's the end of another month, so let me just say that, by default, my "song of November" is Garbage's There's No Future in Optimism...it's probably going to be my song of the year for 2025.  I'm a little disillusioned to discover a dearth in 2025 album releases by musical acts I like.  Maybe things will start to improve in 2026.

With running, November wasn't a very active month for me.  My endurance has diminished due to my recovery from October 24th brain surgery...today's 4.8-mile walk was a case in point.  I'm a lot slower in Parkruns, and often feel that it's an accomplishment to just get through the 3.1-mile course.   I still think that in spite of my medical circumstances I gave it the college try.  Staying active through the fatigue...that's the brave way to go...

Clemson-Louisville Football Game on Eve of Parkrun

 Seeing that tomorrow morning is Depot Parkrun  5K here in Gainesville and that, anticipating participating in it with Melissa, I usually suffer through a night of insomnia, I settled down this evening in front of the old boob tube to watch Clemson, a recently rare underdog, try to keep up with Louisville in ACC football.  Dabo Sweeney has done well to keep this rebuilding Tigers team playing together as a unit, while the Cardinals, while very talented, tend to make a lot of mistakes.  After their placekicker missed an easy extra point and kicked two makeable field goal attempts wildly to the side, Clemson somehow managed to squeak out a 20-19 road win.  Sweeney was beside himself in ecstasy as if he had just won the national championship again,   But I was tired and just muted the sound and listened to some Amazon Music.  Come tomorrow morning, I predict it to be cold in the forties when the race begins at 7:30, but to quickly warm up as the sun rises...

Dunkin' Treats and Song of the Month

 It's a pretty, clear, cool and windy day outside this afternoon on Halloween Eve, and I am now sitting in the dining room at my Chromebook writing this.  Melissa just drove me over to our nearby Dunkin' for some of their fancy coffee and a half dozen doughnuts, all set up while Jewel's big hit Standing Still was being piped through the store's sound system.  Afterwards, I finished my daily foreign language copying sentence-by-sentence...it's fun to see how much I can put together and derive meaning from.  So today I'll be mentioning my "song of the month"for October 2025: Garbage's There's No Future in Optimism.  It's the fourth straight month I've picked this British alternative rock group, fronted by Shirley Manson, for the honor.  Starting with the repeated phrase "If you're ready for love", Shirley then goes off on a message of standing firm in creative love in the face of social disruption and societal breakdown: the ultimate "drop out" song.  The most profound lines in it are, "There is no future that can't be designed

With some imagination and a beautiful mind"  The idea Is that none of us have to ride the momentum thatcan build up hatred, protest and adversityif we allow for that to happen...we can simply stop on a dime and turn around.  Since I don't see anything of value being released during the next two months in 2025, I'm guessing that There's No Future in Optimism will be my Song of the Year for 2025.  It's a song that I think the Beatles could have made into a hit back in 1969 had they not broken up and if George Harrison...whose voice resembled that of Manson's...had written it and promoted its recording.  After all, that was the time right after John Lennon proposed to Paul McCartney that the band members each contribute four tracks to their next album...and Paul was too exhausted from his daughter's recent birth to seriously consider it. I could have done well with the Fab Four remaining a unit and coming out with a few relatively mediocre albums over the next two or three years...oh, well.  As for Yours Truly, I am bent on recovery from my October 24th surgery, and am subsequently being stubborn in pushing for a better, longer, and higher-quality existence during the time left for me here on Earth.  God bless all of you...

My Song of the Month for September 2025

Today it is approaching the end of September, and as I've done in previous months this year, I have a "song of the month" this time around as well.  Once again, for the second month in a row, it is There's No Future in Optimism, by the British alternative group Garbage.  Sung by Shirley Manson, it is a commentary on our times about protests and the State bearing down on them.  But we can design our own futures, based on love, in the midst of all the turmoil.  I like that message, and this song sits well with me in our troubled times.  I don't see anything improving in our society in political terms, and the media, both social and mass, seems hell-bent on aggravating tensions, fear and anger among the population.  Our president wants to wage war against any American who doesn't swear undying and unquestioning personal fealty to him.  I don't feel like following his sick tune...no, I'm charting my own course and this song carries a much better message.  So far this year, here are the "songs of the month":

