Some people want to be the proverbial bull in the proverbial china shop that is the artistic world. They want to put down the works of others; they want to convince people there is only one way to see things or they want to throw out the rules. Many want, above all, to show as many people as possible that they can do everything better than anyone else. Like many, I hate that, but I do get it. And I feel the tug, from time to time. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, music by Chris Matarazzo
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Recently, I got an email that I thought my “Artistic Unknowns” readers might want to see. The writer identified himself only as “None of Your Business”. Anyway, here it is:

Dear Chris,

You are one of those music guys, so I thought you might be interested in my problem: A while ago, I found out that Elton John is gay. Now this might not be a big deal to you artsy types, but it had a profound effect on me. [Read more →]

Tags: artistic unknowns by Chris Matarazzo, music by Chris Matarazzo
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Sometimes when I sit down to blog about a certain album I am enjoying, I have to really catch myself. Does my opinion count?  I mean, how hip can a 5’7 pudgy white guy be? I spent the past Friday night getting Chili’s Chips and Salsa take out and watching Die Hard 2. But I do try to keep my finger on the energy drink fueled pulse of our nation’s youth.  [Read more →]

Tags: Marty digs, music, television by Marty O'Connor
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I like many types of music, ranging from Russian monophonic chant to Gothic German techno-metal to screechy avant-garde nonsense. My beard, however — well that’s a different story. His tastes are very specific, quite rarefied and were formed mostly in the first half of the 1970s, ending shortly after I was born. He likes droning, ambient noise, stuff that suggests the depths of space, or a long, slow descent into madness. [Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd, music by Daniel Kalder
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I concluded probably the best summer concert series of my life seeing Pavement this past Friday night at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. I have gushed about the Mann before — I couldn’t be more excited that they had a string of great shows there. It’s a wonderful venue — a great tailgate area (you park in Fairmount Park), a unique building with fantastic sound, and not to mention they sell Yards Philly Pale Ale inside for a rather reasonable amount.  [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, music by Marty O'Connor
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This week, I am getting super nostalgic with fall in the air. And I have a quick note about the Video Music Awards, and some disgust over the HBO show Entourage. [Read more →]

Tags: music, television by Marty O'Connor
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We don’t normally acknowledge famous birthdays here at When Falls, but we should. And today we do. September 7th is the late Eazy E’s birthday. Eazy E (given name Eric Wright) was the founder of the seminal rap group NWA, and subsequently, the founder of gangster rap music.

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Tags: art & entertainment, music by Robert O'Hara
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Guess why the rock band Kings of Leon abandoned their gig in St. Louis after three songs. Bloody mosh pit? Misfiring dragon-shaped fireballs? Dragged off stage for lewd behavior involving honeybees and a flowering dogwood?

Nope. It was pigeons. Pooping pigeons.

[Read more →]

Tags: music by Neil Verma
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There are things in life we are always going to remember. Things like your first day of school, your first kiss, and your first child’s birth. These are moments that will flash in your head from time to time, and that you have a permanent mental picture saved in your memory bank. One such moment like that for me was the first time I heard N.W.A.’s album “Straight Outta Compton”. 

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Tags: art & entertainment, music by Marty O'Connor
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On Facebook, a friend recently asked the all-important question, “Why do people insist on writing songs about wild horses? What the hell do we know about wild horses anyway? Has anyone here ever seen one?”

She then noted some lyrics:

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me away” — The Rolling Stones
“Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?” — U2
“All the wild horses / Tethered with tears in their eyes” — Ray Lamontagne
“Wild horses could not drag me away from you” — Gino Vanelli (whoever he is, he’s an original [expletive])
“Wild horses keep draggin’ me away” — Garth Brooks (at least they succeed here where the Stones’ and Vanelli’s wild horses failed)

Aside from the tired, lazy, copycat songwriting (one song has a bit about wild horses and then in subsequent years everyone has to write about wild horses any time they want to indicate how strong their love is), there are some logical problems here. [Read more →]

Tags: animals, music by Scott Stein
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To kick things off this week,  I want to tell you all about a website that instantly brings me back to my childhood. VirtualNES.com is a site where you can legally and safely play almost any game from the Nintendo Entertainment system. It is hilarious to see how simple the games were then, and how far we have advanced in video game technology. I’m not a “gamer” by any means but love playing old Nintendo games and harking back to my youth of hanging out with my friends playing RBI Baseball and listening to the Beastie Boys “Licensed To Ill” over and over.

