One Day in Your Life: July 16, 1971

July 16, 1971, is a Friday. Life magazine reports on the three Soviet Soyuz 11 cosmonauts who died during re-entry on June 29; consumer advocate Bess Myerson is on the cover. Preparations continue for the Apollo 15 moon mission, which will launch in 10 days. Maryann Grelinger of Kansas City, Missouri, sends President Nixon a [...]

Some Half-Baked Thoughts About Jazz

A story appeared over the weekend about the closing of the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, the second-oldest jazz venue in the country behind the Village Vanguard in New York, and a place where everybody who was anybody in jazz over the last 59 years took the stage. While there’s reason to lament the demise of [...]

October 1978: Right Down the Line

In the fall of 1978, I became a radio guy. I was a freshman at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville, majoring in radio and television. I couldn’t wait to start working at the campus radio station, WSUP. I was on the music staff at first, having sufficiently impressed the music director with my knowledge [...]

October 1975: Who’s Gonna Help You Through the Night?

I’ve made pretty clear on this blog during the two-plus years of its existence that October is my favorite month of the year. As I put it last year, it’s a time when “the temperature falls, the leaves change, and time runs in reverse.” A lot of the most fondly remembered tales from my younger [...]