Musical ramblings from the manager
It never ceases to amaze me that some people are shocked and horrified when the headlines blare out the fact that (gasp) many countries engage in spying, surveillance, and other covert operations. We like to think the fate of the world depends on world leaders exercising their diplomatic skills to sort things out, but […]
Would the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival’s 13th edition prove to be a convergence of bad luck? For people who suffer from triskaidekaphobia, it would seem that PMMF # 13 would have been the one to avoid. For those of us who harbor no such fears, we would have found that the unnatural fear of […]
During the two years I played in Knockdown, we only played for one frat party. We had our regular monthly three nighter at the NCO club (guitar player Ray was a Sergeant in accounting, so we had an inside track with the NCOs), numerous party dates at both the NCO and the Officer’s club, company […]
There are many categories of band gigs: teen dances, wedding receptions, private parties, and bar gigs make up the normal mix for most bands. To my personal list, I could add playing in a tent at the U.P. State Fair and gigs in churches (both in the basement and the sanctuary). Again, bands from just […]
“Let Trees and Children Grow Together” was emblazoned on the sign in a photo attached to an article sent to me from the MTU archives. The article recounted the dedication of the MacMillan Township School Forest that took place in the late 1930s. The State of Michigan routinely granted local governments and school districts […]
Having recently finished reading Woody Woodmansey book Spider from Mars – My Life with Bowie (St. Martin’s Press 2016), it seemed appropriate to update his story a bit. We had passed along some information on his newly released book in April of 2017 based on a brief review of the book and a short […]
A quick quiz: How many different types of mines have there been in Upper Michigan? This is a question I ask my sixth grade Geography – Earth Science students at the beginning of the Geology unit we cover that includes U.P. mining history. Everybody comes up with “copper”, and a few might remember “iron”, […]
Don’t go running for your old Latin textbook. The quasi-Latin phrase Vincebus Eruptum is supposed to mean “We control chaos” and if San Francisco psychedelic rockers Blue Cheer had any say in the matter, it was going to be the name of their first album. Recorded live in the studio, the six song set kicked […]
I called up my old Twig bandmate Mike (bass player and resident electronic wizard) and asked him to tell me everything that I would need to record a band live. Mike had done this in April of 1975 when he recorded our band Sledgehammer on one night of a two night gig we played […]
In my archives, I have a old cassette tape dating back to early in my junior year of high school – somewhere around 1969. It isn’t much to listen to because there is a lot of background noise, some snippets of dialog and the first (and unfortunately only) bit of music ever put down on […]