All posts by jmp

Wonder (ing)

Wow! Another new year is upon us and by now I’ve had this experience quite a few times. I was trying to remember among all those previous celebrations of this change from old to new which of them stood out to me and why. Surprisingly few did. I wondered why. Maybe it was the alcohol. Read More

Joy, too

In this season of joy and goodwill to all, a persistent issue arises for me. Walking the streets and sidewalks of our prosperous little town, especially in the evening when lights in the store windows twinkle and cash registers ring, it’s always a challenge to ignore the flotsam and jetsam of our social order. People Read More

Rogue Reads

Big thanks to the Jackson County Library Service for including me in the Rogue Reads lectures at the county’s very impressive library system.  For those of you who asked about the schedule for my presentation of What It Was: Growing Up When the Music Mattered, here ’tis: Branch Day Date Time       Shady Read More

Sources of Information

Radical Radio: FREEFORM Radio Archive was launched as promised (whew!) late on Thanksgiving Day. The response to this Version 1.0 of the archive has been great so far. More than 300 people have checked it out to date. The December 5 edition of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF) newsletter featured the site and Read More

Something To Give Thanks For

Well, there are so many things we can give thanks for when we really think about it. For all its faults, life is pretty fine and, as is so often said, it’s better than the alternative – although none of us living can be certain that’s true. BUT, I am especially thankful to be realizing Read More

Freeform Follies

When Kenny Weissberg arrived in Boulder Independence Day 1971, he got to know Jason Sherman, who was a deejay at KRNW-FM radio. With his help, Kenny got hired to do the morning show. The pay sucked but it wasn’t about the money. It was all about having a gig on a station in a very Read More

Handy

Is it true that the next iPhone will be a corneal implant? A device that can do everything your current one does and do it hands free. It can text your messages and comments, scan the Internet, even replicate your voice and make a call – does anyone actually call anymore except spammers? – all Read More

Get High, Get By, Deny, Decry, or Buy

What do you think about drugs? Good, bad, indifferent? Chooser, user, abuser? Never, seldom, often, every day like clockwork? Maybe you take medicine for your heart. Maybe you like wine. Smoke a little reefer. Coffee may be your fix each day, or meth may be your pick me up because after all it’s cheaper. Perhaps Read More

Big Questions

Here’s a fascinating study of human origins, migration, and the development of language that derives from new techniques for capturing DNA from our prehistoric relatives. The sweep of evolution from Olduvai Gorge, though the migrations that eventually populated the world, and all the languages that were developed to communicate the experience, are the stuff of great Read More

Art and Artifice

Ruminating over a collection of slightly related subjects as a theme for this article. Art and artisan are featured here, and artful living in an age of late stage capitalism with its lure of artifice.  Writing about a time in the past when creativity was rampant, life more carefree, aspirations communal, inevitably leads to contemplation Read More