Let's Go Surfing!

Those of you who are regular readers and who assiduously study the Blog Roll over in the left-hand column (scroll down, you'll find it) will notice a few new additions.  You know what that means! Time once again to help you break up the boredom with another collection of some of the niftiest stuff I've found out there in my travels across the big, wide Internets.  When you're not spending your time here, take a moment and drop by these sites.  In no particular order...

This Charming Charlie
I have noted before that I generally don't get Tumblr blogs, but I do know a damn brilliant concept when I see it, and This Charming Charlie is about as brilliant a concept as I've seen on the Internets.  Like most examples of genius, it's a simple proposition: mash together frames from old Peanuts cartoons with lyrics from The Smiths.  So basic, and yet each new creation has me gnashing my teeth saying "I wish I'd thought of this first!"  Whether it's Lucy sitting on a front stoop musing "Now I know how Joan of Arc felt," Snoopy and Woodstock thinking "That joke isn't funny anymore," or Charlie himself quoting "How Soon Is Now," the concept works so well because the lyrics are so perfectly matched to the personalities we know these characters to have.  Well played.

Arcane Radio Trivia
For a broadcasting history buff like me, Arcane Radio Trivia is a treasure trove of neat stuff.  You'll meet a collection of the most fascinating characters to ever take to the airwaves; you'll hear scratchy audio of early broadcasts rescued from chipped and deteriorating transcription discs; you'll learn about the technological advances that made broadcasting possible in the first place.  Recent posts have included a review of the spectrum of sounds that actually make up what you and I hear as static, a report on the finding of a stash of operating logs from Franklin & Marshall College's WFNM dating from 1976, and rescued audio of the final outs of  the second game of the 1947 World Series.  Bookmark this one!

Paracinema
"Genre Films," the flip side of the Art Film coin, are celebrated in both the blogosphere and the print world thanks to the utterly wonderful Paracinema.  The online presence both supplements the far-too-sporadically published magazine of the same name, and stands independently of it; together they gather some of the best independent writing critically assessing everything from Spaghetti Westerns to Sexploitation flicks to direct-to-video films of all stripes, and much more celluloid insanity.  If you're looking for an explanation as to why Phoebe Cates' pool scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High became such an iconic '80s moment or a history of how the non-existent Alan Smithee came to direct so many films, the folks at Paracinema are waiting for you to stop by. And at $7 an issue delivered, it's well worth supporting.

Or, As We Used To Call It: Talking To Yourself
So, a good friend I've known since eighth grade started up a blog a short while back.  Since he doesn't use his name on the blog, I won't give it away here.  I will just say you are missing out some excellent commentary on cultural current events and truly intriguing essays on assorted films (the Film Friday posts are not to be missed!) if you are not treading this one.  No frills here - no flashy images or fancy backgrounds, just damn good writing.

*stills
*stills is a fascinating commentary on our cultural history from the early-to-mid 20th century, done without words.  For many years, silent 8mm home movies were the way families documented the important events in their lives - more often than not, the annual family vacations.  Emma Hurst worked as a research intern under Rick Prelinger, scouring through thousands upon thousands of home movies as part of the creation of his 2012 film No More Road Trips?, and in this Tumblr blog she collects some of her favorite still frames from those movies.  Simultaneously nostalgic and telling, you see what was important to our parents and grandparents without having to sit through hours of clacking home projectors and bad splice jobs. Remember kids, one day this is how future generations will look at your Instagram shots...

Everything Is Terrible
Quickly becoming one of my favorite sites to visit each day, Everything Is Terrible proclaims itself to be "this world's only psychedelic found footage comedy website that tours the Earth with face-melting live shows that include puppets, Jerry Maguires stacked to the heavens, and adoring cloaked followers begging EIT! for more! And we make DVDs!" Imagine taking the contents of your local video rental shop circa 1984, pouring it all into a blender and pressing "puree." All kinds of neat things surface here, remixed and video-collaged into handy little chunks of head-shaking, jaw-dropping goofiness. An instructional tape for how to play (not necessarily how to win, but how to play) Las Vegas slot machines, a recruiting tape to try to sell you on running your own 1-900 phone line (remember those?), and Goldie Hawn and the Harlem Globetrotters singing "Short People" are just some examples of what you're in for here.  Mind-numbing fun!

Weird Universe
In a similar vein, Weird Universe is a repository for, well, damn weird stuff of all types.  Where Everything Is Terrible has a specific niche, Weird Universe casts as wide a net as possible, finding strange old advertising, unusual news items, rare clips from the early days of television, and more.  I have literally found myself spending hours digging through the site's archives. So much weirdness = so much good stuff.

Zombie Dead Blog
Blogging can be a chore.  Many, many folks start out with great intentions of creating their own little corner of the Internet where they can hold court on any number of topics.  Many, many folks find that they burn out after a short while.  A precious few continually struggle onward, sometimes going on brief hiatuses here and there, but never giving up.  And then there are those who never quite got out of the gate.  It is those bloggers whose candle burned out moments after coming up with a great blog name, or those whose debut post turned out also to be their swan song, who are celebrated at Zombie Dead Blog.  Think of it as a virtual tour of the abandoned houses and forgotten ghost towns of the blogosphere, or a brief glimpse of what could have been if so many muses hadn't gone silent.  Fascinating.

The History Of Phone Phreaking Blog
Many people think the rise of the Hacker is a relatively recent phenomenon, tied to the 21st century technology surge, computer viruses and online trolling.  In fact, hacking has been around since long before the Internets arrived in our homes, and many of today's hackers - from the amateur just curious to try to figure out how all this tech stuff works to the seasoned pro who can seem to find a way into any system and cause all sorts of havoc - can trace their lineage back to characters like Joe Engressia, the mysterious Captain Crunch, and a couple of fellas named Wozniak and Jobs who, in the 1960s and 1970s were exploring the labrynthian telephone systems of the world with a whistle and a blue box. Go, read, learn.

I'll Take Ten!
What's that? You say you need a cat hammock, a roll of glow-in-the-dark toilet paper, and some bacon lollipops, but you just don't know where to go to get them? You want to fry an egg in the shape of a handgun and open your mail with miniature samurai sword, but your stumped as to how to make that happen? Can't make it through another day without french fry lip balm and caffeinated soap?  All this and more can be yours at I'll Take Ten!  Me, I'm saving up for the $350K life-size moving triceratops...

