Lightning strikes the Space Needle

and if you just needed to know more about Seattle’s most important building, watch on…

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Another bad musical start to the year…..RIP.

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Amazing stuff, both for good and bad reasons…

Timeline view here

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The Lancia Stratos Was Born to Rally

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I didn’t even know he was sick. With Keith Emerson’s suicide earlier this year, that’s 2/3 of ELP now gone….very, very sad.

Greg Lake (1947 – 2016)

silly video but always loved this song in the brief 80s ‘ELP’

Other YT videos

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Got mine yesterday – woo hoo!

The Art of Atari

Inside The Art of Atari (pre-release book review)

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sounds about right….

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Just read John Doe’s latest writing, Under the Big Black Sun, a history of sorts related to the LA punk scene of the late 70s/early 80s.

We saw him at The Tractor a few weeks ago – great show and they were promoting the book at the show, so got it from the library.

This is an interesting read for a number of reasons – it definitely brings back memories of that time, when those of us not living in LA (nor old enough to be punks in a band anyway) could only observe things from afar through local record stores and mags like The Rocket. It’s also definitely a window into a crazy mishmash of misfits and aspiring musicians, poets and outcasts seeking their own kind of community, with vignettes written by many others in the scene besides Doe (Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Gos, Henry Rollins of Black Flag, Mike Watt from The Minutemen (whom we saw at the Tractor last year, too) – the list goes on. Finally, to me it was a bit eye-opening to all the drug and alcohol abuse that seemed to accompany the scene, at least according to the book. It’s obvious that sort of thing goes with the territory – but does it have to? Being on the outside I guess makes that a bit hard to relate to.

In any event, X has always been a fave band since that time, and they were one of, if not the first, band I saw play live. This book only serves to continue their legacy for both LA punks then and since – and is a love letter to all longtime fans. Thanks, John Doe.

this has been a craptastic year for beloved celebs – RIP, Mr. Wonka…and GOOD DAY, SIR!

Gene Wilder Dies at 83; Star of ‘Willy Wonka’ and ‘Young Frankenstein’

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