When a mall dies does anyone hear it? — “Nor do I recall who first solved what was once a crucial center (mall) dilemma: the placement of the major tenants vis-a-vis the parking lot. The dilemma was that the major tenant …wanted its customers to walk directly from the car to store. The smaller tenants…wanted that same customer to…

Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here — So much happened in the two years between Pink Floyd’s masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon and its follow-up, Wish You Were Here. Two of those things: America saw its sitting President Nixon resign in humiliation and disgrace (One wonders if we’ve ever recovered); and I graduated high school and…

Remembering War’s seminal song — In 1971, my sophomore high school year, our school was beyond overcrowded. …

Yes, you heard that right — I am not ashamed to say that my family and I were great and faithful patrons of K-Mart in those days before that mega-giant went bankrupt due to the Wal-Mart-ization of America. I suppose K-Mart’s idea of discount prices were a Double-A baseball team’s relationship to the majors. The old…

But selecting the “Worst” Best album proves easy — One day Ms. Swift will release her version of 1989, and people like me, or unlike me, will swoon. I refuse to pay three figures for the original, as much as I adore it. I’m a hopelessly impatient person. “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.” So…

My favorite albums from every year of my life — July 15, 1956. I am born. My grandmother yells at me from the dividing window in St. Vincent Hospital’s nursery. “I hate you…you nearly killed my baby!” Am I not the baby here? Did I try to kill myself? But then I realize that it’s the person whose body I…

Appreciating “Oh Well, Pt. 1” — The name of the place is The House of Serendipity (“I Like It Like That”), the place where I first bought Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, back in the fall of 1975, an experience and review I wrote about here: Remember When You Were Young Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Hererocknheavy.net “Serendipity” is one of those words like the phrase…

Reviewing Ishiguro’s latest — First, this is not a book for those who have trouble throwing out personal or material objects — for those who mourn the death of old family cars, or even vacuum cleaners. Or your iPod, especially your iPod, since Apple just announced the death of that beloved companion. Second, as…

1998’s Is This Desire? Fills Me — “I hate myself for loving you.” I know: that’s Joan Jett, but the line came to me as I was beginning here, because sometimes I do hate myself for not saving articles that say what I think, or that motivate me to consider what I previously hadn’t. So somewhere, someplace…