Skip to main content

Popdose lives!

A couple of weeks ago I made the announcement that I would be contributing to a new pop culture website called POPDOSE. Well, the site has been up and running since January 1 and I urge you all to take a hop skip and jump over there to check out the outstanding writing and the music being offered. Popdose came to be after the demise of one of my favorite places on the Internet, "Jefitoblog". The guy that ran that site, Jeff Giles, is an outstanding writer and a talented web designer. I discovered his old site four years ago after Entertainment Weekly wrote up his "Idiot's Guide to Hall & Oates". After reading about the Philadelphia duo, I went and read most of his old postings. At one point, her wrote a guide to the work of Billy Joel and made a brilliant observation about Springsteen. I wrote him an email, sent him two of the best Springsteen bootlegs ever (which he posted on Jefitoblog) and a friendship was born.

Last year, Jeff was the mastermind behind "Bloggers for a Cure",which was a collection of some very talented writers raising money for the CF Foundation in the name of Jacob. He did this without my input and surprised the shit out of our family last Easter when they launched the campaign. Many of those same writers are working over at Popdose. Among them are Jason Hare and Py Korry, two wonderful guys I can now call my friends. They all did this not because I asked them but because they're good human beings.

I'm rambling on because I'm very excited about Popdose. In some way this is a dream come true. I'm going to be writing for a larger audience than I had here at thunderbolt and that is a little intimidating. But I'm up to the challenge.

What will I be writing, you ask? Well, the "Basement Songs" entries will be posted at Popdose every week. Jeff has been a long time supporter of these entries and I was more than happy to take them to a new home. Additionally, I will be writing a weekly column on television and film (mostly television). The Basement Songs will begin tomorrow, 1/3/07. And the television column (entitled "The Three Strike Rule) begins this Sunday.

I'm not promising greatness, but I will try to make all of you who come to thunderbolt on a regular basis proud. That doesn't mean that I'm going to be shutting down this site. In fact, I have some other news I plan to spring on the world in the next couple of weeks that will me thunderbolt very useful.

That's all I have for tonight. Please, please, please, check out Popdose (the link is to he right, of click http://popdose.com).

Aloha

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MARATHON FOOTNOTES (for those who didn't think I would really footnote a stream of consciousness thought): Footnote #1 Academy Award Winning Best Picture Films from 1969 to the Present: Midnight Cowboy, Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Ordinary People, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Terms of Endearment, Amadeus, Out of Africa, Platoon, The Last Emperor, Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Footnote #2 Members of the band YES, from 1969 to the present: In 1969, Yes is formed with Jon Anderson on vocals Peter Banks on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Kaye on keyboards and Chris Squire playing bass. This group records...

100 and Counting: Introducing The Epic Playlist

It started as all playlists do, an occasion that justified music for entertainment. In this case, it was a couples weekend getaway back in February. Super Dave proposed that he and I provide the tunes and we started a Spotify playlist: three songs at a time, no song repeats, no artist repeats. Dave would add his three, then text me that it was my turn. I would then add my three text him back. This cycle repeated until three hundred songs were compiled, and we drove off to Mammoth with our wives. A funny thing happened, though, it turned out we both enjoyed the challenge of trying to surprise or outdo the other so much that we continued building the playlist. We made a new rule of just three songs each a day and still no artist repeats. Soon, we came up with amendments to allow duets (The Emmylou Exception), multiple songs by the same band if said band had multiple lead singers (The Beatles Exception), or if there was a lead singer replacement that changed the artistic direction of ...

A Trip Through the "My 90's Tapes" Collection Pt. 6: Joan Jett and The Blackhearts "Up Your Alley"

Column 1, Row 6: Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Up Your Alley In 1988, hair metal was on the rise and straight forward rock and roll was losing radio airplay. If the music wasn't a little slick and the mix didn't sound like the record was recorded in a sports arena, there was little chance of getting heard. There were exceptions, of course (Tracy Chapman comes to mind), but for the most part, loud and echoey was the sound of the day. At that time, Joan Jett and her latest version of the Blackhearts had been together for a few years and were clicking. The band members were Ricky Byrd on lead guitar and vocals, Kasim Sulton on bass and vocals, and Thommy Price on drums. Jett was coming off of co-starring with Michael J. Fox in Paul Schrader's film, Light of Day . Although the film wasn't a hit, it was high profile enough to bring the rock legend back into the public eye after years working the road and trying to rebuild the success of her early 80s albums, including the s...