Remembering Friends and Disco — I was reading student essays yesterday from my Fear and American Culture film class. One astute young woman wrote about The Dallas Buyers’ Club, specifically, how then-President Reagan couldn’t even say the term A.I.D.S. until 1985, a full five years after the disease had begun spreading through America. Reagan’s contemporary…

Just another way to stay sane amidst the crazy — I forgot to watch the CMT Music Awards on Sunday night, mainly because I’ve become obsessed with Under the Banner of Heaven, the Hulu/FX original series based on Jon Krakauer’s book, which I should have read but which I’m not sure I will read now, because just how deep in…

Following Your Arrow despite it all — Sometimes forces align. As I was contemplating this story, I read another one by Charlie Cole: Notes In Lavender The oft-ignored or forgotten queer pioneers of musicmedium.com I won’t summarize Charlie’s work except to say that if you haven’t heard or listened to Lavender Country yet, get with it! …

When a writing class reveals certain truths — The four of us — my wife, me, my best friend and his husband — share Japanese deviled eggs, smoky bourbons, curry, and ramen. I don’t remember the street or the name of this place, though it’s on Manhattan’s upper east side. …

It fell on Muscle Shoals, Alabama — It feels revelatory. No, not The Osmonds and their 1971 smash hit, “One Bad Apple,” but the fact that they recorded it at FAME studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which, along with its sister studio The Muscle Shoals Sound, also produced such recording stars as The Staple Singers, The Rolling…

I was only five, so please tell me… — Actually, I know it wasn’t, or at least not in Bessemer/Birmingham, Alabama, and yet, when I look at Billboard’s Hot 100 for 1961, excuse me for wondering why, with such hit potential, our society wasn’t feeling the proper mix of love? Now here’s a fun game. I will list the…

I’m much obliged, indeed, for The Captain And Me — The Doobie Brothers feel a lot like meatloaf to me: I forget about them for years at a time, and yet, when I find them again, they taste so good, with hot sauce or ketchup or even plain. I’m talking about the old Doobie Brothers, the first incarnation, the one…

When Kafka meets an Oath-Keeper — Do you suppose that somewhere behind his left eye patch, convicted seditionist Stewart Rhodes understands that Franz Kafka is Jewish? I ask because in his “defense” for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th, 2021, Rhodes claimed that not only is the government coming to get “those on the political…

Daniel Wallace’s This Isn’t Going to End Well — Maybe this has happened to you. I was supposed to moderate a panel a few weeks ago featuring the southern authors Lee Smith and Daniel Wallace. It was flattering to be asked and deflating to discover that the bookshop sponsoring did not sell enough tickets to keep the event alive…