brainsplotch

My copy of the Tragically Hip's new album, Now for Plan A , finally arrived in the mail today one week after it was released and over a week after I ordered it.  Yeah, I know, I could have downloaded it and been able to listen to it the day of its release, but I'm old-fashioned and wanted a physical copy of the album. I was willing to wait for the thrill of finding the package in my mailbox, ripping it open, and popping the CD in the disc player in my kitchen. I get no thrill from downloading music, and in fact have had some horrible mishaps in which I've lost downloaded music into some electronic black hole, so I will probably be the last person on earth to continue buying CDs. Once I have a chance to give it a proper listen with pen and paper in hand, I'll bore all of you with a little review in this blog.  I like what I heard when I played it earlier today, but it was more background noise as I was busy doing other things around the house. Oh yeah, not only did...

I finished reading a great book called Life after Death by Damien Echols. For anyone who doesn't already know, Echols was one of the "West Memphis 3," a trio of teenagers who were wrongfully tried and convicted for the murders of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas back in 1993. Echols spent 18 years on death row, while the other two, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., were serving life sentences. Last year, the three guys, now in their mid-30s, were finally released from prison when they agreed to an Alford plea. The completely bizarre Alford plea essentially allowed the three men to acknowledge that the State of Arkansas has enough evidence to convict them while still maintaining their plea of innocence--and this allowed them to be released from prison. Makes no sense, right? Essentially, it allows the State of Arkansas to cover its own ass, because if the WM3 went to trial again, they would be found not guilty and would be able to sue the state for millions o...

Hi folks, I'm still alive. I know I've said it before, but it seems as though I never make it to a computer long enough to write a blog post (except when I'm at work, and I'm not allowed to blog at work--for obvious reasons). So what's new with me you ask? I've been reading quite a bit lately, for one thing. While on vacation, I picked up an old book called Going All the Way by Dan Wakefield. It's a coming-of-age story ( bildungsroman , if you will) that takes place in 1950s Indianapolis. The book has been a pleasant surprise and well worth the $3.50 I spent on it at the used book shop in Munising, Michigan. The used book shop in Munising is this place: Falling Rock Cafe, Munising Great food, good coffee, and used (and some new) books. It replaces the dearly departed 84 Charing Cross, which was the previous book shop in Munising that closed back in about 1999 or 2000. So if you are passing through the upper peninsula, or plan on going on the Picture...

(I started this blog post on August 21, did not finish it before I went on vacation, came back to it after vacation, and just ran out of steam. Here it is, warts and all--and it has plenty of warts): I'm off for a five-day camping vacation in the Upper Peninsula, and will be on the road starting tomorrow morning. I've wanted to post in here for a while, so here goes. Better to do it now before I'm off the grid for almost a week. I'm just going to let it fly and not worry too much about grammar, spelling, linear thought, paragraph construction, or the like. Just write like I did back when I was 21 and lamely and unsuccessfully ripping off Jack Kerouac. (Doesn't almost every American male go through a Kerouac phase? And if you don't go through a Kerouac phase, you go through a Jim Morrison phase at about the same time or maybe younger. In any case, it was a  rite of passage for every sensitive, English-major-ish guy back in the '80s, probably not so much a...

I feel bad that I have not posted since early June, and am in danger of going "0 for July", so let me just update you on what I've been up to, since I'm sure you're all dying to know. July was, quite unintentionally, "Mark's Surgery Month", or "Mark's Hernia Month".  In late June, I went in for my annual physical, and my doctor discovered a hernia.  On her recommendation, I went to a specialist and he recommended--or more accurately, commanded --surgery.  So on July 17, I had the hernia repaired.   I had never been under general anesthesia before, so I was nervous beforehand, but it really was a piece of cake.  I remember absolutely nothing about the surgery: one minute I was pulling myself from the gurney to the operating table, and what felt like two seconds later, I was waking up in recovery.  The whole thing has made we wonder about the nature of time. Does time really exist or is it merely a human construct. It's like the who...

Jacob G. Revels Jacob G. Revels (1863-1944) is one of the many people I profiled in my book, The Portland Area, 1869-1939. Along with Pedro Pratt, previously discussed in an earlier Brainsplotch blog post,   Revels was one of a handful of African-Americans to live in Portland, Michigan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  I guess for this reason, he became of special interest to me.  Okay, not just "of  special interest"--who am I kidding?  I became completely   fascinated with Jacob Revels. The first time I ever saw the above portrait of Revels, in the 1969 centennial history of Portland, the questions flooded my brain. How did this man end up in, of all places, Portland, Michigan?  What led him to Portland? What was it like to be one of the only black people in a rural Michigan village only a few decades after the end of the Civil War?  Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to answer these questions, but it hasn't stopped me ...

Levon Helm (1940-2012) Within the last few weeks, we've lost two musical treasures, and two guys I have admired for many years, Levon Helm and Adam (MCA) Yauch.  Both men died of cancer: Levon at age 72 and MCA at the ridiculously young age of 47.  The loss of these two great musicians has led me to dig out their discographies--thankfully I have a lot of their stuff--and listen to their music with fresh ears and also consider my personal relationship with their respective musical groups, the Band (Levon) and the Beastie Boys (MCA). My parents had copies of the Band's self-titled "Brown Album" and Stage Fright .  I have memories of hearing the Band when I was a kid and just not getting it.  It just wasn't music that had any impact on me as a youth.  Plus, the five guys glowering on the cover of the "Brown Album", unsmiling and with big beards, just looked mean and scary (except, perhaps, for Garth Hudson. He could have passed for Santa Claus...