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munkiman.bsky.social
Bryan Thomas
@munkiman.bsky.social
2.4K followers 1.7K following 7.8K posts
Here for posts on: Music. Films. TV Shows. Writing. Fiction/Poetry. Art. History. Science. Humor. Progressive Politics. Photography. Nature. Ecology. Hippies. Navel-Gazing Existentialism. Baseball. Not even sure if I'm in the right place, tbh. We'll see.
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munkiman.bsky.social
One year on Bluesky, as of today, November 13th.
2400+ followers, following 1660+. 7,800+ posts.

I've been taking a break from Bluesky posts for a myriad of reasons, but I'll be back again.

Thanks to @marccampbell.bsky.social for telling me about this place last year. Glad I followed you here.
I've been consumed with other things lately. Had a bad fall last week (Thursday, Nov. 6) and I've been recuperating from that. I've been working on a novel that I started a few years back, trying to just finish the damn thing and block out all distractions, which isn't easy to do sitting in my dusty L.A. hermitage. And there's been other stuff in my personal life to deal with too.... But, like I said, I'll be back again on Bluesky.
November 13, 2025 at 2:49 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; This album blends avant-garde composition, jazz soloing, and African & Middle Eastern rhythmic forms, w/ producer Brian Eno adding reversed echo and otherworldly, ghostly production touches. Thanks to @aquariumdrunkard.com for reminding me of this influential LP today. More: alt text
Pitchfork's Aaron Leitko (in 2014) writes: The composer, improviser, and trumpet player Jon Hassell, now 77, created 'Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics' in 1980 in collaboration with producer Brian Eno. Melding minimalism, jazz, and ambient sounds, it is eerie, dreamlike, and otherworldly music. The title 'Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics' has a brainy and academic ring to it, but according to Jon Hassell, the record is at least 50% body music. "The basic metaphor is that of the north and south of a person is a projection of the north and south of the globe," the composer, improviser, and trumpet player, now 77, explained in an interview earlier this year. "A mind formatted by language and located in the head, compared with the area of wildness and sensuality below the waist where dance and music and procreation reigns." However, the first time through, Possible Musics—which Hassell created in 1980 in collaboration with producer Brian Eno—you might find that "wildness" and "sensuality" are not the first adjectives that come to mind. It is eerie, dreamlike, and otherworldly music. Throughout the record, Hassell’s trumpet is processed using a harmonizer effect, producing alien tonalities that seem to slide between the notes of a traditional Western scale. Often, his melody lines sound more like a human voice than a brass instrument. The rhythm tracks—made up of hand percussion and electric bass—are highly repetitive, but also wobbly and destabilized. The result is a sound that melds minimalism, jazz, and ambient sounds, but doesn’t fit comfortably into any of those genres. More: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19984-brian-eno-jon-hassel-fourth-world-vol-1-possible-musics/
November 7, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Bryan Thomas
maxkennerly.bsky.social
modified NYTimes heading: Opinion interesting times Should Men Be Allowed To Drag Their Itchy Buttholes Across The Carpet Of Society? A viewpoint just as valid as the tripe this paper constantly platforms via conservative dullards. Nov. 6, 2025
November 6, 2025 at 7:10 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
A very cool babysitter took my little brother and I to see the Monkees' film HEAD -- which had premiered in NYC on November 6, 1968 -- on a Saturday matinee double-bill with the Beatles' Yellow Submarine at the Brookhurst Theater in Anaheim. My little kid brain was pretty much blown.
