If nothing else, the process of putting together a collection of personally significant records has been an interesting exercise in mental inventory taking. Don’t let my writings fool you — for every memory recounted here in excruciating detail, countless others have utterly evaporated or only exist as cryptic scribbles in the margins of my psyche. […]

The Boston Phoenix was a fixture in my life from the dawn of the Nineties through the start of the new millennium. The weekly tabloid was the Hub’s answer to the Village Voice, and part of a now-defunct regional media empire which also included Greater Boston’s flagship alt-radio station. Every Thursday or Friday, a van […]

My attempt to revisit the first two seasons of Star Blazers last year began as an exercise in childhood nostalgia and ended on a far more somber note than I’d anticipated, thanks to my decision to switch over to the no-punches-pulled original Japanese episodes halfway through. It was a traumatic enough experience to cool my […]

Of the roughly five hundred records I’ve acquired in the past two years, less than a dozen were purchased at brick and mortar establishments. I have nothing against these places. I want them to survive and the scene to remain healthy because I frequently deal with their mail order departments. It’s just that the act […]

Sorry for the dry spell, but Monday’s snowstorm and Wednesday’s dentist appointment have thrown off my stride. The plague of distractions does not look like it will be easing until sometime next week, so expect the low content mode to linger a while longer. Please accept this 1982 trade publication ad as a consolation prize. […]

I have spent the past week and a half in the grip of La Grippe. The worst bits of it have subsided, but several unpleasant after effects have lingered on. It’s nothing too serious, but does call for some lighter fare until I’m able to steady myself again. Fortunately, I have just the pop confection […]

Harbor master steps out and says “the elephant seals left town” Dolphins jump and jive, but the clownfish stuck around Nat Geo and Cousteau, there’s seagulls in the sky Mermaids, nymphs, silkies ask where, for and why Gill yells, “we’re outta here, ” Shelly says, “right on” We’re making waves and starting raves before they […]

After we get home from work in the evening, there’s a time frame of roughly an hour where Maura and I are both downstairs feeding the animals and taking care of other immediate concerns. It’s also an ideal window for spinning some records. The downstairs of our home has an semi-open floorplan. What is spun […]

Maura and I had to drive out to Springfield on Tuesday. The trip took about an hour and a half each way, which meant quite a few searchers for the Least Shitty Song on the satellite radio’s roster of preset go-to stations and their shallow playlists. Somewhere on the outskirts of Auburn, I switched to […]

Too much of popcult history involves counting the hits and ignoring the misses, unless the miss is catastrophic or bizarre enough to accrue its own mythology. Yet the vast majority of shared cultural experiences and artifacts does not fall into either of these camps. They’re not enduring landmarks, but rather incidental bits of scenery viewed […]