September    There's No Future in Optimism...by Garbage

August         There's No Future in Optimism...by Garbage

July              The Birds...by Franz Ferdinand

June             Stuck in My Head...by Arcade Fire

May             Walking on a Dream...by Empire of the Sun

April            Nothing I Need...by Lord Huron

March          Under the Rug...by Arcy Drive

February      Starburster...by Fonraines DC

January        Everyone Out...by DIIV

People in Groups: Always a Power Struggle

In the preamble to the first Lord of the Rings movie, Fellowship of the Ring, the "Lady of the Woods" elf Geladriel (played by Cate Blanchett) explains the origin of the conflict about the special Ring of Power that the evil spirit Sauron used to bind under his domination all of the rings he "gifted" to the different nations of beings.  To the nine men-kings he bestowed each with a ring, for more than anything they coveted power.  Yet upon each's passing, they found themselves completely bound to Sauron, abject slaves to his will. Still, to the extent that they could strike terror in the hearts of ordinary people, I suppose that they would have derived much pleasure from this evil bullying.  I think J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of this fantasy series, had much insight into the basic, rank human nature that is much more universal among our species.  The truth is that you can't get three people together into a group without them sorting out their respective ranks...from top to bottom.  I'm not just theorizing this: I've lived it, going on 69 years come this October.  Barbara Streisand once sang, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."  But beyond the benefits and protections that an advanced civil society can bestow on me, I find it annoying, demeaning and stifling to find myself entangled within groups...and I'm sick of that sorting of pecking orders. Just before the Beatles broke up in late 1969, there were two group meetings, one on the 8th and the other on the 20th.  In the earlier meeting, John Lennon made the all-too-reasonable proposal that he, Paul and George each be accorded four songs on their future albums, with one or two given to Ringo. Paul, full of his perceived role as the the group's leader, rejected John's offer.  After Lennon's successful concert adventure a few days later, he announced his "divorce" from the Beatles on that second meeting twelve days later.  There was a flexibility, a willingness to work things out, in Lennon's original proposal, but people stuck in their minds with power aren't rationally reasoning things out.  The general problem I personally see in this translates into all social situations, whereby there are individuals consumed with their own sense of standing within the group, and they will sabotage any meaningful input from me while putting me down in what they regard as my "proper place". I am so sensitive to this that I don't even want to "show up" in some of the gatherings offered at church or in connection to the Parkruns I frequent...and when I was at the post office I tended to avoid union meetings: now it's retirement reunions I steer clear of.  But you know, I can always attend and just sit in the back and keep my mouth shut or just engage in small talk...

Musical Artists Speaking Ill of Colleagues in the Trade

I was watching YouTube videos about popular music groups of the past and noticed that some of the preferred posts feature what different musical artists think about their colleagues within the trade.  Specifically, I just saw one video that listed five artists who didn't like the Beatles...and of course they explained why they felt that way. They were Lou Reed, Quincy Jones, Trent Reznor, Michael Stipe and Julian Casablancas. To me, all of these "artists" come away from their bashings appearing like musical snobs who think they know better than plain folk like you or me.  Since the only Reed song I've heard and liked was Take a Walk on the Wild Side and he seems to have no singing voice to speak of, I'll dispose of him up front.  Jones was a renowned record producer and heavily aligned with soul and jazz, a stickler for technique when it comes down to playing musical instruments. Unfortunately, I've never been all that into either of those genres.  Reznor, the frontman for Nine Inch Nails, only did one song, Head Like a Hole, that I liked, and Casablancas fronts the alt-rock band the Strokes, which produced a couple of songs to my liking, Reptilia and 12:51.  But Stipe and his band R.E.M. I've long considered among my favorites because their music and lyrics strike a strong emotional chord with me...like the Beatles did.  I think a lot of the divisive rhetoric is being magnified on social media as clickbait to build up user volume and revenue. People can believe what they want, just as I do.  My general view of the aforementioned critics is you can have the music of Reed, Jones and Reznor...no loss to me, and Casablancas isn't talented enough to even enter a conversation about anyone else...leaving Michael Stipe for me to scratch my head about in puzzlement.  But in honesty the Beatles themselves didn't hold back in what they thought about others, especially John and George.  I don't idolize anyone, and I can't think of any musical act that always produced stuff I liked, including the Beatles, which I regard as the greatest popular music act of all time..  

My Song of the Month for July 2025

Scottish alternative rock band Franz Ferdinand gets my nod in July for my personal favorite "song of the month" with the final track of their January album release (The Human Fear), titled The Birds.  It has a relentless guitar riff/hook to it, and Alex Kapranos, the lead singer and chief creative force behind their music and lyrics comes off sounding quite a lot like the Doors' Jim Morrison...I mean they sound like audio doppelgangers!  This is the second straight month in which I listened to a recent release by a group I already liked, sadly disliked almost the entire album but then suddenly bonded with their final track...for June it was Arcade Fire, their Pink Elephant album and the song Stuck in My Head.  The Birds contains simple lyrics, with Kapranos expressing gratitude to the listener for "accepting him despite what he has done"...that's repeated throughout this catchy tune.  So now here are my songs of the month so far for 2025:

July        The Birds   by Franz Ferdinand

June        Stuck in My Head   by Arcade Fire

May        Walking on a Dream   by Empire of the Sun

April       Nothing I Need   by Lord Huron

March     Under the Rug   by Arcy Drive

February  Starburster    by Fontaines DC

January   Everyone Out   by Diiv

Now, it's onward to August...

