Bostworld

Why would anyone want to take a vacation right in the middle of the holiday season? A confluence of factors — coinciding free time availability, expiring vacation days, overwork and its attendant unstoppable urge to flee — caused my wife and I to travel cross country to visit the Florida Keys three weeks before Christmas this year. Encamped at an ocean-facing getaway that could also provide animal-free meals, we spent a lovely handful of days sightseeing, indulging in water sport, watching satellite television, getting eaten alive by invisible sand fleas, and generally trying to get some rest before the onslaught of year’s-end celebration.

Continue reading ‘Miami Beach In December’

We’re big fans of the Les Humphries Singers here at the Bostworld. Listening to the LHS is like mounting a helium-filled inner tube and sailing back in time, right over the the last 35 years of musical disappointment to a time when young singers would don funky futuristic costumes to sing in unison at their highest registers to up-tempo arrangements full of loud drums and frenetic full orchestras. If the original LHS canon ever comes out on CD, I’ll be queing up for my copies on day of release.

Continue reading ‘Les Humphires - Piano Concerto’

Nobody will ever accuse me of being overly festive this time of year. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been much of a Christmas fan since the beginning of my second decade. Sure: I like gift-giving and all that, but I can’t find it within myself to — as one commercial I saw recently put it — “slow down and take the time to reflect on the things that really matter.” The things that really matter to me are at the front and center of my consciousness all year ’round, and believe me: slowing down is the last thing that comes to mind when I reflect upon them. For me, this time of year is anything but relaxed. I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels that the end of the calendar year is far and away the most hectic. And this year, events have seemed to converge upon me to create a perfect storm of busyness.

Continue reading ‘Your Favorite Little Podcast: Episode Nine’

In this installment of of presidential children’s book illustrations, comic book legend Jack Davis presents the life of America’s 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. Despite their ample brown and orange hued delights, these drawings offer nothing close to the lovingly rendered detail of the ones he did depicting the life of Abraham Lincoln. While some of the full-page drawings feature the careful cross-hatching and stylized realism found in the best of Davis’ commercial work, many of them appear to have been handed over to an assistant for hasty finishing.

It is unknown if this is the result of tight deadlines, an overbooked client card, or just lack of interest on Davis’ part. Perhaps turn of the century America didn’t resonate as deeply with him as did the civil war era. Or perhaps he was simply drawn less to Roosevelt than Lincoln. Certainly, he is not alone. Despite his central place in the presidential pantheon, Roosevelt remains a controversial figure. One of the architects of the modern presidency — larger than life, media-friendly, and the central figure in his own bona fide cult of personality — Roosevelt is both lionized as a “trust busting” conservationist and pilloried as a jingoistic war monger.

Continue reading ‘Jack Davis Meets Theodore Roosevelt’

I put together “Songs Of Spiritual Uplift” back in 1996, shortly after it became apparent that the Meat Puppets were headed for a permanent hiatus. I still had some Nirvana money burning a hole in my pocket, so I made a few phone calls, dumped some gear into the back of my pickup, and made for the recording studio. For a couple years, I actually offered the four-song seven-inch EP on my Web site. I even sold one or two, believe it or not. But I suppose it’s only fair to the likes of the Archie Ulms, Steve Karmens and Alan Niedermanns of the world that I offer my own amateurish musical efforts for the bargain price of a download. Besides, if I don’t hurry, someone will scoop me. Trouble is, I’m in such a hurry right now that I hardly have time to offer a reasonable spiel on the subject. Fortunately, the marketing drivel I wrote to accompany the disk’s release should serve me just fine:

Continue reading ‘Songs Of Spiritual Uplift As Sung By Today’s Sounds’

I tend to steer clear of downtown Phoenix these days. It seems every time I venture down there, I discover another of my old favorites consigned to the scrap heap or worse, a target for “renovation.” The cheerfully run-down squalorous downtown Phoenix of my childhood is all but gone, a victim of the kind of people who have always complained that there’s not enough to “do” in Phoenix. Our downtown has never reflected the cultural aspirations of these folks who envision a shiny urban entertainment mecca full of fun for the whole family and free from spontaneous structural failure and those annoying homeless people. But now that they’re finally getting their way, I hardly recognize the place any more.

Continue reading ‘Walking Among The Giants, Part Two’

According to the liner notes of this self-released album from 1975, Milwaukee keyboard prodigy and supper club circuit regular Archie Ulm “devastated the traditional concept of organ playing by inciting his audiences to stunning highs of musical awareness.” On this album, together with “two of the finest musicians in Milwaukee,” Ulm “creates the ultimate effect, challenging his instruments to go beyond their designed limits in contemporary pops and rhythm and blues.” Unfortunately, they didn’t challenge the limits of their budget, for the end result is markedly lo-fi. Some of the electronic sound effects sound exactly like compression artifacts. In other places, the “total sound synthesis” is almost indistinguishable from the surface noise on this substandard pressing.

Continue reading ‘Archie Ulm At The Yamaha EX-42′