Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935. Here’s Kurt Russell as The King in John Carpenter’s 1979 made-for-TV-movie, Elvis. As I remember, this is the end of the opening scene, before we flashback to Elvis’ childhood in Mississippi. Celebrate the birth of rock ‘n’ roll by watching TV Elvis shoot a hotel television…

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I celebrated a birthday this week and didn’t get back to the blog until this afternoon. It’s starting to feel like summer in Nashville. It’s muggy and warmer, but not exactly hot yet. We sometimes spend weeks in the high 90′s or low 100′s between July and September, but I’m hoping for a milder season this go round. We warmed up early this year and I’m hoping we’ve already let off enough steam to ensure a cooler summer. I know I’m not really describing how the weather actually works, but since it doesn’t really matter what I think, I figure why not be a bit fanciful and kind of superstitious about it all if only for style points?

Here’s a documentary about rock music in England when I was still a baby — it features profiles of The Faces, Marc Bolan, Linda Lewis, Matthews Southern Comfort, and Fairport Convention. Here’s London Rock…

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In the opening of JRR TOLKIEN ’1892-1973′ – A Study Of The Maker Of Middle-earth, Tolkien’s son, Christopher, says that the attraction of Middle Earth and its stories can be found in his dad’s “…extraordinary power of compelling literary belief in an unreal world or what he called a secondary world.” You can say that again.

I first read the Middle Earth books as a preteen — about 30 years after their debut, and two decades after they’d become a countercultural sensation and then a mainstream hit in the 1960′s. Regardless, these timeless classics still rank among the greatest achievements I’ve come across for compelling my belief in an unreal world. When you’re eleven you don’t just believe these books when you reading them: you think about them when you’re not reading them, and you wish that they were true.

This week we’re celebrating Tolkien’s birthday on January 3, 1892. Here’s a great doc about the man and the world he created…

Stay Awake!

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This week we celebrate the birthday of Jimi Hendrix on November 27, 1942. Here’s a post from just a few months back marking the end of the genius. The first cut is the deepest…

Over the weekend Open Culture pointed back to one of its own posts to remember Jimi Hendrix’ death in London on September 17, 1970.

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J.D. Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye on July 16, 1951. Two years later the author retreated to rural New Hampshire where his reclusive lifestyle and diminished writing output found a legend growing up around the author that nearly eclipsed the fame — and infamy — of his first book.

Catcher‘ celebrated its 65th birthday over the weekend and Vox had some good words to share…

Holden is, like most adolescent rebels, a rule follower at heart, and he exerts so much energy hating the people who break his rules that it is exhausting just to read about. So it’s a relief when he sits down with his former English teacher, who tells him that if he doesn’t relax on this hating people business, he’ll be headed for a fall:

“It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, ‘It’s a secret between he and I.’ Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer. I just don’t know. But do you know what I’m driving at, at all?”

“Yes. Sure,” I said. I did, too. “But you’re wrong about that hating business. I mean about hating football players and all. You really are. I don’t hate too many guys. What I may do, I may hate them for a little while, like this guy Stradlater I knew at Pencey, and this other boy, Robert Ackley. I hated them once in a while — I admit it — but it doesn’t last too long, is what I mean. After a while, if I didn’t see them, if they didn’t come in the room, or if I didn’t see them in the dining room for a couple of meals, I sort of missed them. I mean I sort of missed them.”

It’s one of the few times in the book where Holden gestures toward forgiving the people who don’t live up to his exacting standards, toward recognizing that people have value and worth even when they break his rules. It’s almost enough to give you hope for the future — but then the English teacher tries to molest Holden while he sleeps, so that kills that idea.

Here’s Charlie Rose remembering Salinger with The New Yorker‘s Adam Gopnick…

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Today we celebrate the birthday of Arlo Guthrie who was born on June 10, 1947. Here’s Arlo at Woodstock singing Bob Dylan’s “Walkin’ Down the Line.”

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On February 17 we celebrate the 1942 birthday of the founder of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton. Anyone paying attention to Black Lives Matter can’t help but see parallels to the same challenges that faced the Black Panthers way back in the 1960′s. Here’s a 1968 documentary film made by the Panthers: Huey! honors the group’s celebrated leader, advocating for his release from prison…

Documentary film produced by American Documentary Films and the Black Panther Party from 1968, honoring Huey P. Newton’s struggle for Afrikan human rights in AmeriKKKa, advocating for his release from jail and addressing issues of racism in AmeriKKKan society. Features scenes from the funeral of Bobby Hutton and the Huey P. Newton Birthday Rally in the Oakland Auditorium on February 17th 1968, with speeches by: Bobby Seale (who explains the Black Panther Party’s 10 Point Program in detail); Ron Dellums; James Foreman; Charles R. Garry; Eldridge Cleaver; Bob Avakian; H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael. Also includes views of KKKops showing the weapons and armor they carry in patrol cars and of Afrikans discussing racism in AmeriKKKan society. This film was scripted and directed by Sally Pugh.

Here’s Huey!…

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