OK, so there's my current list of neat items that I think are worth sharing with you.  If you've missed any of the previous times I've recommended blogs, books, podcasts, etc., click on the "Recommended" link at the top of the page.  Also, please check out the sites listed on my blogroll on the left-hand side of the page (keep scrolling, you'll find it).  I share these items with you because I think they are worth your time and attention - I'm not receiving any compensation from any of these folks for pointing you towards them.  Heck, most of them have no freaking clue who I am!  Still, if you find something you like, let me know in the comments below.  Similarly, if you have some recommendations to add, feel free to list them in the comments, or contact me through the blog's Facebook Page to talk about a guest post.  Let me hear from you!

Let's Go Surfing!

So you're sitting around on a Sunday night with not a lot to do, no desire to watch a Hillbilly Handfishing marathon or whatever other mindless programming the idiot box might spew at you, and no wish to prattle on endlessly about what you had for lunch on Facebook or Twitter?  Bored to pieces and looking for something new and different to fill up that empty space in the back of your mind? Friends, I'm here to help with yet another collection of some of the coolest, awesomest, and all-around bestest things I've found on the big, wide Internets lately.  Check 'em out and enjoy:

Network Awesome

Those of you who remember the heady days of the early-'80s cable boom will probably recall spending many a Friday and Saturday night sitting blurry-eyed in front of the TV trying desperately to stay awake to see all four hours of the then-fledgling USA Network's greatest contribution to pop culture history, Night Flight.  If you are among those smiling in fond remembrance of that program, you need to bookmark Network Awesome immediately.  Just as Night Flight did in the era when folks were abandoning network television product for the uncharted frontier of cable content, so Network Awesome does in the now when folks are trading in their cable boxes and bloated cable bills to find better, more imaginative content online.

Network Awesome repurposes content in much the same way Night Flight did thirty-odd years ago: the site's ever-expanding crew of curators sift through the immense amount of detritus filling online video sites to find rare gems in the form of long-forgotten  documentaries, episodes of foreign TV shows, short-subject animations and independent films, music videos both popular and obscure, and just enough original production to tie everything together into loose "themes" for each day's six-hour block of programming.  Rare concert footage, bizarre broadcast experiments, and programming not seen in decades is not only presented, but examined in short essays. Watch what you want, when you want - everything is archived. You are likely to find something fascinating that you never knew was out there.  Don't waste time with sites that simply stream internet versions of cable product (I'm looking at you, Hulu). Not when there is Network Awesome to be had!

Greta's Records

I'm not one who normally goes for Tumblr blogs.  Never really got the whole point.  There some good ones out there, a handful of which even appear on this site's Blogroll.  But it always seems to me that there is some special secret way I'm supposed to interact with Tumblr blogs that I don't understand, so I feel like I'm not in the club when I'm visiting one. (Do not even get me started on Pinterest! That's thoroughly alien territory from where I sit!)

That said, filmmaker Allison Andrews has created a Tumblr blog that just may prove to be my gateway into that secret club, because of its utterly fascinating subject.  Ms. Andrews went out and bid on a lot 50 record albums from the estate of movie legend Greta Garbo, and dangit if she didn't win!  Armed with this stack of celebrity-owned vinyl, she pulls one album from the lot for each post, and not only plays and shares the music within, but attempts to glean something about the famously enigmatic star's deeply private world from the choices she made at whichever record shops she frequented.  She was a Beatles fan? She was hep to Professor Longhair? She did the Twist?!? The things Garbo chose to listen to when she "vanted to be alone" are truly fascinating, and Andrews does an excellent job of exploring the unanswerable question that seems to pop up with each selection: what is this record doing in Greta Garbo's collection? 

Hope From Nope

One of everyone's great fears is the fear of rejection, no matter what form that rejection takes. Whether it is a fear of social rejection that is keeping you from asking that special someone out, fear of professional rejection that stops you from presenting your ideas to your boss, or whatever rejection you fear in a given moment, it can be paralyzing, humbling, and at times, humiliating.  But can the fear of rejection, seemingly hardwired in us, be overcome, as many other phobias can, through aversion therapy?

That question is the basis of entrepeneur and blogger Jia Jiang's Hope From Nope project.  Subtitled "100 Days of Rejection Therapy," Jiang's project is to go out each day for 100 days and ask a random person for something that he will most certainly be refused, record the interaction on video, and blog about the results.  In doing so, Jiang reverses the standard expectation of personal interaction: in this project, being accepted is actually failure while being rejected is the success sought.  The results are both hysterical and deeply insightful. Starting out nervously asking a security guard if he can borrow $100 on Day 1, Jiang has shown a marked increase in confidence and poise as he has steadily worked through his self-prescribed therapy. He has asked for a "burger refill" at Five Guys, he has challenged a local CEO to a staring contest, danced with a mall Santa and attempted to name his own price at Dollar Tree.  Entertaining and inspiring - check it out!

MajorScaled TV
Feeling a bit low lately? Overtaken by moodiness? Are the grey skies of winter causing your seasonal affective disorder to kick into overdrive? Well, spend some time over at Vimeo with MajorScaled TV, and you will have the musical frown turned upside-down!  Not sure how this digital magic is worked, but MajorScaled TV somehow takes recordings of great downbeat minor-scale tunes reworks them with their major-scale equivalent chords, recasting the dirge into a bright sunshiny piece of poppy ear candy guaranteed to set your toes a-tappin'.   It's like listening to a radio transmission from a parallel universe where there are no hassles, man, just good vibes.  Behold as The Doors' "Riders On The Storm" morphs into an easy-listening smilefest. Marvel as Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" comes back sounding happily lobotomized.  And, well, just listen to R.E.M. sounding shinier and happier than ever:



Jimmy Slonina
OK, if MajorScaled TV didn't put a smile on your face, then a few minutes with Jimmy Slonina certainly will.  You remember as a kid standing in front of a mirror lip-synching to to your records your the radio?  Come on, fess up - we all did it.  Well Jimmy still does it, only these days in front of a video camera. The fact that he is blessed with a very expressive face and clearly has a brilliant sense of humor helps immensely, and if you can get through his takes on "Under Pressure," the theme from Hong Kong Phooey, or "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" without cracking a grin, there may be no hope for you. And if this run-through of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" doesn't do the trick, well, just go in a corner and mope until you're ready to join the rest of us in hysterics over here!




The Pitch Drop Experiment

The science geek in me has always been intrigued by the concept of time and how surprisingly elastic it can be.  You may recall in one of my Now Hear This! posts back in August, I directed your attention to the work of an artist named Buttress O'Kneel who was working with songs slowed down and stretched out to almost incomprehensible length (check that post to listen to "Heaven," in which she stretched a recording of "Stairway to Heaven" out to 77 minutes and 7 seconds.) Experiencing things on such extreme time scales forces a re-evaluation of time itself, as you quickly learn that even in immense slowness, things can occur that are so quick you might miss them.

