this rainy decade

  The John Cale Extravaganza  I had begun this project as a means of documenting and attempting to help bolster the rating of Cale’s music across Album of The Year, however it has since also become a genuine passion of mine. John Cale is a musician who seems to evade the eyes of music press and fans these days, I've called him "music's best kept secret" multiple times. For whatever reason it seems that his influence and antics have been dismissed, very much standing in Lou Reed's shadow. My love predicates all, I have to sing his praise. Queue Tricky. I decided to publish my series of short-form reviews formally here. This will be a series in parts, this one featuring selected records from 1970-1974. Originally written in December of 2022.

Figures 4.3-4, Spike Field, view 2. Concept by Michael Brill, art by Sadfar Abidi. “Knowledge preservation for nuclear waste repositories.” (1998) In 1982, nearly 30 years after the invention of nuclear power and countless threats by all global superheroes to use it, the United States Congress decided that it was best now then than never to find a solution to the copious amounts of nuclear waste which was in the possession of the United States. They had proposed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which would hand other said issues to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to locate, design, and operate a suppository for the waste.  It had been earlier proposed, in 1957, that the most efficient way to dispose of such a highly dangerous material would be to store it underground, deep in the rock solid layer of the earth. In 1978, the DOE had already begun sniffing out possible nuclear waste sites, specifically centring on a mountain around 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Nevada called Yucca

Tally ho !  & what a long time coming that greeting has been, huh? To anyone who knows this exists, then you’ll know it hasn’t been updated in quite a long while. However, I realised I had something to share that is probably best kept here.  One of the first (& only) posts on this blog pertains to a love of The Replacements & the original 1980’s run of ‘left of the dial’ radio. I’ll never cease to have things to say about The Replacements, but as you may have noticed I’m a bit of an obsessive about everything I love. So of course when The Mats released their expanded boxset of “Pleased to Meet Me,” I had to have a set journey & project concerning it. So, I’m pleased to introduce “Pleased,” a custom tracklist of the seminal 1986 record. After scouring the planets of streaming platforms, I listened to every mix & released version of the record I could find to assemble what I consider my “optimal” listening experience for the era. This includes non-album tracks & a

 I had a unique experience growing up, I was lucky. I was born to two goths (well, technically one goth & one punk rocker) & they raised me on a variety of artists I otherwise may have never found if not for them. I couldn't be who I am today if it weren't for those early glimpses of sharp-faced, skinny pale goths. I was raised primarily on whatever you'd categorise as "New Wave," but the older I get the more I seem to drift away from my roots.  As a child I was obsessed with the Sex Pistols, I had a cute little long sleeve shirt with red fishnet sleeves I used to wear religiously & admired the concept of whatever "anarchy" was. I thrived off of the perceived obscurity of bands like Joy Division, The Cure, & Bauhaus & thought very seldom of the how's or the why's of these artists. Furthermore, I never - not once - ever thought about American bands. I was a full fledged anglophile as a child. I thought every person in England

Six years ago, when I started to become a human being for the first time since birth, a family friend & role model gave me a set of various tapes, magazines, books, & records in an act of suicidal charity. My father & I had been summoned to his house where we sat in his front room as he handed us countless items, all under the heavy feeling of his emotion - which radiated off him nearly like an odor - that emotion being severe depression. With the pretense that my good friend who I admired greatly may kill himself in the following days after giving me his belongings, I instantly became very protective of it all. In that moment, it felt I was holding the last I may ever hold of him. As it turns out, S didn’t leave us that week, nor did he leave us the following month. But he is not with us now. He had given me many things that I did not recognize & some things I only recognized partially. That which I recognized: The Jesus & Mary Chain ’s “ Automatic ,” My Blo