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Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs, music, sports by Marty O'Connor
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I have and will always love The Lemonheads album It’s A Shame About Ray. Came out in 1992 and yet I still listen to it on an almost weekly basis. It was a simpler time then — Kurt Cobain was still alive, mix tapes were literally cassettes, and the only person I knew with a cellphone was Zach Morris. Every song on the album is so good, and it brings me back to my days of stressing over girls and being almost solely responsible for keeping Oxy Cream’s stock up. Ahh, my teenage years! [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, Marty digs, movies, music by Marty O'Connor
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The world’s greatest entertainer’s life is in danger. Hanging by a thread in some undisclosed ICU. I’ve noticed that there are no reports of general rioting throughout the United States. I think there is rioting here in Africa but it’s probably unrelated.

Wait. Let me back up. I have often been kidded about my first concert. Air Supply. [Read more →]

Tags: music, television by Jeffrey Maryak
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Today, kids, we’re going to talk about the pregnant clusterfuck that is the Internet.

It used to be that buying concert tickets was part of a larger experience that began with the release of a new album and ended in the parking lot of a smoke-filled arena.

The experience, for all intents and purposes, began and ended in a parking lot. [Read more →]

Tags: diatribes, music by David A. Brensilver
4 Comments »

As we draw near the end of Holy Week, a week where the two biggest Christ-related news stories involved sex abuse in Europe and Christian militia in America, with breaks devoted to ads for Easter candy and holiday sales events, it’s good to remember the biggest news story of all …
He is risen …
Christ is risen, indeed …
[Read more →]

Tags: music, religion & philosophy by Jeff McDonald
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A month or so back via my connections in the nefarious literary underground I was offered a pre-publication copy of the first Lady Gaga biography, Behind the Fame by Emily Herbert. Not the kind of thing I usually read I must admit, but that’s why I wanted to read it, because there was no reason to read it. Follow me? [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, music by Daniel Kalder
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I am currently digging Chocolate Cheerios. In the 1980’s, when crack cocaine was tearing apart our nation’s inner cities, Coco Puffs were having a similar effect on the O’Connor household. They became a banned substance after my mom caught my siblings and I doing lines of the stuff you found on the bottom of the cereal bag that we called “Coco Dust.” After rehab — we were confined to boring, healthy cereals like Kix, Rice Krispies, and Chex. But now I’m an adult (kind of) — I have a mortgage, I pay bills, and I do the shopping.  And I can buy Chocalate Cheerios — which are allegedly sort of good for you (at least that’s what I keep telling my girlfriend). They are delicious and I just hope my mom doesn’t catch me relapsing on my Coco Dust addiction. [Read more →]

Tags: education, music, politics & government, recipes & food, television by Marty O'Connor
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There is a type of music that holds much appeal to the rural working person, also known as the people of the soil. It is called “country” music, exemplified by the likes of such classic performers as those who appeared on the television program “Hee Haw,” and of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. To be honest, this type of music is not my forte; my tastes tend toward whatever is being played in Starbucks, although I did purchase the Taylor Swift CD after Ken Tucker gave it a positive review on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross.

The first time I popped that CD into the player, I was surprised at the reaction it received from my poodle bitch. She is a quite refined and at times aloof dog, yet she seemed enchanted by the melodies. She listens to it quite often now. [Read more →]

Tags: creative writing, music by Ricky Sprague
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Nobody has enjoyed a late career renaissance like Johnny Cash. The series of collaborations he made with Slayer producer Rick Rubin reignited critical interest in his work at a time when Cash believed he was destined to become a touring nostalgia act. The first of these, American Recordings is a fantastic album — raw, dark, stark, stripped down to the Man in Black’s voice and primitive guitar playing. Cash had never sounded young, and he’d always been good with death, but I was shocked by the simplicity of the first lines, the frank, naked, blasé expression of brutality: [Read more →]

Tags: music by Daniel Kalder
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Bon Jovi is using the occasion of his latest tour to promote volunteerism, and is apparently playing this video at each of his concerts:

I think it’s obvious that anyone who would willingly attend a Bon Jovi concert is in desperate need of direction as to how to spend his free time, but that video is liable to confuse Mr. Jovi’s fans. [Read more →]

Tags: music, politics & government by Ricky Sprague
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