Registered History Facts: Sire Records
Registered Historical Facts* is my regular series on Morrissey and the Smiths’ appearances in pop...
WHM
Jazz Note #20 – Make a Christmas Album
It seems a requirement for a musical artist to produce a Christmas Album: Bing Crosby...
Weekend Gamer: AtGames Legends Pinball Micro
AtGames Legends Pinball Micro Included Tables — Taito — Arkanoid Bubble Bobble Darius Front Line...
The cinematic stories about love and loss from Krzysztof Kieślowski
Now that Halloween is over, we can talk about less intense films. I wanted to...
Interview with Jonathan Posthuma of Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
We interviewed Jonathan Posthuma, Artistic Planning Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, about the 2025-2026 season, particularly the planned Bach orchestral suites.
Book Report: The Drums by Mike Joyce
The long awaited Mike Joyce’s autobiography, The Drums, came out on Friday (November 7, 2025). The book, published by New Modern, is available in print (but not in the USA), digital, and audio book.
Twin Cities Con Day Three
Day Three was the end of Twin Cities Con, with a final run of cosplay, interesting panels, and a wonderfully inclusive community.
The Cranberries: MTV Unplugged
You know I’m such a fool for The Cranberries. After years in the making, Island Records and UMe, is finally releasing The Cranberries’ MTV Unplugged on CD, vinyl, and digital. The recording was released on Friday (November 7, 2025).
Lionsgate Limited
Hider in the House (1991) Vestron Video lionsgatelimited.com As I previously mentioned in 2022, when...
Book Report: Horror – the Devil’s Doorway
Continuing the Halloween festival… DC Finest: Horror (Sep 9, 2025) I recently purchased more DC...
RHF: The killer’s last ten seconds of life in 1994
Registered Historical Facts* is my regular series on Morrissey and the Smiths’ appearances in pop...
Book Report: DC Finest – Crisis on Infinite Earths
You guys already know what a big fan I am of DC Finest, the affordable line of books from DC Comics, collecting year-long run in one giant book (average about 400-500 pages per volume). I plan on collecting all these books, if I can find them for a reasonable price. I usually will buy if I see them for $25 or less, but there are some exceptions. I paid full price for DC Finest: Teen Titans - Judas Contract and for the latest release DC Finest: Events - Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One. The book came out on Tuesday (Oct 21, 2025).
Horror: VHS
The latest found footage horror series V/H/S is back with V/H/S Halloween. This is the eighth installment, and as someone who has seen all the VHS series, I can’t honestly tell you which ones are good. They’re pretty much all the same: random little stories with VHS special effects. Sometime it’s unwatchable, sometime it’s scary, sometime it’s goofy… you know what you’re getting when you watch a VHS film.
Triple Blind
My favorite time of the year is Halloween… so here are some ‘Blind’ Horror films...
Grotesque
Halloween is at the end of month, so here are some horror films you might want to check out.
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Strasbourg 82
Today is jazz drummer Art Blakey’s birthday, and to celebrate Gearbox Records is releasing Strasbourg...
Peter Murphy: Silver Shade
Silver Shade is Peter Murphy’s latest album; his first new music in over 10 years.
Registered Historical Facts: Lawnmower Parts
When Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce sued Morrissey, he affectionately called them "Lawnmower Parts"... suggesting that they were not an important part of The Smiths and did not deserve the 25% equal share of the group's earnings.
Laveda: Love, Darla
New York-based quartet Laveda released their third album Love, Darla on Bar/None Records.
The Cranberries: No Need to Argue (30th Anniversary Edition)
Not a popular opinion, but No Need to Argue is not my favorite The Cranberries album. I prefer the later records, particularly the Bury the Hatchet-era, when I felt the band was in top-form and understood how to write blockbuster songs. Still, No Need to Argue is important because this is the band’s breakout record.
The Chameleons: Arctic Moon
Manchester’s The Chameleons formed in 1981 (with a debut record Script of the Bridge in 1983), in an already crowded ‘Madchester’ music scene, such as The Smiths, New Order, Magazine, The Fall, and so on… but tragedy hit the band with the band manager’s death, so they agreed to break up in 1987.
Registered Historical Facts: Looking out for Johnny Marr and Conjuring Morrissey
The Smiths and Morrissey is in the news and pop culture. Morrissey spotted in The Conjuring and Johnny Marr has a new live album called Look Out Live!
Shonen Knife: Our Best Place (Expanded Edition)
Our Best Place (Expanded Edition) (Sep 19, 2025) Shonen Knife Discography Minna Tanoshiku (1982) Burning...
Book Report: Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor
I was on a recent comic book hunter at my local Ollie’s (my favorite store in Florida). I didn’t find what I was looking for, but while browsing through their music book section, I came across Sinéad O’Connor’s book Rememberings.
Record Player R612
The world’s best record players are all made by Audio-Technica. It is the brand that everybody, who is into vinyl, recommends. I would love to own an Audio-Technica product, but all their starter turntables are priced at $200 to $350. Those are the starters, which are the “cheap” entries. If you want to “Step-Up”, those starts at $400… and when you go all-in, you’re looking at $2,000 for a turntable. That is crazy money to throw at a record player, in my opinion.
Knives Out
Knives Out:
• Japanese band Shonen Knife returns to the USA
• Her New Knife is touring with Water From Your Eyes
• Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals releases A City Drowned in God's Black Tears and touring
I Wanna Learn a Love Song by Harry Chapin
Most casual listeners will only know Harry Chapin as the “Cat’s in the Cradle” musician, but the Grammy-winning and Hall of Fame inductee had written over 100 songs over 11 albums, until his death in 1981.
There’s no denying that “Cat’s in the Cradle” is Chapin’s signature song, and is relatable by anyone, who is too busy working to spend time with their family. Thanks to the hit single, Elektra Records was able to sell over 2.5 million copies of the 1974 album Verities and Balderdash.
All this was a little before my time, and I was gifted the album by my sixth-grade teacher, who was an avid fan. As the title suggests, this album contains important (vertities) and nonsense (balderdash) songs… in other words, a mishmash collection.
There are some gems on the record, including my personal favorite, “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”, which is much better when performed live.
The other song I liked is “I Wanna Learn a Love Song,” a song about Harry Chapin met his wife, Sandra. I didn’t know this at the time, and had always assumed that he got the idea from one of his passengers when he was a Taxi driver. That’s the case of “30,000 Pounds…”, which was a story he’s heard on a bus to Scranton, Pennsylvania.