Hip people I know say we're supposed to call it "Twenty Ten," not "Two Thousand and Ten." Although I'm hopelessly unhip, Twenty Ten feels right. As my doctor's receptionist commented, "Sure it's Twenty Ten. We used to say Nineteen Eighty Five,
didn't we?"
The J2 Blog will mainly be about music...and radio...and journalism. My wife Gina gave me the idea of doing a blog over coffee on New Year's Eve morning, and I think I shocked her by being so receptive to it so quickly. It'll be exciting for me to be able to document what I've been listening to (current or classic) or reminisce in this space.
I may rave about an album (Tom Waits' new Glitter and Doom Live [Anti- Records] makes me chuckle--no doom for me). Or rage against something--Who the hell taught you English? Don't you know the difference between "You're" and "Your"?--but I'll try to be concise.
Check out my Saturday "Retroactive" radio show this week. It will start with the late Vic Chesnutt's work: Dark, beautiful, even majestic. I'm so lucky to be at a station like KAOS, where Chesnutt's music has always received its due.
If you hadn't heard, Vic Chesnutt apparently took his own life last week, long after he was paralyzed in a 1983 car accident, leaving him limited use of his hands. That kind of extended suffering is something beyond my imagination--nor can I grasp how his situation was attended to by the horrific U.S. health care system.