Underscoring that concept is an ongoing experiment at The University of Queensland in Australia. In 1927, Professor Thomas Parnel put a bit of pitch, a highly viscous tar-like substance that, at room temperature, appears to be solid yet is actually a liquid, into a funnel over a jar, and let it begin to drip. Over 85 years later, the pitch has dripped only eight times - yet when it does eventually drip, the drop falls so quickly that, to date, no one has actually seen it happen!  The ninth drop has been on the verge of dripping for about five years now, and these days there is a webcam trained on the funnel in the hopes to finally catch the event.  There are pitch geeks around the globe who keep the webcam page open day and night hoping to see it live. Me, I just check in every now and then. You might want to also. You just might see something no one has ever seen before!

Vegan Black Metal Chef
So you say you're a vegan who is into death metal, but you just don't have time to cook a decent meal? Pish posh! Since 2011, Brian Manowitz has been posting video tutorials on making quick, easy, and delicious vegan dishes that even the least versed in culinary arts can follow - just be sure to crank the volume! This is right out of the Things I Wish I'd Thought Of file, and is just sheer brilliance!  Must be seen to be believed and yet there he is, exactly as promised in the name. Mr. Manowitz, you see, is the Vegan Black Metal Chef. This is not your parents' cooking show, my friends.  The guy makes a mean pad thai, lemme tell you:




Zombo.com

Far and away my favorite site on the entire Internets.  If you have never been to Zombo.com, you must stop everything you are doing right now and go to Zombo.com!  There simply is no other site like Zombo.com. You can do anything at Zombo.com! Zombo.com is the site we never knew we needed until it was here. Zombo.com is the epitome of websites; the ultimate purpose for having an Internet in the first place. You will never feel so welcome, at ease, and at home as you will at Zombo.com. Don't waste time just reading about Zombo.com - go now to Zombo.com! You will be so happy you visited Zombo.com. I'm going there now - meet you at Zombo.com!

This is Number Three

Today marks three years of existence for this li'l ol' blog o' mine!  Talk about time flying! Hard to believe that much time has passed since I sat down one afternoon and pounded out my first rant, in this case about people who seem unable to grasp that they are the ones slowing traffic at Lancaster's otherwise wonderful Central Market.

In the three years since then, over 10,000 unique visitors have stopped by to spend a little time here.  That amazes me. Not because I think I'm uninteresting, but rather I am amazed by the sheer scope of reach my words have here.  When I was doing my radio show in Richmond, VA, many years back, I don't think I reached 10,000 people!  Certainly I didn't reach folks from so many varied locations.  You've come to my blog from Spain, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, Sweden, Malaysia, Croatia and more other countries than I can list here.  In fact, six of the seven continents have sent readers to this blog (only Antarctica remains - come on, where are my Antarctic readers?!?).

Please know I am grateful for you all, whether you're a regular subscriber here or you just stumbled on the blog by chance and decided to read a post or two.  I am always open to your thoughts and suggestions on how to improve - what would you like to see more of? Less of? Want to suggest a band for an NW4NW post? Interested in writing a guest post?  Let me know!

If you're on Facebook and haven't already "liked" the blog's page, please consider doing so.  On occasion I put bits and pieces up there that don't make the cut for the blog itself.  If you're on Twitter, you can follow the blog's Twitter account, @TWIWGTS.

I'm looking forward to what the next year brings - I hope you are too!  In the meantime, join me in celebrating our Happy Third Anniversary!

Catching Up and Coming Soon

As you may have noticed, it's been a bit busy around the ol' blog in recent weeks.  There have been a number of very cool out-of-the-norm posts up lately, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight them to be sure you didn't miss anything - or in a few cases remind you that your participation is welcomed and encouraged!

First of all, today is the day the episode of The Lancast on which I am honored to be the guest goes live!  You can read all about it here: Talk Talk.  You can listen to the podcast by clicking this button:

I hope you will enjoy the conversation.

Over the past two weeks I have presented both a mystery and a challenge to you all.  The mystery involves two mp3s I found in my collection which had no identifying information on them, and I asked for your help in figuring out who/what they were.  One of the two was quickly ID'd (thanks, Jeff!) as "Tiger Tiger" by Scruffy The Cat; the other remains unidentified.  Can you help?  Oh please can you help? Really, you have no idea how much this is driving me batty! You can find all the info here: HELP! Identitfy These Songs!

The challenge I presented to you on Saturday, and I'd like to keep rolling throughout the month.  If you are on Spotify, you are challenged to come up with your own Frankenstein Playlist and share it with us all! What is a Frankenstein Playlist, you ask?  Read all about it here: Spotify vs. Frankenstein. You'll see there are already a couple very cool playlists shared in the comments section.  Looking forward to seeing what diabolical creations you mad scientists come up with!

Mike Essington, a/k/a Mike E. from the blog Strange Reaction, has written a fantastic book called Last One To Die.  I cannot recommend this one highly enough, folks - simply a must read!  Please check out my review of the book and find out where you can get yourself a copy here: Recommended Reading: Last One to Die.

There is also change afoot around these parts.  Assiduous readers have already noted that the long-time New Wave for the New Week series of posts has been put on hiatus.  After two and a half years, I've just gotten a bit burned out on them.  But I will leave it up to you - do you want me to continue the series or have you gotten burned out as well?  There is a poll in the upper left corner of the blog where you can vote "yes" or "no" to more NW4NW posts.  Voting ends 10/31.

I'm also going to begin sharing with you my journey through NaNoWriMo.  NaNoWriMo is shorthand for National Novel Writing Month, a challenge put forth throughout the month of November to write a 50,000-word novel from scratch.  I've been looking for ways to create some accountability for my writing, and as you'll hear me discuss on The Lancast, there's a story that has been floating around in my head demanding to be written.  So, with the support of my local writing group, I am diving in.  What am I nuts?

Finally, I'm considering some aesthetic changes to the blog itself.  I think it's time to spruce things up around here. Change the layout, maybe create a new homepage, link to some of the other things I'm doing online, etc.  Your feedback on these things is greatly appreciated, whether here in the comments, on the Facebook Page or on Twitter.

Hope to hear from all of you!

A Bit of My Hometown's Punk Rock History

Over at the always interesting ...tapewrecks... blog, Tom Quinn has curated an excellent oral history of Lancaster, PA's "First Punk Rock Band," The Bodies.  Better yet, he has rescued a handful of rare recordings of the band, who never released any records during their brief existence. 

