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A smaller Christmas, Day 15
Was there snow at Christmas when we lived in Columbia, Missouri, in the early ’60s? I think so. But we also spent a couple of those Christmases in Wisconsin, splitting time between both sets of...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 16
Went back to work today, and was whipsawed between two big stories. For most of the day, it was the Packers and the Bears, an NFL grudge match that goes back decades. Yet that football game — only a...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 17
There was no post here yesterday, on the 17th day of December, because there was no time for a post. Taking care of some business in the morning and early afternoon, then working, then peeling away for...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 18
Those who have stopped here over the past six Christmas seasons know that we try to stay away from novelty tunes. (I realize “Snoopy’s Christmas” may come close. Too bad.) But a friend has shared...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 19
As our smaller Christmas rolls along, I’ve been trying to post some things that our five or six regular readers haven’t heard here before. Today, we have another. Arriving fresh within the hour is a...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 20
Ah, yes. Where were we? Day 20. On Thursday, we were socked by a blizzard. We got 10 inches of wet, heavy snow. So I ran the snowblower and shoveled. The storm was all but over when I got home at...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 21
The day after the blizzard, the morning after the silent night, brought a second round of snowblowing and shoveling. The world did not end, but the afternoon and evening simply blew past in the...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 22
Tonight, we present “Scrooge.” In the two years since we last enjoyed watching George Thorogood and the Destroyers frolicking on the MTV set in 1985, that clip has been removed from YouTube. It was the...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 23
With everything that needed getting done, yesterday seemed to summon another of the whirlwinds that so often ensue as Christmas draws near. You just want to step out of that whirlwind and find a quiet...
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A smaller Christmas, Day 24
On this Christmas Eve, a post that has become a tradition. On a winter day more than 40 years ago, Louis Armstrong went to work in the den at his home at 34-56 107th Street in Corona, Queens, New York....
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A smaller Christmas, Day 25
“Someday at Christmas, there’ll be no war.” Someday. “Someday at Christmas,” Stevie Wonder, 1967, from “A Motown Christmas,” 1973. That tremendous compilation, one of the first Christmas records we...
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Teddy, Tongue and their times
One of the traditions here at AM, Then FM, is the year-end tribute to those who have gone on. Another of our traditions is preserving small chapters of Wisconsin’s rock ‘n’ roll history. This is Teddy...
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Gone in threes: 2012
They say celebrities and prominent people go in threes. Here again is proof. Gone in 2012 … Badasses: Tom Davis (“Saturday Night Live” writer), Willard Metscher (my 6th-grade teacher), Mike Wallace...
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Strange how things turn out
They were older guys who liked hassling younger kids for no apparent reason. Bullies, I guess. You really couldn’t complain about them. To whom? Their parents? No way. Your parents? They’d just tell...
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The new year finally arrives
While working out on New Year’s Day, this was the first song to pop up on the iPod in 2013. “This Time It’s For Real,” Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, from “This Time It’s For Real,” 1977. The...
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My soul went through the ceiling
Well, somebody’s gotta put it out here in the blogosphere, even though no less than the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have referenced it today. “Dear Abby,” John Prine, from “Sweet Revenge,”...
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Unearthed from deep in the office
You’d think winter in Wisconsin would be a good time to hole up in the office and rip vinyl like mad. But no. In the last five months, I’ve ripped exactly five LPs. Not exactly a breathtaking pace. One...
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The 6-pack: Happy anniversary to us
When the last week of February rolls around, it’s time to celebrate at AM, Then FM. It dropped into the blogosphere six years ago this week, way back in 2007. For the six of you who have remained...
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Under the Motown covers
Was there ever a record company better at getting mileage out of its songs as Motown? One artist would cut a song. Then it would be covered by another, and perhaps another, and perhaps still another....
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The empty playground
One way to keep in shape during the long Wisconsin winters is to run inside. The track at our Y provides a bird’s-eye view of the basketball courts. So, as I plod around the track, I keep an eye on...
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