Author: Bobwords

Bowie and the search for heroes

As I write, the overly-emotional social media tributes to David Bowie have attracted the satirists, lobbing hand grenades amongst the mourners. One which turned up on Facebook purported to be God choosing his “Rock God Supergroup” with Lemmy (from Motorhead) on bass, John Bradbury (The Specials) on drums, Bowie on vocals, and God on guitar (traipsing through a so-so version of Stairway to Heaven). There were other irreverent items, including a few mock tributes to…

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Idea for a fireworks display

Not everyone oohs and aahs about firework displays. Some go into curmudgeon mode, grumbling about the expense, the air and noise pollution, the way it upsets dogs and budgies. Some even suggest the money could be given to the needy. The eclectically musical among you may have noticed the Tom Waits reference in the heading. I’m not even sure we’re allowed to do that, which of itself would be a travesty since Tom has not…

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Review FOMM 2015

My friends at Jetpack (a clever plugin attached to my WordPress website), sent me a performance review yesterday. Here’s a few excerpts and links to the best-read FOMMs in 2015 (one of which was written by She Who Sometimes Also Writes).  These are the posts that got the most views in 2015: (right click on link) 1 Anzac Day 2 Rangitiki 3 Old Folkies 4 Latin Jetpack offered this advice: “Some of your most popular posts…

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A white Christmas for some

Composer Irving Berlin had a habit of staying up all night, writing songs. According to Mark Steyn’s A Song for the Season, Berlin summonsed his secretary one morning in 1940 saying: ‘Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I’ve ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody’s ever written!’ That tune was White Christmas, which if you think about it, must have been a challenging…

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