Wayne Shorter’s ‘Schizophrenia’

Wayne Shorter is one of those cats that sounds and feels as if his music is coming from an entirely different place from any of his contemporaries. There’s an intellectual quality to the music that not even Miles Davis ever achieved. Davis reached both celebrity and more listeners with Kind Of Blue, laying claim to […]

99 Problems But Vinyl Ain’t One

The year of our Lord 2023 started out with me feeling like I’d run the course in regards to vinyl buying. I don’t know if I was burnt out, going through a rough record patch, or maybe it was just the idea that prices were going to just keep going up and up. Regardless, I […]

Tangerine Dream Dreams

I was trying to remember when I first got into Tangerine Dream. I remember the first album I bought from them was Tangram, shortly after I’d bought a turntable in late 2008. I found a copy of Tangram at Half Price Books for $1. It was what I’d call back in the day “The Nice […]

Graduation, Walks, Records…

Last Friday night my wife, myself, both of our daughters, and my son’s girlfriend sat in the bleachers of the WCHS football field and watched as the boy shook hands with people we don’t know and received his diploma. Despite the near 90 degree heat we were relatively comfortable, our backs to the west as […]

I’d Grade Myself ‘Fair’

I’m 49-years old and there are days when I feel I’m falling apart. For a guy who at this time seven years ago was limping around with a numb leg and drop foot because of a herniated disc I’m doing pretty good. No limp and no numbness thanks to a Discectomy in March of 2016, […]

Record Cleaning For The Soul

Lately I’ve found a lot of comfort in cleaning my record collection. Maybe it’s just a distraction for a tired brain, or maybe it’s my anal-retentive, OCD tendencies up to their old tricks. Or possibly it’s just as simple as records need cleaned regardless of how shiny they look on the surface. Even those brand […]

Final Vinyl?

I got into collecting vinyl because I’m a fan of ritual, lover of album art, I’m mildly OCD, and ever since I was a little kid I’ve been obsessed with music. I’m not one of those people that theorizes about how much better vinyl sounds than any other format. I still think CDs are the […]

Weird Al, Wendy Carlos, and a Prison Town

It’s Percussion Ensemble season here. Nearly every weekend in the months of February and March are spent traveling to different high schools so we can watch our 17-year old perform with the Warsaw Percussion Ensemble. This year their show is horror-themed and called “Eternal Nightmare”. They start out with an eerie rendition of Bananarama’s “Cruel […]

Coming to terms, records, guitars…

It’s been close to a month since we found out they were closing the plant I’ve been working in for over two decades. There’s been plenty of second-guessing, mild panic, quiet moments of reflection, and craft beer or two drank. Despite the anxiety of the great unknown, I’ve pretty much come to terms with the […]

Labor Of Love

The true meaning of Labor Day weekend has nothing to do with not laboring because you do that crap all week long. No, laboring doing something you love is perfectly fine. Why? Because I say so, that’s why. For me, I started a Labor Day weekend tradition many Labor Days ago. Maybe in 2014 or […]