The Bodies were essentially a cover band.  They learned Punk Rock from vinyl and snarled through the songs they liked best, spreading the good word to a bunch of misfit kids in the heart of Amish country.  There were very few originals in the mix, but The Bodies were still a band, a Punk Rock band dammit, and right here in Lancaster!  They were the ones who kicked open the door for our scene; they inspired other bands to start playing, and they themselves went on to join other bands through the years.

Get yourself over to ...tapewrecks... and read, listen and learn, my friends.  The story of The Bodies is not a unique one, but it is an important one for those of us who grew up in the scene around these parts.  Those of you who are from other places have your own "First Band" stories - I'd love to read them.  Those were good times...

You Really Oughta Read More...

Even though I had taken my leave of blogging for awhile, I did not forsake the blogosphere entirely.  My account at Google Reader positively overflows with nifty feeds, the niftiest of which I share with you on the blogroll over at the left (keep scrolling down, you'll get there).  I try to keep a fairly steady rotation of blogs and other websites in that list, adding newer ones that I find that really catch my attention, weeding out those that have fallen into radio silence, etc.  I recommend checking there at least once a month just to make sure you haven't missed anything wonderful.

Since I've been away, however, I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the more recent additions to the blogroll in a post where more folks are likely to see them and, hopefully, go visit and check them out.  So here are 10 sites that I currently visit regularly, and suggest you do as well:

RCRD LBL - Simply one of the best free & legal sources for music on the Internet.  The folks at RCRD LBL offer both streaming and downloadable mp3s from artists both classic and cutting edge, representing a wide variety of genres and styles.  Their staff of writers do an excellent job on the editorial side, and you can spend hours surfing from one artist to the next.  Great place to find the next big thing, as well as rediscover some old favorites.

...tapewrecks... - You know that box of old cassette tapes collecting dust in the back of your closet or on a shelf somewhere? The box where most of them are missing inserts or cases, but you know one or two of them have you and your high school buds jamming on them?  Well, Tom Quinn is digitizing them and sharing them with the world.  Demo tapes, self released cassettes, reel-to-reel cacophonies, bands that never made it and for good reason - they're all here in glorious lo-fi, with explanatory notes and commentary.

The ModPopPunk Archives - Not a blog per se, but rather a sort of online museum of classic and current music in the mod, power-pop, punky vein.  Their mp3 of the Day (which does not change daily) usually features an obscure classic, while their Record of the Month (which hews much closer to its stated schedule) will point you in the direction of something new.  Recent RoM's have included Protex, The Mother's Children and The Van Buren Boys - all excellent and highly recommended.  Their mp3 archive is a treasure trove not to be missed!

The Ouro Bros. and the Never-Ending Tour - Jeremy Bentley (he draws) and Jeff Burkholder (he writes) have combined efforts on an outstanding webcomic following the exploits of Stan and Balthazar Ouro, sibling musicians on the road.  Bentley's own experiences as a drummer inform the situations our boys find themselves in, giving the story a ring of familiarity to anyone who has ever been on tour and an admittedly exaggerated peek behind the curtain for those who've always wondered.  Both artist and author add commentary to each episode describing process and inspiration - the online equivalent to director's commentary on a DVD.

Thinking Too Hard - When she isn't busy editor-in-chiefing over at IndieInk.org, Becky Tsaros Dickson is writing some of the most powerful first-person prose currently online.  Deeply introspective and unflinchingly direct, her words are at turns nostalgic, despairing, furious and celebratory - often all four within just a few sentences.  The emotion in her work crackles off the screen and pulls you into the center of her electrical storm, leaving you exhausted but wanting more.  I also recommend picking up her first book, I Could Tell You Stories.

All Things Considered - Another of my favorite writers on the 'Net these days is Gina Collia-Suzuki.  The self-described "frightfully serious art historian and incredibly silly novelist" authors no less than five blogs, my favorite of which is All Things Considered - "All Things" in her world being books, art and the goofiness of daily life. (I'd add only music and baseball to make "all things" a complete list; I'll forgive her the baseball, she being British and all, but I think music a necessity!)  Her wonderfully dry sense of humor permeates even the most didactic of her works; her incredible ability to find herself in the oddest of situations (get to know the stories about her abhorrent neighbors) provides her with fertile foundation for her storytelling.  She has four books currently available on Amazon. Go! Purchase! Enjoy!

k-rina - Cristina Rad, a/k/a k-rina, a/k/a ZOMGitsCriss, is one of the more intriguing personae to be found online these days.  There is an old saying that you will never make friends talking about politics or religion. Well, friends be damned, politics and religion are what this Romanian wants to discuss, and she is rather opinionated at that.  But she doesn't just bluster; this is a bright, educated woman who will challenge you to examine your own opinions while defending hers.  Either that, or she'll just piss you off.  And then she'll turn around and post about making pancakes or cleaning house.  Her blog goes hand-in-hand with her YouTube channel.  Check 'em both out.

Dynamyk's Ridiculous Digital Scrapbook - Mike "Dynamyk" Miller has set up a wonderful Tumblr blog in which to show off his outstanding graphic work, as well as the occasional random thought or phrase.  Mostly, though, its images captured via camera or iPhone (he's been big on the Instagram app lately).  Gifted with a sharp eye and a sharp sense of humor, his pictures tell little mini-stories; taken as a whole, his blog is a pictorial diary - a chance to see the world through another's eyes. 

Random, Personified - My other favorite Tumblr blog of the moment belongs to Liz Money.  If you are into geeky gadgety tech-y stuff at all, you've no doubt encountered Liz Money online somewhere: she hosted The Money Shot for TheGadget411.com reviewing, well, gadgets; she currently co-hosts The BangItOut Show podcast for NewOrleansTech.net; she can be found livening up just about every social networking platform imaginable.  Here she collects and shares all sorts of goofy, fun things she finds from all around the Net.  Sure to put a smile on your face.

The Lancast - Speaking of podcasts, I would be remiss if I didn't insist you subscribe to the best damn podcast in Central Pennsylvania, The Lancast.  For over a year now, David Moulton and Daniel Klotz have been podcasting weekly about Lancaster and the people in and around it.  Their interviews with community leaders, local characters, and visiting personalities are always both insightful and entertaining.  They capture the flavor and personality of Lancaster very well, both by advertising community events and by sharing the stories of the people who make up our town.  Out-of-towners, I urge you to listen, too - you'll gain a greater understanding of the land that spawned my world view, and you just may be inspired to come visit!

