(The Band, Levon Helm second from left.) The voices of pop music of the 1950s, sixties and seventies were stilled yesterday. The one that came as the larger shock- not the eternal teenager Dick Clark- but the one that signified our voice, the one of inchoate rage and calls for revolution. Which is sort of […]

(Publicity photo of American Bandstand host Dick Clark. Public Domain.) I wondered at the link between the three completely unique people who left this world early in this year. They all struck it rich in the America that roared out of World War Two. Big Mama was one of them, the first to go, though […]

(Shuttle Discovery flies down the National Mall 17 April 2012 in a last pass of glory. Photo CBS News.) My knee feels better today but my back is killing me. One step forward and half a step back, I guess. But life is good. I was thinking that, among other things, when the Shuttle Discovery […]

My eyes blinked open early this morning, but it was late for being early. I had slept straight through from nine or so to only an hour short of the alarm. I had pushed it a little- I am trying to walk with the stupid brace and the stupid cane, experimenting with geezerhood on the […]

(The Titanic Memorial on the placid banks of the Potomac, Washington’s gateway to the world ocean. The statue, carved from a single block of granite, depicts a partially clothed First Class male passenger. Photo Wikipedia.) Sorry campers, this is late. AOL, that creaky excuse for an e-mail system, got me this morning. No pictures meant […]

There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” – Dave Barry (Vintage photo of a squadron of Supermarine Spitfires in echelon formation. Photo RAF) I had more time than usual on my hands this bright Sunday morning. The drunks came back rom the bar about 0400, filled with merriment and the joy […]

(Mac and Ed D. Photo Socotra). I pushed it. Fridays are like that, I have come to find. I try to take care of myself during the week, wear the brace, so my exercises to loosen the knot above the left knee. I feel better. I wear the stupid brace on the leg to the […]

(South Koreans watch a TV screen showing a graphic of North Korea’s rocket launch, at a train station in Seoul, April 13, 2012. A lot of other people were watching, too. Photo Voice of America.)   I am moving kind of slow this morning- the knee is coming along, slowly, but the first moments of […]

(Owsley Stanley, left, with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in a 1969 publicity photograph. Mr. Stanley was a financial backer of the Dead and also provided the band with a supply of LSD. Photo Rosie McGee, via Reuters) Sorry to drag you into this fevered dream of long ago. Oh, hell, no I am […]

What is history, but a fable agreed upon? -Napoleon Bonaparte (Day Laborer Ray Crump is arrested as the only suspect in Mary Pinchot Meyers execution. Photo Washington Post) Mid-October in Washington is about as good as it gets here in Your Nation’s Capital. There are those who love the Spring, and it is delightful and […]