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On November 6, 1968, HEAD -- "the most extraordinary adventure, western, comedy, love story, mystery, drama, musical, documentary satire ever made…" -- had its gala premiere at the Columbia Pictures Studio on West 54th Street in Manhattan. The band were at a crossroads at the time, and probably a little uncertain about their future. Earlier in the year, in March, they’d released their last Top Ten single, “Valleri,” and completed the second season of their prime-time NBC TV show, “The Monkees,” but they weren’t happy with the show and everyone involved decided that they were going down the wrong track. They met with network execs in an attempt to convince them to let them change the show from a zany sitcom to a variety program. NBC wasn’t convinced, however, and with that, “The Monkees” was cancelled, and dropped from the network’s fall schedule; in September, “I Dream Of Jeannie” would inherit their former time-slot (Monday nights, 7:30 ET). At the time, the band were busy working on their film debut anyway (they were more than a month into the production of HEAD, which originally had the working title Changes, no doubt a reflection of what exactly the band were going through at the time). The origin of the screenplay had originally been started during a weekend at an Ojai, California, golf resort. Joining all four four members of the band — Mike Nesmith, Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork — were producers Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, who also brought along their friend who they had tasked to direct the film, a then-struggling B-movie actor named Jack Nicholson, not exactly a household name in 1968. Apparently, it was quite a wild weekend, and everyone present is said to have smoked copious amounts of marijuana and possibly done other recreational drugs, randomly spewing their ideas in a kind of rambling collective stream of consciousness rant about what a Monkees film should be. And so what is HEAD? Well, it’s not easy to sum up, but let’s say that it’s certainly an acidic social commentary about the band’s own commercial superficiality, presented while the band takes a kind of unimaginably weird trip of rapidly-edited series sequences in the kinds of genre-movies that you might have seen on late night TV at the time: there are war scenes, adventure scenes, horror scenes, comedy scenes, drama scenes, western scenes, sci-fi scenes, romance scenes, and on and on. Except, in HEAD‘s filmic reality, as this is a poke at the band’s fake image, this all turns out to be happening primarily (if not exclusively) on a studio backlot, essentially letting us know that all entertainment is, in some way, fake. But HEAD is even more than that — it’s also a social commentary on just about everything the counterculture was concerned with at the time: things like corporations taking over the manufacture of nearly everything, police brutality, the invasion of privacy and personal space, drug use, the use of war and death and tragedy for TV ratings, and especially big media’s manipulation of the truth and its net result: deception. In one of the film’s memorable sequence in the desert, a large Coca-Cola vending machine materializes in the desert like one of Stanley Kubrick’s monoliths from 2001: A Space Odyssey (released on April 3, 1968, while HEAD was still in production). Few probably knew that this was meant to be a symbolic nod to French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, who once called the youth generation of the sixties “the children of Marx and Coca Cola,” and when Micky Dolenz blows it up after it has taken his last coin, it’s supposed to be about mindless consumerism. The Coca-Cola Company reportedly wasn’t amused at the fact that the Monkees’ used an uncooperative soda machine to make this point, and apparently tried to get an injunction against the movie, but since the film disappeared rather quickly after its release, they probably dropped the idea (and certainly after HEAD started showing on cable and home video in 1986, when Columbia Pictures was owned by Coca-Cola, the scene no longer meant what it had originally). Nicholson later took these tapes of the band’s Ojai writing session and the producers riffing while higher than kites and, according to Rafelson, then structured them into a screenplay while under the influence of LSD. At least twenty-five different of these story ideas were interwoven together, which can possibly be summed up with the recollection of one of the film’s great tossed-off lines: "The tragedy of your times, my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want."
November 7, 2025 at 12:31 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
Post something random for the collective amusement.
Screw up at the sign factory, apparently
November 6, 2025 at 11:40 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
What a day for @willharrisinva.bsky.social! First, the debut of his podcast "Letting Them Talk" drops, and now we get a brand new "Random Roles," this time with actress Diane Lane, talking with her about her career (briefly, as a full career recap would take *hours*). Congratulations, Will!
November 6, 2025 at 10:05 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Sean Dunn, aka Sandwich Guy, was found NOT GUILTY of misdemeanor assault by a jury in federal court in DC today, November 6, 2025. Dunn threw a sandwich at a federal officer at 14th and U streets in August, shouting, "Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!"
