Apropos of Nothing

Cameron Crowe's first years at Rolling Stone corresponded roughly with the time I first began buying the magazine (or asking mom or dad...

Since I began participating in a year-end music poll a few years back, I've taken my own year-end rankings more seriously than one shoul...

The Proving Ground is the 40th book by Michael Connelly that I've read.  The first, The Black Ice , was released in 1993.  To put that ...

In California, the first Monday in January marks the first day of the legislative session, after a break in the fall that begins on Septembe...

When the year nears an end and I'm putting my list of Top Ten albums together, the question I'll need to ask myself is whether a box...

  Michael Connelly has been writing books featuring Harry Bosch for more than three decades now, so it's not surprising that the old det...

The news that Scott Kempner - guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist of the Del-Lords - had died last November, after having been diagn...

In 1993, Slash Records released a Los Lobos anthology album with the title, "Just Another Band from East L.A."  While accurate as ...

  The "resurrection walk" referred to in the title of Michael Connelly's 38th (!) novel is a reference to the moment at which ...

The second in a series begun by my online friend Larry, where double albums are winnowed down to one strong, two-sided album. October 1980 -...

Prelude - 1992 Remember the early days of the Internet?  I can't pinpoint the exact day when the Internet became a reality for me, but i...

A couple of years ago, I was accepted into a Facebook Group called “Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-Off Poll,” which for someone like me – ...