This week, I’ve begun my third stint in the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies. RIRS is an innovative summer program in which Rhodes’ best and brightest students get to create their own independent research projects (each of which has some relation to the region) and work with one faculty member for eight weeks to complete…
Read MoreLet me just begin with the plot-spoiler for today’s post: I do not love 80s music. In fact, there is very little about the 80s in general that I even like, much less love. And I have almost no nostalgic feelings for that decade at all. I don’t like big-banged, hair-sprayed hair. I don’t like…
Read MoreAhhhhh, the 70s. Among many other things, it was a great decade for babies. Including and especially yours truly. I was born the same year as the Roe v. Wade decision, so that just goes to show you… errr, umm, well … I don’t know how to finish this sentence. That’s me in the picture…
Read MorePerhaps the only thing more difficult than picking out a single “favorite” song from an entire decade of music is trying to broadly summarize that decade for these accompanying posts. The tumultuous 60s, sometimes reactionary and sometimes revolutionary, marked one of the most dramatic periods in American culture, not only musically but socially and politically,…
Read MoreThe next several days of the 30 Day Song Challenge (The Sequel) are going to be a bit of a grand tour of musical history over the last 60 years. We start with the 1950’s, particular interesting to me as the decade when country, folk, blues, and gospel hopped into bed (and sometimes business) with…
Read MoreI don’t own, and never have owned, a convertible. (That’s me and my bff Dana Gabrion in the picture here, on a truly epic trip I took to the Left Coast to hang with her in L.A. a couple of years ago. Dana owns a convertible, of course.) I drive what can only be called,…
Read MoreToday’s prompt in the 30 Day Song Challenge (The Sequel) is a little tough if you live in a place like Memphis. Why? Because, if you live in a place like Memphis, your first question to yourself HAS TO BE: well, c’mon now, what kind of “sunny day” are you talking about? Of course, we…
Read MoreI should say first that there is very little that I don’t like about rainy days. I don’t find them dark or depressing or forlorn at all. On the contrary, I genuinely love a good rain, including and especially the blustery, electric, thunderous and torrential ones. Even in its most violent expressions, there’s something soothing…
Read MoreThere’s very little that is more disappointing to a true music fan than when his or her favorite band records a bona fide stinker of a song. When that happens, as it does all too often, I suspect most of us self-respecting music-lovers just avert our eyes/ears, turn away in ashamed obligation, give a conciliatory…
Read MorePart of me wanted to object to beginning this Challenge with a band I don’t like, since that seems contrary to the whole spirit of the enterprise, but I suppose since I’m picking a song I do like (even if it is from I band I don’t like) then I won’t complain. Though, I guess…
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