How Prince Changed Minneapolis Prince would become famous by making Minneapolis famous. For that—and a million other reasons—we will always love him.

Here's what I wrote the day Prince died 1/2

There was some Madonna Discorse on here lately that reminded me that much of what is still said about her was said about him up until...the 00s?

You can pre-order my Rod Serling book now! My biography of 'The Twilight Zone' creator has a title, a cover and a publication date

I wrote more about the book in a free What’s Alan Watching? post:

The exciting 1900s hit parade, where you can find hummable racist songs against black people, Irish, Italians, Chinese, and so much more!

Ah, for the enlightened early 20th Century, where Birth of a Nation was a blockbuster

it was their recent pieces that made me think of it!

that's one thing Stephen Donaldson picked up on in the Covenant novels---his World is even more withered, scattered and half-dead, just running on fumes when the first novel begins

What stands out a lot to me (and reading along with the Shelved By Genre episodes has helped) - Fellowship Of The Ring is a dying Earth novel! They’ve had three ages of stuff all several millennia long, all that’s left are pockets of failing civilisation who barely know about each other

anything off "The Indestructible Beat of Soweto" gets an automatic vote for me, and the Amaswazi Emvelo track is particularly great

After deductions for advances and loans, NY earned zero dollars

Some things are eternal dept.: Neil Young's 2nd-half 1966 composer royalties

How Did Black Music Take Over the World? Ask Melvin Gibbs. - Racket The avant-garde jazz bassist, now a part-time Minneapolis resident, combines memoir, history, and musicology in his first book.

I interviewed @melvingibbs.bsky.social about his phenomenal new book for @racketmn.com. He is presenting the book tonight at Magers & Quinn. Don't miss!
racketmn.com/how-did-blac...

wow, I remember these ads vividly---ran in Rolling Stone and maybe Spin, too. 1986-88 was peak "comics aren't for kids anymore!"

yeah the 'victory' is them holding the line for 4 years and staying relatively intact, but I don't see them getting the conquered territory back as long as Putin breathes

she really conveys, mostly through body movements, how much her character's life is dependent on being in a parental role with her sister, and how utterly lost she is now

My essay for the 4K release of TROUBLE IN PARADISE—Ernst Lubitsch's masterpiece—is up at the @criterion.bsky.social website.

www.criterion.com/current/post...

Are they even readable now?

99% chance this will happen

"Endgame" hitting less than a year before COVID already feels like a "Beatles break up to start the 70s" kind of shift; catnip to future documentarians

I have wondered if as time goes on, the Marvel movies will be one of the most "2010s" coded things ever, the equivalent of like 70s variety shows or 50s cars as a decade signifier

Dear Sir: No longer is it an experience to go into a local record store and share the excitement of an artist's new release. At a retail cost of $7 to $8 per LP, it is understandable why blank tapes are your best enter- tainment value. Too true, too bad. Ernest Monzon Laurel, Md.

Letter to the editor in Billboard, September 20, 1980

the life of some guy out on a provincial world who only hears about the events of Star Wars years later, via distorted stories. "the emperor died? huh. who's running things now? Mon who? what got blown up again?"

one thing i've found is that Manassas was pretty amazing---hadn't really gotten into them ever, but they had some really great performances (there are some live '72 and '73 shows on YT which really smoke)

there was a sort of Puritan element to him in his later years; his songs all now had to be about society or his own life, so the great psychedelic stuff was now suspect and fake

In the current case i had to put it on hold to write a book very quickly! Hopefully back by June

Yeah sometimes i wish my Quartets series was a more regular production, but hopefully people enjoy it whenever I can get the thing out

1970s era Gene Hackman sitting in a chair with one leg stretched out and the first few buttons on his shirt undone so his chest hair is showing.

#SupermanDay

Haven't heard it in ages but this really is a good record, v much of its time (its sound echt Musician mag '85) but still vital 40 yrs on

Still love 'Spiderwebs': a sad loss

This is where you stand to be sent some place called The Farm where you know you'll never be heard from again.

"Sebastian Bach turned out to be better than a lot of indie rockers" is a hard lesson to learn, but it must be learned