Back In Flesh

Reports of this blog's death have been, as they say, greatly exaggerated.  It's been awhile, and I have to say the break was much-needed and more reinvigorating than I expected it would be, but the blog is back!

I very much appreciate your understanding of the need I had to put this away for a few weeks.  Been in one of those phases where I began to question myself as a writer.  I write, both for fun and for profit, but in the last few months of 2010 it felt really forced.  It wasn't fun anymore.  Every word I wrote felt less like an expression of self and more like an assignment.  The only thing that kept me going was doing the New Wave for the New Week entries here, and much as love to put those pieces together and I thrive on the feedback they generate, I must admit I had begun to burn out on them.  Perhaps, I thought, that series had run its course.  And, if NW4NW was done, was I done?  Could it be that, contrary to the cliched insistence of every self-professed writer that he or she has a book inside them just waiting to come out, I had fulfilled my potential through a series of snarky reviews of 30-year-old bands?  Had I said everything I wanted - needed - to say?

I joined a local writers group in hopes finding both support and inspiration; both were offered to me in greater quantities than I expected.  Yet I still lacked the fire - that feeling that I don't just want to write, but that I must write.  That drive had been gone for some time, and, in typical misguided fashion, I was seeking an external impetus to write.  I had forgotten the words of Bukowski:

So You Want to Be a Writer by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

And so my promised return date for the blog, January 10, arrived...and it wasn't yet "truly time." So, I apologize to you, my readers, not for not being ready on the 10th, but for setting a date in the first place.  I still hadn't learned that it cannot be forced when I capriciously declared a specific day for my return.  I was listening not to my own internal muse, but to external guides who, despite their best intentions, can never tell me, me individually, me internally, how to do this.

You can look around the Internet and you'll find a thousand and one so-called "blogging experts" and "writing coaches" who will tell you that everything I do in this blog is wrong: I do not have a singular focused subject matter; I tend to blurt and post rather than carefully write, edit, and rewrite; my posts are too long; I don't do enough lists; blah, blah, blah.  If you spend much time in the online writing community at all, you are inundated with their "rules" for "proper" writing, especially on the Internet.  Schedule your posts! Make yourself accountable! Focus your subject matter! Write to a specific audience or a specific person! Well, I was never one for following rules, but when I found myself uninspired, I also found myself lured to those experts' siren song.  Predictably, I crashed on the craggy shoreline.

When I decided to free myself of the externally-imposed shackles I had locked myself into, represented in my world by that looming January 10th deadline, something happened.  Suddenly, I felt freedom.  I no longer had an "assignment," and the blog, rather than being something that demanded my time and energy, slowly returned to being a potential outlet for sharing what I enjoy.  I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with blog post ideas, and returned to leaving tablets around the house so I always have somewhere to jot those ideas down when I get them.  I returned to writing in a daily journal that is meant only for myself - something I haven't done in years, but was always, for me, fertile ground for planting those early germinations of ideas that need some time to develop before they are ready to be harvested into actual pieces ready for public consumption.  I returned to wanting to write because I want to write, not because I really ought to be writing.  I returned to writing for me, not for anyone else.   I returned to having that inner drive that Bukowski describes so well.

And so now, it is "truly time." And I am back.  And the blog is back.  And, I hope, you'll be back to read what I write.  But even if some of you decide not to come back, I will write.  After all, I am a writer.

Fitting song, and source of this post's title:

Two Years, Time Off and Greatest Hits

I missed an important date.

Yesterday was December 13, 2010 - the two-year anniversary of this here li'l ol' blog! Two years, over 280 posts, 108 New Wave for the New Week entries, and countless new friends made with whom I connected directly or indirectly because of my writing here. Two years worth of your kind readership, which is so greatly appreciated - whether you've been with me from the start or you only popped in once or twice. I thank you all for your feedback, and I hope I will continue to write material that piques your interest.

The very fact that I missed yesterday's anniversary, however, speaks to the need I have to make the following admission: My friends, I gotta take a break from this. Not a long break; by no means is this the end of the blog. But with Christmas, New Year's and both my brother's and my own birthdays all falling within the next few weeks, plus the fortunate challenge of increasing business in my gainful employment, I have a plate that is way too full right now. On top of that, for as much as I loved last month's NW4NW All Request Month, it was a posting marathon that basically burned me out.

So, I am putting That's What I Was Going To Say on hiatus until after the first of the year.  Live posting will resume on Monday, January 10, 2011.  In the meantime, however, I have scheduled repostings of the 10 most popular regular posts in the blog's history as well as the 10 most popular NW4NW entries - call it TWIWGTS's Greatest Hits.  Also, I have scheduled repostings of the Recommended Reading series I did several months back suggesting other blogs that you really should be reading.  It will be a chance for some of you to catch up on some of the better posts from the past two years that you may have missed; for others, a chance to revisit them.  I'll be interested in the feedback I receive on each, viewed with a new perspective.

This way, the blog remains active and, hopefully, entertaining; and when I come back in January I will be, again hopefully, rejuvenated and capable of my best writing.  Until then, I wish all of you very safe and happy holidays, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

I've Got Nothing To Say, But It's OK...

You may have noticed lately that things have been pretty quiet around here.  Other than the weekly NW4NW posts, I haven't written much, and for awhile I was chiding myself pretty harshly over it.  "You gotta write! You MUST write! How can you call yourself a writer if you don't write?  Look at all your blogging friends - they write.  Why aren't you writing?"

So I'd sit at my desk and stare at the blank screen, which returned the stare with its stark, unblinking white emptiness.  I lost that staring contest every time. The distractions were too easy. "Hmm, maybe I need some music. No, that's too loud.  This one's too quiet. Hey, when did I get that CD?" One song would remind me of another then another then another, and suddenly I wasn't writing - I was listening to music!

"OK, back to it," I'd command myself.  But first, a sandwich.  Brain needs energy, right?  Of course, the kitchen is downstairs from my office, which means a trip through the living room and the combined dining room/library (don't ask), which means a quick side trip to make a sandwich turns into half an hour or more because "I'll just see if there's anything worth watching on TV for a moment," or "I really need to read another chapter of the book I'm in the middle of," or whatever.

As you can see, I may fancy myself a writer, but I am far from a disciplined one.

I do employ some helpful tools and exercises.  There is a wonderful website called Write Or Die where you set a goal of writing x number of words in x number of minutes, and the timer starts and you better start writing, because if you don't hit your word goal you receive a penalty that ranges anywhere from "Gentle" to "Electric Shock."  I find it immensely helpful in just getting the flow of words to paper going, even if all I spit out is meaningless gibberish (which, more often than not, it is, but it's about the process, not the content).

