When I was growing up in Arkansas (back in the Mesozoic era), we’d see TV commercials for a grocery chain called The Mad Butcher. Every commercial ended with a caricature of “the Mad Butcher” accompanied by some maniacal laughter, straight out of the Vincent Price bag of tricks:
My dad could imitate that laugh perfectly – it cracked us up as kids.
We’re not laughing anymore.
This was a week ago. In Fordyce, Arkansas, a town of 3,000.
Normally the folks roaming the aisles of a small-town grocery store are called “shoppers.” In the blink of an eye, they became “targets of opportunity” and “victims.”
The perpetrator didn’t really have a criminal record. It’s doubtful tighter gun restrictions would’ve prevented this tragedy. Meanwhile, closer to home last weekend:
This one could’ve been prevented.
A bottle of water. Kids arguing. It should’ve been nothing more than a petty squabble. But add a gun to the equation and it ends with a teenager dead. Yet the story gets even sadder:
[Full story from the Cincinnati Enquirer is here.]
Three generations of gun violence. We can do more to stop the cycle. We should do more to stop the cycle. We must do more to stop the cycle.
Our grandkids aren’t old enough to know better. What’s our excuse?
Chances are, 99 out of every 100 people won’t recognize those names. Heck, it might be more like 999 out of 1,000. And that’s a shame. Because those are the dudes that have been together in the band Los Lobos for more than 50 years. They were joined by the “newbie” Steve Berlin in 1982, and have been a fantastic five-some ever since.
Los Lobos’ new album, Gates Of Gold, comes out Sept. 25.
If you’ve never heard of Los Lobos, that’s a shame. If you’ve only heard their cover of “La Bamba” that’s OK, but you’re still missing out on so much great music.
They are a self-proclaimed “Just another band from East L.A.” But they’re so much more than that. This paragraph from their bio really sums them up nicely:
Los Lobos has sold millions of records, won prestigious awards and made fans around the world. But perhaps its most lasting impact will be how well its music embodies the idea of America as a cultural melting pot. In it, styles like son jarocho, norteño, Tejano, folk, country, doo-wop, soul, R&B, rock ’n’ roll and punk all come together to create a new sound that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Amen to that! You could rightfully argue that they are the quintessential American band. Children of immigrants (Conrad, Louie, David) or immigrants themselves (Cesar), joined by a kid from the East Coast (Philly) who had moved to the West Coast to pursue his music dreams.
Last night I saw Los Lobos in concert. I’ve seen them many times and they always crush it.
They opened for Little Feat, a band that has only one original member left. If it were up to me, the roles would be reversed. But I get the sense that the members of Los Lobos don’t really care about “headliner” status. They’ve come a long way from being a wedding band.
“If you were married between 1973 and 1980 in East L.A., we probably played your wedding.”
Louie Pérez
They’re not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Now there’s a real shame.
While regarded as highly influential and deserving by many, the iconic East L.A. band Los Lobos has surprisingly not yet been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after being eligible for almost 20 years
They haven’t gotten what they deserve – but that’s out of their hands. Instead, they use their hands, hearts and voices to always give the fans what they deserve: a stellar set of music.
Will the Wolf survive? Heck yeah! Not just survive, but thrive!
The “Heat Dome” has descended upon the Midwest. Welcome to the Terror Dome.
Meanwhile, Southern Florida got flooded last week.
We have only ourselves to blame, really. By ignoring the warnings from scientists. By turning a blind eye to alternative energy sources instead of incentivizing them at scale.
“Given that we’ve seen an unprecedented jump in global warmth over the last 11 months, it is not surprising to see worsening climate extremes so early in the year,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck. “If this record pace of warming continues, 2024 will likely be a record year of climate disasters and human suffering.”
And the ones who suffer the most are the poor and elderly.
Help is on the way. It just needs to get here sooner. Here’s an excerpt from the 6/1 post on Bill McKibben’s excellent — and aptly named — Substack called “The Crucial Years”:
But here’s the thing: At the exact same moment—the same string of months—that the planet is beginning to unravel, human beings are finally accelerating the only real response we have: the rapid rollout of sun, wind, and batteries. The rate at which we’re adding renewable energy capacity jumped fifty percent last year. A new report this week found that wind and sun aren’t just growing faster than fossil fuels—they’re growing faster than any electricity source in history.
The rise of wind and solar has been stemming the growth of fossil fuel power, which would have been 22% higher in 2023 without them, Ember says. This would have added around 4bn tonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) to annual global emissions.
Nevertheless, the growth of clean electricity sources needs to accelerate to meet the global goal of tripling renewables by 2030, Ember says.
Meeting this goal would almost halve power sector emissions by the end of the decade, and put the world on a pathway aligned with the 1.5C climate target set in the Paris Agreement.
Even in India, the share of electricity generated by coal dropped below 50 percent for the first time since 1966. There’s every sign that, globally, 2023 saw the peak in global emissions; all those solar panels are not just accounting for growth in energy demand any more, but beginning to cut into the actual consumption of fossil fuels. Now the job is to make the decline so steep that we build enough momentum to begin catching up with the physics of global warming.
It is a terrible story, almost unbearably tragic. But its ending hasn’t been written yet.
The more we harness the sun, the fewer unbearable heat waves we’ll have to endure. The more we lasso the wind, the fewer destructive hurricanes we’ll have to witness.
Gather round, kids. Grandpa Dubbatrubba’s gonna tell you about a time when there was this thing called “radio.” You could listen to “stations” that played different types of music – you know, like those Spotify “Daily Mix” playlists.
And certain stations — they were usually the small ones, semi-neglected ones, with weak signals, would play all sorts of music that other stations wouldn’t. Up-and-coming bands with weird names. It was called “college rock” and it was amazing.
And if you were a “college rock” band and you wanted to tour, you had to make connections with other like-minded bands. And maybe your parents helped out:
So much has changed about the music business. But there’s still room for “college rock” bands. And they still need friends and family to help promote them.
Buffalo Tom‘s new album Jump Rope came out on May 31st.
They’re still great.
They’re doing a bit of touring, mostly the East and West Coasts, with some European dates, and then a three-night homecoming festival near their Boston hometown.
Tell a buddy, and bring a friend.
Oh, and a bit closer to home, a band called The Collies has been added to the bill for a show at Madison Live in Covington, KY this Sunday. Father’s Day. My oldest son is in that band. They get a cut of the tickets they sell. Want one? Call the drummer’s dad. If you sound like you’re from the South, I’ll talk to you for an hour.
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