rather rare records.

Elvis IGotLucky 1500 black crop

I just began a new publication all about elvis on medium

WE LAUNCHED our new pub­li­ca­tion Tell It Like It Was on Medium on Jan­uary 1, 2019. The ar­ti­cles within ad­dress pop­ular music, pri­marily rock & roll from the ’60s. “We” are John Ross (my fa­vorite music blogger), Lew Shiner (my fa­vorite nov­elist), and my­self. We love the music (and the books and the movies and the styles and the girls girls girls) of that era. [Read more] “I just began a new publication all about elvis on medium”

BleedingHeart Facebook 1500

check out bleeding heart liberal petitions on facebook

I HAVE A FACE­BOOK PAGE ti­tled Bleeding Heart Lib­eral Pe­ti­tions. Most days, I re­ceive a slew of emails with pe­ti­tions for var­ious causes such as saving an en­dan­gered species, urging my rep­re­sen­ta­tives in state and fed­eral gov­ern­ment to vote for or against a par­tic­ular bill, protest an in­jus­tice, etc. I read them all, sign most of them, and add a few to the Face­book page. [Read more] “check out bleeding heart liberal petitions on facebook”

Psychonautics PsychonautsJourney 1500 crop

if you’re not a psychonaut, then what are you?

THIS AR­TICLE STARTED AS A JOKE but will serve as an in­tro­duc­tion to psy­cho­nau­tics for the non-experienced. I use the word “ex­pe­ri­enced” here in its Hen­drixian meaning, re­fer­ring to the Jimi Hen­drix Ex­pe­ri­ence’s “Are You Ex­pe­ri­enced?” from their 1967 album of the same title: “Are you ex­pe­ri­enced? [Read more] “if you’re not a psychonaut, then what are you?”

WITS photo BandOnStage 1500 crop

looking at the foresight of “wild in the streets” fifty years later

“DON’T TRUST ANYONE OVER 30!” That was one of the mottos the coun­ter­cul­tural as­pect of the so-called “youth move­ment” had in the ’60s and it was pro­vided by Jerry Rubin. When he made that state­ment in 1967, there is a good chance that he knew ex­actly the kind of ef­fect that it would have then. [Read more] “looking at the foresight of “wild in the streets” fifty years later”

Supremes pose 1967 DFM 1500

a look at 101 swinging chicks of the swinging ’60s

AT CHRISTMAS A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO, I met my sister’s boyfriend Mark, who was two gen­er­a­tions younger than I was. Not un­der­standing what his tastes in any­thing were ex­cept that he liked good-looking women, my present to him was a book, Swingin’ Chicks Of The ’60s. It’s a col­lec­tion of photos and bi­ographies of 101 women fa­mous for their beauty decades ago. [Read more] “a look at 101 swinging chicks of the swinging ’60s”

LisaLaw PeaceFlagInSnow 1500

in advance of lew shiner’s “outside the gates of eden”

ONCE AN ALIEN­ATED, overly cre­ative teenage misfit, Lew Shiner has been a crit­i­cally suc­cessful writer for more than thirty years. His novel Glimpses won the World Fan­tasy Award in 1994 for Best Novel. He has also been one of my fa­vorite writers since I was turned on to his novels twenty-some years ago.  [Read more] “in advance of lew shiner’s “outside the gates of eden””

JennyDiski TheSixties outtake 1500

the sixties’ hope for a more enlightened tomorrow

I FOUND THIS DIS­CUS­SION about as­pects of The Six­ties in the com­ments sec­tion in an ar­ticle ti­tled “How we made: Dono­van’s Sun­shine Su­perman” by Dave Simpson for The Guardian (May 2, 2016). There are many par­tic­i­pants in the back-and-forth con­ver­sa­tions in the thread, but I will focus on just two com­menters, Bar­bKay and Katch33. [Read more] “the sixties’ hope for a more enlightened tomorrow”

CopsBashDemonstrators 1967 Pentagon 1500 crop

getting windy with john and lew at the tell it like it was a-go-go

COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU! The Tell It Like It Was A-Go-Go fea­turing Trini Lopez, Johnny Rivers, and Billy Lee Riley! Yeah, that’s a joke for those of us old enough to re­member the live al­bums from those artists recorded at the Whiskey A-Go-Go in Los An­geles. [Read more] “getting windy with john and lew at the tell it like it was a-go-go”