Never forget that a hungry Sean Dunn sacrificed his Subway sandwich to make a statement, and that statement was basically "Fuck you, get out of my city." Today: Sean Dunn, who will forever be known as Sandwich Guy, was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault by a jury in federal court in DC Thursday. It was never in doubt that Dunn threw a sandwich at a federal officer at 14th and U streets in August, shouting, “Fuck you! You fucking fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city!” according to a federal indictment. It’s also undeniable that Dunn’s airborne-footlong protest, video of which went viral, became an unlikely symbol of local resistance to the Trump administration during its crackdown on DC this summer, precisely because of the disconnect between the seriousness of the incident and the government’s response. Despite Dunn’s offer to surrender, the administration sent armed troops to his apartment and filmed his arrest. The office of US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro charged him with felony assault;he lost his job as a paralegal at the Department of Justice, with US Attorney General Pam Bondi calling him “an example of the Deep State.” Meanwhile, stylized, Bansky-style images of a man preparing to wing a hoagie appeared all over DC. Words: https://washingtonian.com/2025/11/06/sandwich-guy-not-guilty/
November 6, 2025 at 7:46 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
I expect Blake Treinen, Clayton Kershaw, and others might go, but I sincerely hope that most of the Dodgers 2025 roster turn down the offer to go to the White House. YOU NEED TO SEND A MESSAGE, DODGERS.
November 6, 2025 at 7:24 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Remembering Texas Country and folk singer, musician, songwriter, recording artist, and performer Guy Clark, born on November 6, 1941, in Monahans, Texas — he died on May 17, 2016. Fave songs: "The Randall Knife," "Boats to Build," "Stuff That Works," and "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere."
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Guy Clark released more than twenty albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffett, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner, and Rodney Crowell. Guy Clark won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Folk Album: My Favorite Picture Of You. Clark eventually settled in Nashville, where he helped create the progressive country and outlaw country genres. His songs "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train" that helped launch his career were covered by numerous performers. He was an accomplished luthier and often plays his own guitars. He achieved success as a songwriter with Jerry Jeff Walker's recordings of "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train." Clark has been a mentor to such other singers as Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell. He organized Earle's first job as a writer in Nashville. In the 1970s, the Clarks' home in Nashville was an open house for songwriters and musicians and it features in the video Heartworn Highways, an evocation of the songwriter scene in Nashville at that time. He was married to songwriter and artist, Susanna Clark from 1972 through her death from cancer on June 27, 2012. Fave songs: "The Randall Knife" (from Dublin Blues, 1995): This deeply personal song about his father is a standout. Critics note how its very specific details create universal emotional resonance for listeners who connect the story to their own family heirlooms and memories. "Boats to Build" (from Boats to Build, 1992): A beautifully literary and self-reflective tune about a change of pace and simple construction, praised for its sure-fingered guitar picking and wise phrasing. "She Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (from Old No. 1, 1975): Full of mystery and delicate prose, this narrative-driven song is an early gem from his debut that critics enjoy for its cliffhanger quality.
November 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
"Her work transforms audiences from observers into participants, helping to shape the works and the exhibition itself. That sense of agency and connection feels especially powerful right now, and I think Los Angeles, with its spirit of experimentation and openness, will really embrace that."
November 6, 2025 at 6:22 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Remembering Doug Sahm, b. November 6, 1941, San Antonio, TX (d. November 18, 1999).

His outgoing message: "I'm not home right now. I'm out milkin' the cows. So, you might call back if it's about baseball or Memphis Slim or somethin' that's interestin'. I'll give you a buzz. Have a good day. Adios."
Doug Sahm's Answering Machine
YouTube video by Gobekli Tepe
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
My #1 fave (and @vulture.com's): "Tuuuubiiiii, Tubi!"

(Now, if they could figure out how to insert all of the commercials at the beginning instead of interrupting every fifteen minutes, I'd be happier to recommend them....)
vulture.com Vulture @vulture.com · 16d
There’s nothing quite like a sticky ident. From the ‘tudum’s to the ‘Tuuuuuubiii! Tubi’s of the streaming universe, we’ve ranked the opening bumpers — worst to best.
