Author Archives: Joe Nolan
King of the Witches
So odd to think it’s nearly December. I’m not sure what happened to October and have no idea where November went to. I still have a bunch of scary movie post ideas leftover from October. It doesn’t make much sense to post them at this point so I suppose I’ll hold ‘em for a year. [...]
King Kill Kennedy
On November 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy was gunned-down in Dallas. More than 50 years on the event still undermines trust in government authority, and continues to fuel conspiracy theory culture like nothing else except maybe 9/11. My favorite JFK conspiracy theory is generally referred to as King Kill 33 which claims to unravel the [...]
Strange Days
50 years ago, in Venice Beach, California over a long summer stretching into fall and winter and a new year, Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek take the first steps to put together a new band that would fuse electric blues, classical music, jazz and Spanish flamenco guitar music to poetic lyrics that recalled the writings [...]
Back Through Heaven’s Gate
The comet Hale-Bopp was visible to the naked eye in the second half of 1996 but it disappeared into sunlight before re-emerging to the visible eye for the entirety of 1997, becoming the brightest object in the sky in the spring of that year. I remember going out night after night to spot the comet [...]
Horses at 40
Following up on my last Patti Smith post, I realized the other night that 2015 is the 40th anniversary of Smith’s debut classic, Horses. I’ve seen lots of notices in the news this year about the 40th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run which also came out in 1975, but I don’t think I’ve [...]
Patti Power
I usually don’t go out on Friday nights, but this past Friday night Antonia and I went to OZ to see Patti Smith read from her impressionistic new memoir, M Train. It was a real hot ticket last week and we were lucky that Antonia had grabbed them immediately when the event was first announced. [...]
Lightfoot’s Wreck
If you know Gordon Lightfoot’s name it’s likely that you also know the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The song chronicles the real world sinking of an ore carrier in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. The hit put an international spotlight on the tragedy and the annual noting of the sinking means [...]
Dirty Jobs
In a recent review, the Steve Jobs film was called the “biggest Apple flop since the Newton.” The movie was received with critical praise and fawning adoration for Aaron Sorkin and his screenplay, but at the box office the film is a straight-up bomb. I liked the film — the structure of the screenplay really [...]
Dylan (Re)Discovered
One of the most interesting things about Bob Dylan is how many Bobs Dylan there have been: folk-Guthrie-Dylan, folk-Jack-Elliot-Dylan, Dylan Thomas-Dylan, Rimbaud-Dylan, St. August…Dylan, Bobby Cash…Dylan has evolved through more musical influences and personas than anyone other than Bowie. One of the only artists that comes to mind when discussing Dylan is Picasso — nobody [...]
Heavy Meddle
The blog’s been on a kick this year, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Pink Floyd. This weekend my girlfriend picked up a copy of The Wall on DVD and we watched the Roger Waters commentary last night — totally hilarious! When I saw this video in my YouTube suggestions I immediately checked it out… Between [...]