When it's content I want to hone, or I start feeling like I'm getting far too verbose, Six Word Stories becomes a source of inspiration.  The idea is to tell a complete story using no more or less than six words.  A personal favorite from the site: "Woman eats horse. Dies, of course."

There are a number of sites out there that offer up random writing prompts or initial sentences to build upon, and trying to write extemporaneously using those prompts can sometimes help me get going, but I don't use those often.  Some folks find them very useful; I find them to be too much like an assignment, which takes the joy right out of writing for me most times.  No, I'm one who needs the inspiration to come from within.  For that reason, I keep a notebook on the nightstand by my bed, as well as scraps of paper throughout the house. Never know when one of those light bulbs will suddenly click on.  I have, at times, sat bolt-upright in bed in the middle of the night and scribbled down a nearly complete blog post, needing only to transcribe it and do some minimal editing the next day.

Recently, though, those notebooks and scraps of paper have been empty.  No inspiration.  Until the other day, when I realized that there really wasn't a problem.  There was no need to scold myself or fear that the writing muse had left me altogether.

That realization was triggered by a line from an old movie I was watching, 1973's The Paper Chase, in which the lead character, Hart, is a first-year law student studying under a demanding and intimidating contract law professor, Kingsfield.  Kingsfield calls on Hart to analyze a particular case, and Hart, seeking to assert a newly-found confidence in his relationship with the professor, replies that he respectfully passes on the opportunity to do so.  "I have nothing to add at this time," Hart boldly explains, "When I have something relevant to say, I shall raise my hand."

And that sums up where I have been in relation to this blog recently: I quite simply have not had anything to say.  Nothing has spurred me to write.  I have not suddenly awoken inspired; I have not had the sudden light bulb moment in some time.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  In fact, it's probably better than me attempting to prattle on about something toward which I feel no particular inspiration.  And when I do have something worthwhile to say, I shall do so.

In the interim, continue to enjoy the weekly NW4NW posts.  There are some other goodies coming as well, but we'll let them be a surprise.  For now, I have nothing else to write.

Recommended Reading: Strange Reaction

When Strange Reaction first appeared on the scene in early 2005, it was just another in what was quickly becoming the overcrowded field of mp3 blogs. Those were heady days when blogging in general was becoming more common, the debate over file sharing was in full swing, and anyone with a music collection and a connection to the Internet began living his or her daydreams of writing for Rolling Stone while showing off a cooler-than-you taste in tunes.

Over the years, the myriad blogs who popped up back then began to steadily thin out. A combination of an over-saturated market, a growing abundance of DMCA Takedown notices, and the rise of MySpace, Facebook and Twitter as the new trend in online communication contributed to the steady disappearance of many mp3 blogs. Those that remain today are those who are in it because of a real love of the music, and those who have the knowledge, the personality, and the writing ability to be entertaining beyond the music they offer. A few abandoned the mp3-blog format in favor of finding their own style - some way that they could share their love of the records they blog about while setting themselves apart from the crowd.

Scott over at Strange Reaction is one of those who found a different approach, along with co-blogger Mike E. who joined along the way to create a double-barreled blast of good old Punk Rock fun. Scott shared a bit of Strange Reaction's history:

"According to Archive.org I started on February 14th, 2005. Sharing out of print punk and hardcore records was the only goal, and I did that for a couple of years. Lots of other websites that did this much better started springing up more and more, and it just started seeming redundant, so I changed the format. I lost most of my visitors too, but since I don't make money from the site it didn't seem to matter much at the time. Some of the other sites are since long gone, but a few are still posting some great things on a regular basis.

I changed the site into one where I'd review music, along with a couple of irregulars that seem to have disappeared off the planet since. That was fun for a little bit. I also started putting together a 20-30 song mash mp3 for folks to download, a precursor to the current show. I had no microphone, so I just used a digital voice to announce the show and then played the songs straight through.

Picking music was the most fun I'd had with the site in years, so I started focusing on that and changed the format once again, removing the reviews that were pretty blah to begin (mine at least) and simply posting a show once a week. Mike E. contacted me and was interested in posting a weekly column. He seemed like a guy with an interesting history and I liked his writing style. Plus he works for free, can't beat that!"

The "show" that Scott refers to is the Strange Reaction podcast, a weekly supplement to the blog in which Scott presents 30 (give or take) songs, ranging from classic punk to searing hardcore to noisy thrash - all of it good stuff. I find myself listening each week and either smiling at a classic pick, being reminded of a band I hadn't listened to in ages, or discovering a band that somehow flew beneath my radar. Although he now has that microphone, Scott's presentation is still straightforward and unencumbered: here's what you were listening to, and here's what's coming up next. He also helpfully includes the name of the album or ep each song comes from in the show notes on the blog, so if you hear something you really like, you know where to go looking.

As Scott noted, Mike E. handles the record reviews, and does an outstanding job with them. His present-day takes on records that are often 20 years old are informed and on-the-money most of the time, and his reviews of newer product are a reliable buying guide. But he does more than just review records: Mike is a top-notch story-teller, and each review also includes an autobiographical anecdote. The story may or may not directly relate to the record being reviewed, but it does give the reader the unique opportunity to learn something about the reviewer, and therefore perhaps some insight into the state of mind in which the review was written. Many celebrity "rock 'n' roll journalists" would never dare to be so open.

In addition to the podcasts and reviews, other occasional goodies spring up: top ten lists, interviews with cool people (Steve Jones of The Stepmothers fer crissake!), stories from back in the day, the occasional free-and-legal mp3 download from any of various bands or labels - whatever. Strange Reaction has been a regular visit for me not just because of the quality of the writing, but also because of the fearlessness and utter lack of pretension with which both Scott and Mike present themselves.

Scott was good enough to respond to the Five Questions I've asked of each blogger in this series:

What or who inspired you to begin blogging?
S: Large Hearted Boy. This was the first mp3 blog that I started reading on a regular basis. I always like the variety there, and while I may not always dig the music I do always check out what they're offering. At about the same time I was grabbing lots of old punk that was ripped by lots of different folks and shared via a particular P2P app. While I loved that it was being shared there, I thought it would be cool to share with an even larger audience, ones who probably had never heard of the program and would never find the tunes otherwise.

Is there a story or meaning behind your blog or its name?
S: I took the name from the song "Some Strange Reaction" by Firewater. It just seemed to fit.

Which post would you choose from your archives if you had to provide only one that best represents what your blog is all about?
S: The answer to this would probably best be reflected in a post from an old incarnation of the site, back when I posted full EP's and just gave a little back story on the record or the band. Now that I'm down to a podcast and Mike E's weekly column it's harder to choose.