Let’s Rank the Streaming-Service Opening Bumpers
There’s nothing quite like a sticky ident. From the ‘tudum’s to the ‘Tuuuuuubiii! Tubi’s of the streaming universe, we’ve ranked the opening bumpers — worst to best.
www.vulture.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:30 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
This was a really entertaining podcast!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
Will Harris (interviewer for the AV Club (200+ "Random Roles"), Decider, Vanity Fair, Variety, Vulture, and many other outlets not starting with "V") talks with his first guest, Robbie Rist. Robbie is known for live-action roles such as "Cousin Oliver" on "The Brady Bunch," and "David" on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and a prolific voice actor, notably as "Michelangelo" in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film trilogy, and "Stuffy" in "Doc McStuffins." Rist is a talented musician who plays guitar, bass, and drums. He has been part of several rock and pop-punk bands, including the current The Wrong Dots, and has produced albums for other artists. He also provided music for the Sharknado film series. He has produced a movie, written commercials, and hosts a podcast.
November 6, 2025 at 5:12 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
The move comes after Trump announced that his administration would be freezing SNAP benefits until the government shutdown ends, despite over 40 million Americans relying on it (like me). Donations will go to two different area nonprofits: the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and St. Joseph Center.
November 5, 2025 at 11:53 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
I've also seen Sunday, October 31st for the U.S. -- with November 13th for the UK release date -- but November 5th (a Friday) probably makes more sense. The original cover photo idea was to be a close-up photo of a baboon's anus but the band suggested an ear underwater. "Fearless" is my favorite.
classicalbumart.bsky.social Classic Album Art @classicalbumart.bsky.social · 17d
Meddle, Pink Floyd's sixth album, was released on this day, November 5, 1971

Meddle was certified gold US in October 1973 and 2x platinum in '94

What's your favourite track?
November 5, 2025 at 11:34 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; Elton John's 4th studio LP, 'Madman Across the Water,' was released on November 5, 1971. While 'Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player' (1973) was my first EJ LP, this one is my favorite, especially the title track and "Razor Face" (Rick Wakeman plays on both tracks) More: alt text
'Madman' is now seen as a transitional work. It marks the last appearance of Elton John's band's lead guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope (who would return in 1975), while it introduces his live touring band -- guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Nigel Olssen, and bassist Dee Murray -- who had not been playing on his albums, due to producer Gus Dudgeon's lack of faith in the group for studio recordings. Instead, most of the tracks were backed by studio players and string arrangements put together by Paul Buckmaster. Johnstone's band Magna Carta had previously worked with Dudgeon. The album's title song was initially going to be released on John's previous album 'Tumbleweed Connection,' featuring guitarist Mick Ronson on lead guitar; however, it was set aside and was re-recorded for this album with Johnstone playing the guitar parts. One of the highlights was the opening track, “Tiny Dancer,” with lyrics by Bernie Taupin, whose first wife, Maxine Feibelmann, was indeed a “seamstress for the band.” Taupin, in interviews, has said he was trying to capture the vibe of what he saw when he and his wife came to Southern California in the fall of 1970. "It seemed like sunshine just radiated from the populace,” Taupin told Rolling Stone. “I guess I was trying to capture the spirit of that time, encapsulated by the women we met, especially at the clothes stores and restaurants and bars all up and down the Sunset Strip. They were these free spirits, sexy, all hip-huggers and lacy blouses, very ethereal the way they moved.” “They were just so different from what I’d been used to in England,” Taupin continued. “They had this thing about embroidering your clothes. They wanted to sew patches on your jeans. They mothered you and slept with you. It was the perfect Oedipal complex.” (more at Wikipedia)
November 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
If you watched all 179 Dodgers games (including the post-season games and the two opening games in Tokyo) like I did, you, like me, might have wondered why Mookie Betts didn't get the Golden Glove this year. He was incredible. My favorite player.
November 5, 2025 at 7:10 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
In 2008, conservative writer Ross Douthat's first NYT opinion piece was titled "Dick Cheney for President." It was actually his idea that the VP's landslide loss could have motivated the GOP to reconsider their move toward the extreme right wing, but... it made me stop reading any of his opinions.
