Valentine's Day

A disastrous dinner from a restaurant downtown, which will be the last time we frequent that establishment. Three hours and nearly $100 wasted with nothing to show but two styrofoam boxes and animosity. And the waiter even chalked it up to Friday the 13th. Thanks, dude.

If this doesn't make you tear up, nothing will. What an amazing performance from a true national treasure. And I'm not talking the Boss.

In recognition of the fifth anniversary of my one and only magical trip to Mendocino, here's the link to possibly the world's COOLEST radio station. And you can listen to it on-line. Not sure if I've recorded my memories of my weekend, but I spent nearly the entire three-day weekend sitting in a second-hand garage sale parlour chair reading a fantastic novel and looking at the rain-soaked beach town of Mendocino while listening to The Coast. My wife spent the entire weekend in the bathroom throwing up, experiencing her first bout with morning sickness as my unborn first son was busy making life fun for her.

This has had me thinking the last couple of days. 1974 was surely a weird year. Yeah, Nixon quit and The Godfather II was released and my wife was born but musically, quite an odd year. I've said that the best five-year stint of pop music ran from 1968 to 1973. While I know I'm right, I haven't come to fully understand why. Here are some great essays to further complicate and also cement my beliefs. Either rate, if we all go spend some more money discovering some of the great music of 1974, we're all better off.