When you first log on to your computer each day, what is the first site you go to? Why?
S: Reddit. It gives me a look at random news, odd videos and a look at what people will be spamming onto Facebook the next day.

What one other blog would YOU recommend that you read regularly, and why?
S: Alice Bag. She's an original, not only because of her history, but just how she writes and the topics she chooses. I never leave her site bored.

Scott also added these comments about his blog and podcast:

With [Mike E.'s] weekly look at an album and a story from his past and my weekly (mostly) podcast/show/mp3 thing, I'm pretty happy where the site is at, even if it's not a daily read for anyone.

I'm currently getting a few thousand downloads/streams of my show every time a new one is posted which always surprises me, and Punk Radiocast streams it first, every Monday night at 11:00pm EST. So if you're looking for a preview, go there. I then throw it on the website, usually by Wednesday. The one thing I would love to see is feedback to the show, I barely hear a word and I know folks are listening. It's weird.

I know of what Scott speaks when he bemoans the lack of feedback. Folks, the best thing you can offer to any blogger whose writing you enjoy is feedback - we thrive on it, yet rarely receive it! I do highly recommend you stop over at Strange Reaction, and subscribe to the podcast as well, and please do let Scott and Mike know what you think.

My sincere thanks to Scott at Strange Reaction for taking part in this series. Keep up the great work!

Recommended Reading: The Canthook

If you pick your way through several blogs a day as I do, you begin to notice two universal truths of blogging: First, people blog mainly because they want the world to hear their opinions on whatever topic they happen to be writing about. I'm just as guilty of this feeling of self-importance and the belief that I am doing all of you a favor by sharing my thoughts as anyone else who has set up shop in a little corner of the Internet and started posting whatever came to mind. As I've often said to folks who have asked me for advice on their own blogs - or their own writing of any kind - you have to develop an ego, or at least play-act the part. You have to make yourself believe that what you've written is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or you're likely never to push the "post" button in the first place!

The second truth, which often wreaks havoc with the first, is that not everything that every blogger has ever written is, in fact, the greatest thing since sliced bread. The quality of blogged material out there varies wildly from blog to blog; it often varies just as greatly from to post to post within the same blog. (Again, count me among the guilty...I go back and reread some of the things I've posted and shake my head wondering what I might have been drinking that day...)

The blogs that I find myself going back to day after day, that I include on that blogroll over on the left-hand side of the screen, and that I have chosen to share with you in this series, are those where the blogger is clearly not shy about voicing opinion, but is also capable of churning out consistently high-quality posts. Most often, that's accomplished by focusing one's writing on a particular area of interest or expertise. The more difficult trick to master is to maintain that quality of writing and strength of opinion over a variety of subjects. Dr. Harl Delos is one of the few I have found who can do exactly that.


In his blog The Canthook, Delos offers us the chance to see the world through his eyes as he goes about his daily routines. His posts might be about anything that catches his eye - or his memory - for a moment or two: people-watching at a restaurant, catching a particularly good program on television, reminiscences from his childhood, a groaner of a joke he recently heard. Other posts tackle current events, be they political, technological, or theological. Often, in fact, Delos meanders down a garden pathway of topics in a single post, each connected, if only by the thinnest of tangential threads - just as our thoughts tend to meander. For that reason, his posts strike a deeper chord than those of many bloggers out there. Even if you don't necessarily agree with Delos' take on things, you understand how he got there. He's shown you his work in reaching his answer.

I go back to The Canthook again and again because Delos challenges his readers to think. Think about the world around you - not just current events or world-affecting things, but think about how waking up to the smell of a freshly-brewed pot of coffee makes you feel. Stop and smell the roses, if I may be so cliched. He is impish and mischievous in the way he challenges, but he's not just stirring up the pot. Retired after a long career that saw him spend time as a newspaper publisher, a magazine editor, an engineer, and an early computer programmer, among other pursuits, Delos has the hands-on experiences that bring substance to his opinions. He knows of what he speaks, hence the quality of the writing. That he does all of this with a healthy spoonful of humor makes The Canthook an extremely entertaining read - and also the kind of blog you go back and re-read.

One of the first questions that comes to most people's minds regarding The Canthook is, well, "What does 'The Canthook' mean?" In his responses to the Five Questions I've asked each blogger in this series, you'll find the answer. You'll also find Harl Delos' wonderfully dry sense of humor:

What or who inspired you to begin blogging?
HD: Doogie Houser inspired me. And Mark Twain.

At the time, I had a discussion list, and I was frustrated because people wanted to read the posts and participate, but they didn't want to publicize their email address. Some discussion lists had you post to a central address, and their address was stripped away by the moderator, but the delay involved in moderation prevented an active exchange of ideas; on the list, we'd sometimes have two people post back and forth 10 times in an hour, and that made it exciting and interesting.

The alternative was to put up a forum, but that meant that vandals could (and did) post ads, etc., all the time, and that was a pain to maintain.

It was the invention of RSS that made it possible to subscribe without opening yourself up to spam - and what *really* makes a blog a blog, is the RSS feed.

Is there a story or meaning behind your blog or its name?
HD: I'm what theologists call a skeptic, what investors call a contrarian. When I was in engineering schools, they taught us to *always* question assumptions - so I question not only mine, but everyone else's as well. I find that taking a look from a different angle often brings out a very interesting story.

A canthook is a tool used by linemen to twist a utility pole into the proper orientation. A peavey is a similar tool used to twist a log. Peavey.com was already in use by the guitar people, so I named my blog The Canthook. I write posts that consider issues from different cants than the same-old same-old.

I used to publish newspapers and a magazine, and I thought the blog should have a name that sounded like the name of a newspaper. I love The Daily Beast but including "daily" in the name commits me to more work than I want to be committed to. I'm retired, after all!

Which post would you choose from your archives if you had to provide only one that best represents what your blog is all about?
HD: It's the one I'm going to write *tomorrow* - whatever day "tomorrow" happens to be when you read this. My blog is so eclectic, it's hard to pick out a post that begins to encompass all that I write about.

Someday, I'm going to write about being raped at the age of four, and if it turns out halfway good, it'll be the post that best represents the blog, because to a large degree, this blog is occupational therapy. Server rent is a LOT cheaper than a therapist. Harlan Ellison wrote a story half a century ago entitled "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" and I almost stole the name of that story as a title for my blog, except that it doesn't sound like the title of a newspaper, does it?

I can't come up with a single post that's representative. Here are three that drew a lot of email. The email I get tends to be intensely personal, and I tend to value it more than the impersonal comments made on the blog itself.