Opinion | Mamdani’s Victory Is Less Significant Than You Think
www.nytimes.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Just watched the delightful interview Stephen Colbert did w/ Robert Plant, during which Colbert quoted from "Tom Bombadil's Song" by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934, long before The Lord of the Rings was written. Colbert is a Tolkien fanatic, and Plant is too. More: alt text
Colbert quoted this part: O slender as a willow-wand! O clearer than clear water! O reed by the living pool! Fair river-daughter! O spring-time and summer-time, and spring again after! O wind on the waterfall, and the leaves' laughter! "Tom Bombadil's Song" is not a single, specific poem by J.R.R. Tolkien, but rather a number of songs and verses sung by the character Tom Bombadil (and later by Frodo, at his instruction) within the narrative of The Lord of the Rings. These verses are characterized by their playful rhythm, simple language, and recurring refrains like "Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!" The character of Tom Bombadil and his associated songs first appeared in the standalone poem "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil," published in the Oxford Magazine in 1934, long before The Lord of the Rings was written. This earlier work was later published as part of a collection of 16 poems in a book also titled The Adventures of Tom Bombadil in 1962. Plant and Colbert expressed a mutual, enthusiastic love for J.R.R. Tolkien's works, effectively "nerding out" over the topic and almost ignoring the rest of the show's agenda. Colbert noted that Plant's home in the West Midlands of the UK was the same area where Tolkien lived from a young age. This shared landscape was a major point of connection, with Plant explaining that the mystical environment influenced him and resonated with Tolkien's writing. Plant joked that he used to meet with "The Inklings," the famous literary group that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, in a pub in Oxford, to which Colbert enthusiastically responded, mentioning the actual pub, "The Eagle and Child" (or "The Bird and Baby"). Plant discussed how he wove Tolkien references into Led Zeppelin lyrics for songs like "Ramble On" and "The Battle of Evermore," adding that his bandmates were largely unaware of the source material at the time.
November 5, 2025 at 5:22 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
Everything I saw on this neo-noirish/black comedy FX show itched that part of my brain that loves to watch TV & read novels. It hit all the right spots, mentioning writers I love & history (especially Tulsa, OK) blended w/ heartfelt and occasionally absurd Coen Bros-esque characters. More: alt text
Critics loved the first season of the new FX series "The Lowdown" for a variety of reasons, highlighting its unique blend of genres and strong creative vision: Ethan Hawke's portrayal of "Lee Raybon," the "truthstorian" and bookstore owner, was widely praised as magnetic, authentic, and one of his best roles in years. The show successfully balanced dark, moody neo-noir elements with heartfelt character moments and dark, absurd humor, reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' work. Created by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), the series offers an affectionate yet clear-eyed love letter to Tulsa, Oklahoma, utilizing its culturally rich and complex history as a vivid backdrop rather than a generic setting. Beyond Hawke, the show featured a terrific cast of characters played by a stellar line-up of actors including Peter Dinklage (whose appearance in later episodes is a major highlight), Keith David, and Kyle MacLachlan, who all have great chemistry. The series used its noir mystery plot to build deep character relationships and allow its people time to talk, creating an immersive and "ridiculously entertaining" world that lingers with viewers.
November 5, 2025 at 3:44 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
The "I Love You California" bear flag was designed by Danny Sullivan, who created it in January 2025 as a personal project combining the official state flag with the iconic "hugging bear" image associated with the state song. The “I Love You California” flag The original California state flag, upon which Sullivan's design is based, has a history involving two main figures: William L. Todd designed the first "Bear Flag" in 1846, which was raised during the Bear Flag Revolt. Donald Graeme Kelley standardized the bear image for the official state flag in 1953, basing it on an 1855 watercolor by artist Charles Christian Nahl. The "hugging bear" image that Sullivan incorporated into his design has also become a popular symbol of the state, often used on various merchandise.
November 5, 2025 at 4:38 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
Congratulations, NYC! You've made the right choice. I wish now the rest of the country would follow your example.

