a literary confidence
by Dai Bando Beginning in the 1950s and peaking in the 1960s, there sprang forth from the hills of Hollywood, a loose collective of session musicians whom industry insiders nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew." In the post-Brit Invasion recording frenzy, L.A.’s star-making machinery wanted their young performers to quickly grow their hair into a pudding bowl... Continue Reading →
I’ll go inside and seek out the laminated card that tells me I was watering a Double Pink Fuchsia, known for its beautiful, multi-colored, pendant blooms which can grow up to three inches long.
-by Dai Bando (originally published in The Hobbledehoy): https://thehobbledehoy.com/) - The Voice Squad "The Parting Glass" (from Waking Ned Devine 1999) The Hothouse Flowers front man Liam Ó Maonlaí (surname pronounced O’-man-lee) performs this in 1999’s Waking Ned Devine but I prefer the recording sung acapella by The Voice Squad. Said music critic Rick Anderson, "The Voice Squad represent the melding of two related but... Continue Reading →
by Wayne Cresser (Author's note: In the realm of publishing, I am happy to report that a new story called, "The Last Time Norm Took Acid," was included in an anthology called 20, published by Carlow University Press in recognition of the 20th anniversary of their MFA Program. Lots of fine writers in these pages,... Continue Reading →
(This show was broadcast on Sunday, January 7 from 7 to 8 PM, on WRIU Kingston, 90.3 FM, also streaming at wriu.org. It will be re-broadcast on Sunday, January 14, same time same place) Listen here: Theme from The Wild One, composed by Leith Stevens, featuring Shorty Rogers Rock Around the Clock from Blackboard Jungle composed by Max C. Freedman and... Continue Reading →
Wind and rain came up after that and I pulled Rhonda under the boat cover. When we crawled out again, we were adrift at sea and there was nothing in sight.
by Dai Bando There are five new additions to my annual “Greatest Christmas Songs” list, now thirty songs in total! This is disconcerting, since my original raison d'être was the claim that there are only about ten good Christmas songs. Then ten became fifteen, then twenty-five, and now thirty. So, I appear to be wro…wr… challenged, in my... Continue Reading →
by Wayne Cresser (Originally published in the Ocean State Review Volume 8: No. 1, 2018) If you hang around Art's parties long enough, you're bound to run into the guy who resembles Crispin Glover, in anything, a gawky watch-capped scarecrow whose clothes add up to thrift store poetry and ragamuffin rhymes. He's the guy who... Continue Reading →
Oh, if and when you go there, stay for a while. Look into the nooks and crannies, and try to remember, you've got to come back out sometime, if only to go back again later, if you know what I mean.
One of the keys to their success was that early on someone in their circle of producers and artists, had the idea to list their names on the records they supported, unlike during the era of anonymity the Wrecking Crew worked in. And brother, did the hair grow, the word spread, and the work pile up.
Just Between You and Me 