Yoshimi Battles a Hazy Memory

Saw a stellar Flaming Lips concert this week, reminding me why Benji Hughes calls them the greatest show he ever saw. They played Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots in its entirety, followed by a full second set with all of the usual delightful hjinx throughout. If memory serves this was my 5th Flaming Lips show…

Time Travel in Quantum Leap Season 6

As stated previously, I went into the revival of Quantum Leap with cautious optimism. It started off good in a nostalgic sort of way, but by the second half of the season was legitimately the best show on television in my opinion and my favorite all over again. In my experiment of stack ranking the…

Quantum Entanglement: Ranking the Leaps

Season 6 of Quantum Leap (my colloquial term for the 2022 reboot for convenience) had 18 episodes in its first season. Season 1 of the original Quantum Leap had 8 episodes if you (correctly) count Genesis as a single 2 hour ep vs. a 2 part pilot. Tacking on the first 10 episodes of Season…

Of The Year: 2022

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — actually posted on the last day of the year! ALBUMS: REISSUES: SONGS: SHOWS: Lighter than usual as we ease out of pandemic life. I’m trying to better pick my spots vs. go to every show that catches my interest — and often seemingly end up being…

Oh, boy! Quantum Leap Trailer Thoughts

I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Quantum Leap reboot/continuation series since it was first announced. Now that the official trailer dropped yesterday and we’re a little over a week away from the premiere I’m getting amped. I honestly haven’t been this excited for the debut of a new TV show since the original QL…

Beck Gave Me COVID…

…and it’s nobody’s fault but my own. After 2 years of doing all the right careful things as a good citizen, the allure of a solo acoustic Beck show during SXSW was too good to pass up. I’m vaxxed and boosted. I’ve worn a mask indoors and generally avoided indoor venues/dining for the whole pandemic….

Remixing Heartman & Songstress

L Extreme plays out in album order as a track-by-track adaptation of A Love Extreme, but ironically following the song sequence generated a non-sequential narrative that loops back on itself in a series of flashbacks. Keeping score at home? Excluding framing devices, re-arranging the chapters into chronological story would be along the lines of: 21, 3, 8,…

Benji Hughes, Agatha Christie, Anne Rice, Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, David Foster Wallace, Kurt Vonnegut…and me!

One goal I had for L Extreme was to capture the genre crossing styles Benji Hughes uses on A Love Extreme the album through the various song/chapters. Recently I remembered this old I Write Like text analysis website and wondered how well I did at mixing things up. Let’s see… In 15 chapters, I write like Agatha…

Of The Year: 2021

Say what you will about life in the last couple years, but musically it’s been a creative delight. (Maybe that’s just more time to listen?) For the second year in a row I have a full top 10: ALBUMS 1975 — No-No Boy Melodic and memorable with a great story and purpose behind it (the…

LX Commentary #26: Baby, It’s Your Life!

Endings are tough. You need to tie up as many dangling threads as possible, leave the reader satisfied that reading the book was worthwhile, and try to go out on a memorable high note without it feeling abrupt or forced. That’s something I wrote a dozen years ago in the commentary post for the final…