Every endeavor involves 2 things: skill and luck. Depending on what the endeavor is, more of one may be needed than the other. Concert pianist? Your odds of playing all the right notes in a concerto by luck are pretty low. Actor? Anyone can do it. Bodybuilders, wrestlers, singers, comedians. Luck is paramount. Technologist? My experience in software engineering is that it’s a skills-based profession. If you know things other people don’t know and you can solve problems other people can’t solve, you are the king or queen of the programming jungle. That said, I can’t recommend a course or bootcamp or resume trick, and in a bad market, you may need some luck, but it’s a skills-based profession. Skills and hard work. Get behind the mule and plow. Thus spoke The Programmer. Read more →
EppsNet Archive: Music
Forrest Richard ‘Dickey’ Betts, 1943-2024
SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. – Dickey Betts, a driving force behind the Allman Brothers Band that launched Southern rock and influenced the jam band scene, died Thursday at his Florida home — USA Today Betts was best known for his legendary guitar skills, but he also wrote the Allman Brothers Band’s only Top 10 hit, “Ramblin’ Man.” During Bob Dylan’s Sept. 30, 1995, concert at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa. Florida, Betts joined Dylan on stage for several numbers including “Ramblin’ Man.” Betts told the story of how it came to be while seated at his Sarasota County home in 2014. Dylan says, “Let’s do ‘Ramblin’ Man.’” “All right, let me write the words down,” Betts tells him. “I know the words,” Dylan says. “I should have wrote that song.” Betts unleashed one of his warm, charming laughs. “I said, ‘Bob, just sing whatever you want to.’ I didn’t think… Read more →
Mojo Nixon, 1957-2024
An underappreciated genius. I loved this guy. RIP Mojo Nixon Read more →
Home Alone, Too
Why Popular Music is Rubbish
Almost all the female singers have the same voice, like a half-mumbling toddler. The male singers have a broader range but not a lot broader: the screamer, the effeminate and the high school dropout. But the main problem is that whoever is writing the songs, it is just not their destiny to be songwriters. There’s a complete lack of imagination, resulting in only a few themes, endlessly recycled: I love you I love you and you love me I love you and you don’t love me I love you but you left Let’s fuck Read more →
California’s a Brand-New Game
All the gold in California Is in the bank in the middle of Beverly Hills In somebody else’s name. So if you’re dreamin’ about California, It don’t matter at all where you’ve played before. California’s a brand-new game. — Larry Gatlin, “All the Gold in California” Read more →
If California Slides Into the Ocean
And if California slides into the ocean Like the mystics and statistics say it will I predict this motel will be standing Until I pay my bill. — Warren Zevon, “Desperadoes Under the Eaves” Read more →
Love Songs in Age
She kept her songs, they kept so little space, The covers pleased her: One bleached from lying in a sunny place, One marked in circles by a vase of water, One mended, when a tidy fit had seized her, And coloured, by her daughter – So they had waited, till, in widowhood She found them, looking for something else, and stood Relearning how each frank submissive chord Had ushered in Word after sprawling hyphenated word, And the unfailing sense of being young Spread out like a spring-woken tree, wherein That hidden freshness sung, That certainty of time laid up in store As when she played them first. But, even more, The glare of that much-mentioned brilliance, love, Broke out, to show Its bright incipience sailing above, Still promising to solve, and satisfy, And set unchangeably in order. So To pile them back, to cry, Was hard, without lamely admitting how… Read more →
My Dismay at Bruce Springsteen’s Facelifts is Boundless
Bruce Springsteen never had good skin. And his face was kind of puffy. Take a look: And that’s when he was still young. Now who is this 70-year-old guy? You might say he works out, eats right, that’s how he stays young-looking. There are no exercises to tighten your face, as far as I know. 70 years of gravity takes its toll. You might say that the photo is retouched and you’re probably right, but there are enough unposed Springsteen photos available with the same tight face. The hair is fake too, by the way. Here’s a selfie taken on the occasion of becoming a grandfather. Didn’t have time to slap on the toupee. I’m not taking a position against cosmetic surgery or other artificial ways of looking younger. Getting old and having to look at yourself sucks. But you have to be true to who you are, and Springsteen… Read more →
All You Need is Love?
We saw The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. It was a fun show. My only quibble is that there’s about the right amount of buffoonery for, say, a Marx Brothers tribute, but a little too much for a Beatles show. A friend tells me his favorite Beatle is John, followed by George, which I’d say are not bad choices. I’ve always thought George was underrated as a singer-songwriter compared to Paul. One thing that always bothered me about John is that he was telling people that all they need is love, while he himself had a fondness for fashion, drove a Rolls Royce and lived in the most expensive building in New York. I’m not aware that anyone ever asked him about the apparent contradiction but it would have been a good question: “You’re telling people who may be living on the street or can’t afford… Read more →
Dark Eyes
They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I’m sure it is But I feel nothing for their game where beauty goes unrecognized All I feel is heat and flame and all I see are dark eyes — Bob Dylan, “Dark Eyes” Read more →
Ring Them Bells
Ring them bells St. Peter Where the four winds blow Ring them bells with an iron hand So the people will know Oh it’s rush hour now On the wheel and the plow And the sun is going down Upon the sacred cow Ring them bells Sweet Martha For the poor man’s son Ring them bells so the world will know That God is one Oh the shepherd is asleep Where the willows weep And the mountains are filled With lost sheep — Bob Dylan, “Ring Them Bells” Read more →
People I Thought Were Dead
John Amos, actor Meredith Baxter, actress Lou Christie, pop singer Jaime Farr, actor David Hartman, TV host Judd Hirsch, actor Stacy Keach, actor Bernie Kopell, actor Michael Learned, actress Lee Majors, actor Lee Meriwether, actress Ryan O’Neal, actor Gene Shalit, film and book critic Leslie Uggams, singer/actress Liv Ullmann, actress Burt Ward, actor Updates John Amos, died 8/24/2024, age 84 Ryan O’Neal, died 12/8/2023, age 82 Read more →
The Happy Pug Tail Wag
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Animals Doing Things (@animalsdoingthings) Read more →
How Lonely Can It Get?
I asked Hank Williams, “How lonely can it get?” Hank Williams hasn’t answered me yet. But I can hear him coughing all night long. A hundred floors above me in the Tower of Song. — Leonard Cohen Read more →
There’s No Comprehending
There’s no comprehending Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone — Joni Mitchell, “Coyote” Read more →
I Wish You Peace
I wish you peace when times are hard A light to guide you through the dark And when storms are high and your, your dreams are low I wish you the strength to let love grow on, I wish you the strength to let love flow on, I wish you the strength to let love glow on I wish you the strength to let love go. — Bernie Leadon & Patti Davis, “I Wish You Peace” Read more →
This Day in History: Aretha Franklin
On Jan. 3, 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first (biological) woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This may be an opportunity for someone inducted before 1987 to put on a dress and say “Wait a minute, I identify as a woman” and knock Aretha out of the history books. It worked for Amy Schneider. Read more →
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. — Goethe
Van Morrison at the Hollywood Bowl
He’s 76, but he still sings as well as anyone. Great show, great band. I tried to reconstruct the set here as a playlist. He did “In the Afternoon,” “Help Me,” “Raincheck,” “Burning Ground” and “Ancient Highway” as a medley, not one right after the other, but blended together as a long — what’s the right word? — let’s say a long reverie. There may have been snippets of a couple other things in there as well . . . something about Big Joe Turner and sittin’ pretty. He did more of a standard version of “Help Me” as an encore, then “Gloria” as a second encore. Read more →