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Zohran Mamdani is the Mayor-elect of New York City and is set to take office on January 1, 2026. A democratic socialist and current State Assemblymember, he won the November 2025 mayoral election with a campaign focused on making NYC more affordable for working-class New Yorkers. His key plans for New York City include: Housing: Implementing an immediate rent freeze for the city's one million rent-stabilized apartments by appointing a favorable Rent Guidelines Board. He also plans to build 200,000 new, permanently affordable housing units over a decade, primarily funded by the city rather than private developers. Transportation: Making all city buses free to ride and improving bus speeds by expanding dedicated bus lanes. Childcare: Creating a universal, free childcare program for all New York City children aged six weeks to five years old. Minimum Wage: Raising the New York City minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. Food Access: Establishing a network of city-owned grocery stores to offer low-priced goods and combat food deserts. Public Safety: Creating a new Department of Community Safety to handle mental health calls and other non-violent crises, rather than relying solely on the NYPD. He has indicated he would keep the current Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch. Funding: Funding these programs through tax increases on New York City residents earning more than $1 million annually and raising the corporate tax rate. These tax changes would require approval from the New York State Legislature and the Governor. Mamdani's platform has garnered significant grassroots support, particularly among young and progressive voters, by concentrating on the city's high cost of living. He is set to make history as New York City's first Muslim mayor, first South Asian mayor, and the youngest in over a century.
November 5, 2025 at 3:07 AM
munkiman.bsky.social
An interesting fact about Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary is that it was originally published as a series of weekly entries in newspapers and magazines over a period of three decades, starting in 1881. It was later compiled into a book, first under the title The Cynic's Word Book in 1906, before finally being reissued with Bierce's preferred, more famous title, The Devil's Dictionary, in 1911. This piecemeal, long-term creation process highlights how central this project was to Bierce's lifelong work of social and political satire. As for "November," Bierce's definition is a perfect example of his cynical, aphoristic style: NOVEMBER, n. The eleventh twelfth of a weariness. This definition uses a fraction to humorously and succinctly express the dreariness and impatience people often feel as the year drags to a close in the late autumn, before the winter holidays begin. It's a clever, biting take on a simple word, characteristic of the entire dictionary.
November 4, 2025 at 10:37 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
#OneAlbumADay; My Bloody Valentine’s second studio LP, 'Loveless,' was released on November 4, 1991 (Creation in the UK, Sire in the U.S.). The cost of recording the album, which took place at 19 recording studios with multiple audio engineers over 4 years, nearly bankrupted Creation.
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'Loveless' was given to me first on a cassette by a girl I was madly in love with, although she didn't know it at the time. She was a co-worker at a bookstore where I worked, and we saw each other only occasionally (she worked part-time). After a particularly inspiring conversation in the back of the store about our favorite music, she taped me two of her favorite albums "as a kind of test" (I passed!). On one side was the Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' album, which I liked, at least back then, but on the other side was MBV's 'Loveless,' which I played as loud as our stereo (the one I shared with a couple of housemates in '89-'93) could handle, usually when no one else was home. I played it so loud that I eventually had to go to a doctor due to my temporary hearing loss (true story). I wouldn't be surprised if this was the album that kickstarted my tinnitus problems and hearing loss that I deal with every day. On tracks like "Only Shallow," Shields turns his guitar's tremolo bar into an art form, calling the strumming technique "glide guitar." Released as a single, it is the first MBV song to break through on the U.S. charts, landing at #27 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks. 'Loveless' pretty much defined the shoegazing genre and simultaneously drove guitarist Kevin Shields to the brink of insanity, or so I've read. Even the cover photograph by Angus Cameron is beautiful if you stare at it while you're listening to the album, that pink and red guitar will burn right into your retinas. 'Loveless' failed to find a mainstream audience in the U.S., peaking at #7 in the UK. MBV would not release another album for almost 12 years. If you wanna read about this album, I recommend Mike McGonigal's book Loveless, published in 2007 by The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc as part of their celebrated 33 1/3 series.
November 4, 2025 at 10:01 PM
munkiman.bsky.social
'I could smell the onions and the mustard'
In Smokey & The Bandit (1977), Jackie Gleason as "Sheriff Buford T. Justice," the sweaty, spluttering good ol’ boy enforcer of the law, orders a Diablo sandwich and a Dr. Pepper while Burt Reynolds ("Smokey") looks on. A Diablo is basically minced pork doused in Texas Pete hot sauce. "Let me have a Diablo Sandwich and a Dr. Pepper and make it fast, I’m in a got-damn hurry." The scene was filmed at an Old Hickory House, a onetime Southern-cooking restaurant empire, in Forest Park, Georgia.
November 4, 2025 at 6:15 PM