Epiphanies: Secrets of Wealth, Sex & Orange Soda
Hair Is, Uh, Magic.
Gobstoppers, and Collateral Damage

When you first log on to your computer each day, what is the first site you go to? Why?
HD: Google Alerts. Instead of signing up for email, you can set Google Alerts as an RSS feed, which means they show up in your RSS reader immediately instead of clogging your mailbox. I have SharpReader checking a number of alerts, the combination of which would be of interest to me, and probably no other person in the entire world.

What one other blog would YOU recommend that you read regularly, and why?
HD: Of late, the blog I go to first is Bats Left/Throws Right. Doghouse Riley offers up insanely great rants, and they're even greater if you have ever lived in or around Indianapolis, but that's not essential.

Delos also offered this comment on his audience-building strategy:

It's a lot easier to *keep* a reader than to *get* a reader. Consequently, I promote SharpReader at my blog, because I don't want to have people stopping by every couple of weeks to see if I've written anything new and interesting, and eventually forgetting to stop by, I want them to see the "teaser" right away when I write a new post.

If they use SharpReader for twenty other blogs, they will keep it running all the time instead of just once in a while. If someone doesn't want to read my posts, that's one thing, but I don't want them drifting away without making a decision to do so. And I know, from the number of blogs that are still in *my* copy of Sharpreader, though they haven't posted in the last couple of months, that people need a good reason to unsubscribe.

That strategy seems to work. I'm experiencing slow, steady growth. My blog is not for everyone. In fact, I suspect it drives some people batty. But the fact that I'm experiencing any growth at all suggests that my audience is finding me.

I certainly hope that, though my recommendation, some of you find yourself part of Dr. Harl Delos' audience. Stop by The Canthook and spend some time there perusing the posts. You'll be glad you did, and I think you'll go back for more.

My great thanks to Dr. Harl Delos for participating in this series and sharing his thoughts!

Recommended Reading: Punk Turns 30

The history of any pop-culture phenomenon, whether passing fad or enduring style, regularly sees fact and legend become intertwined. The history of Rock and Roll and its assorted and varied subgenres has always been particularly vulnerable to myth overtaking truth (no, really, Alice Cooper did bite the head off of a live chicken and toss the carcass into the crowd...as far as you know!), and Punk, which was steeped in apocryphal stories designed to generate buzz from its earliest incarnations, is no exception. It's helpful to those of us who weren't actually there in its earliest days that there are at least a few folks who were, and who are willing to be (at times brutally) honest about what really happened, to sort out fact from fiction. And, as the old saying goes, truth often is stranger - or at least as entertaining.

Theresa Kereakes was there to see the earliest days of Punk Rock in LA in the mid-to-late '70s. Working her way up from teenage ticket-booth attendant at the fabled Whisky A-Go-Go to a position as the club's talent coordinator, later landing a position at Island Records, and being the owner of an apartment with a couch that was crashed upon by seemingly just about every musician of the era you can name, Kereakes was in the enviable position to be both participant and observer as the LA Punk Scene came into being. The fact that she has been a talented and prolific photographer since her childhood and, as such, documented most of what she saw and experienced makes her a unique and invaluable historian of that time; her uncanny knack for humorous and no-punches-pulled honest storytelling sets her distinctly apart from the scenesters and hangers-on who are more inclined toward building their own legends than sharing what was really like to be there at the beginning.

In her blog Punk Turns 30, Theresa Kereakes combines samples of her stunning photography with her first-hand accounts of the era, creating a mesmerizing window to the past. Her posts often tie the past to current events: recent entries have included reminiscences of Malcolm McLaren, a 30-year-old snapshot of the New York Dolls in juxtaposition with David Johansen and Syl Sylvain launching a 2010 tour under the Dolls' banner, and some discussion of the notorious Kim Fowley in the wake of the current biopic about The Runaways. The memories she shares are always entertaining, but it is her photography which is, deservedly, the star of the show.

You've undoubtedly seen Kereakes' work, whether or not you identified it as such. Her pictures have graced record sleeves for artists like Stiv Bators, The Pandoras and The Ventures, among numerous others; her work has been featured in the pages of prominent magazines and books over the years; her touring photo exhibition Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond has been welcomed in galleries across the country. Candid as often as posed, her photography reveals the real people behind the personas. Much of her work has been in black and white, and that starkness multiplies the impact of the images she has captured. Whether you are a fan of Punk Rock or not, you will find it difficult not to be affected by her work.

Theresa was kind enough to reply to the Five Questions I have asked of each blogger in this series. Here is a bit about her approach to Punk Turns 30 in her own words:

What or who inspired you to begin blogging?
TK: It wasn't blogging that I set out to do. Back in 2004, I ran into two people I knew from "back in the day" at a Christmas party in our home town of Los Angeles. We had not seen each other in 25 years and discussed the fact that punk rock (which was the phenomenon through which we came to know each other - that and being photographers) was going to have a significant birthday soon and that we should do something about it. We wanted to do a traveling exhibit and have a corresponding website. Obviously, I was the one who stuck with the plan....

Is there a story or meaning behind your blog or its name?
TK: It is self-explanatory. I started posting on it in February 2005, which for me was 30 years after first having seen Patti Smith, who changed my world. From where I stand, 1976 is the birth year of punk rock, so the whole 2005 was the build-up.

Which post would you choose from your archives if you had to provide only one that best represents what your blog is all about?
TK: I am anarchy... therefore, there is honestly no one post that represents what I do, since what I do changes - in its intent and its content with each day.... but the "required reading" posts are the ones that probably help people who want to know more about punk rock, as they offer sources and resources.
Required Reading

On the other hand.... people have also told me that they liked and learned from the "my fave punk singles" series of posts -
Fave Punk Records - Fun at the Beach - B Girls

Personally, like anyone else who has a bully pulpit/website/blog... whatever you want to call it, I like to spout my opinion:
Why Patti Smith Matters

When you first log on to your computer each day, what is the first site you go to? Why?
TK: NYTimes.com. Because I want to know what's going on in the world.

What one other blog would YOU recommend that you read regularly, and why?
TK: Read the blogs of your favorite artists or your friends! Keep up with them.

I cannot recommend Punk Turns 30 highly enough. Whether you have an interest in the history of Punk Rock or a love for outstanding photography, Theresa Kereakes' images and stories will keep you coming back for more. Visit her blog, sample a few posts, and then share your thoughts in the comments below.

My great thanks - and wishes for a Happy Birthday, one day late - to Theresa Kereakes for being a part of this series!