New Franz Ferdinand Track Works for Me in July

Since we are now getting into the middle of July, I'm starting to see whether I can't find a good "current" song to theme this month after.  Let's see...the Scottish alternative group Franz Ferdinand this past January came out with a new album, titled The Human Fear.  I listened to it the other day, and, just like when I listened to Arcade Fire's new LP release Pink Elephant, the entire album seemed like a dud...that is, until the very last track, The Birds.  And finally, I heard a really good song.  So for the time being, at least, The Birds is my song of the month for July, unless another tune comes along to replace it.  Check it out on YouTube...

YouTube Channel Shows Making of Great Old Rock Albums

I've recently been checking out a YouTube channel, titled Film Retrospective, that covers the making of different famous albums by sixties rock groups.  The most notable ones are the Beatles and Rolling Stones.  Each posting covers an album in a chronological order, discussing the different tracks in the order that they were recorded, with a lot of footage showing the band members, producers, sound engineers, or anyone else who happened to be in the picture. I am the most interested in how the Beatles went about developing songs and recording them, as well as how they got along with each other and others.  With them, it seemed to me that the biggest change occurred over the years with John Lennon, who was very negatively affected by the torrid, whirlwind pace of concerts, public relations events and recording studio sessions that manager Brian Epstein imposed on him and the rest of the band.  Lennon had for years been floating around the idea of quitting the Beatles...it's really amazing, especially seeing him in an unstable state on some of these videos, that he waited until near the end of 1969 before pronouncing himself "divorced".  As for the Rolling Stones, they had their own problems with founding member Brian Jones, who like Lennon did not have the emotional constitution to handle the fame and limelight and allowed himself to become heavily dependent on mind-altering drugs. Watching these YouTube videos starkly exposes the frailty of human existence...these folks were the success stories that others only dreamed of becoming, yet there was a great amount of sadness and resentment with them that their striving never seemed to help with.  I think that so far my favorite video in this series was the one about the Beatles' making of the Magical Mystery Tour album in 1967...click HERE to see it.  I have a theory about Lennon's developing strategies of dealing with the stress placed on him, too.  He, in my opinion, came to collect people around him like Yoko Ono, Yannis "Magic Alex" Mardas, and their second manager, Allen Klein, to shield him from the pressure and influence of others (such as Paul McCartney, George Martin and the media).  But that's just my theory.  Check out some of these videos, especially if you know and like the Beatles and Stones...

My Song of the Month for June 2025

We're coming to the end of another month, so it's time for me to come out and announce my "Song of the Month" for June: Stuck in My Head by Arcade Fire. It's the final track on their newly released album Pink Elephant. When I first listened to Pink Elephant, I was full of excited anticipation for some for great Arcade Fire music...only to be greatly disappointed as track after track seemed weak and lame.  And then it came down to the very end, and wouldn't you know it, they came through with a big winner.  Singer/songwriter Win Butler gives a passionate performance with cutting lyrics and a robust, fast pace reminding me of the group's much earlier track Rebellion (Lies).  There are no other songs for June that, to me, come anywhere close to Stuck in My Head.  It's also, in my estimation, the "Song of 2025" so far.  Give it a listen and tell me what you think...

SONGS OF THE MONTH 2025

JUNE    Stuck in My Head by Arcade Fire

MAY     Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun

APRIL   Nothing I Need by Lord Huron

MARCH   Under the Rug by Arcy Drive

FEBRUARY Starburster by Fontaines DC

JANUARY Everyone Out by Diiv

RIP, Bobby Sherman

Bobby Sherman was the young, brash-sounding singer I grew to avoid whenever he made one of his regular appearances on the mid-1960s rock and roll TV series Shindig!. No, I just didn't care for the dude although he most likely was doing his job well...forgive me, I was just 9-10 years old at the time and had no sense of musical sophistication.  That series didn't last long, and apparently neither did Sherman's fame...until his career was resurrected with him, as a teen idol, spawning a string of hit singles in the late sixties and early seventies.  His songs seemed to me a bit weak, but at least I didn't have to watch him perform them.  Then, in the spring of 1970 my entire perception of Bobby Sherman drastically changed for the better when I heard his new singles release Hey Mister Sun.  I was thirteen, and closing out my eighth grade year in junior high school, thoroughly depressed and beaten down by life.  But the radio...specifically Miami AM station WINZ on 940 khz...often played Sherman's minor hit, and it stuck with me, lifting my spirits in the midst of a difficult time.  After that I was on board with good ol' Bobby...the next year his song The Drum was another enjoyable, upbeat tune.  I'm mentioning him today because he just died of kidney cancer at the age of 81, and apparently after his musical career decided to devote his efforts in Los Angeles to promoting emergency medical care.  I think I'd like to check out some of those very old (sixty years ago) performances on Shindig! he did and see if...just maybe...my level of musical sophistication hasn't grown enough to at least appreciate his efforts way back then.  God bless you, Bobby Sherman...