Music & More

Photo via laut.de Released near the end of 1970, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens was wildly popular during 1971, not the least because the single "Wild World" reached #11 on the Pop Chart. The key to the album's success were the compositions, all by British singer-songwriter Stevens, all offering a large dollop of sweet melody along with a unique voice and songs that mixed sense, sensuality, and spirituality. On both the strength of the single, as well as the rest of the album, it went on to sell in excess of 3,000,000 copies, just in the States.  By the time I got to college in '71,  Tea for the Tillerman  had become a standard fixture in many dorm rooms along with Sweet Baby James by James Taylor, Tapestry by Carole King, and Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John, just to name a few. Although he had appeal in certain quarters due to his good looks stemming from his Greek father, Swedish mother, and that British accent, I think that the music on Tillerman tran...

Photo courtesy of themeparkreview on Twitter As a former card carrying member of American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE), I have spent a great deal of time considering the quality of roller coaster rides. I won't claim to having ridden them all, or even making a dent in the list of American coasters. That said, I've ridden quite a few.  As a youth, I cut my teeth on the coasters at Willow Grove Park (WGP), just north of Philadelphia. Where now stands a mall of the same name, there was once an amusement park, one that was built in 1896 by a trolley company to give people a reason to ride to the end of the line. In its early days, it was known for band concerts led by John Philip Sousa. Over time, iconic amusement rides were added such as a ferris wheel, the tunnel of love, a fun house, a classic carousel and the like, and ultimately four roller coasters. One was The Wild Mouse, a factory made early metal coaster that was duplicated in many parks. The other three were classic wood...

Bowfinger is an excellent movie that seems to fly under the radar when it comes to film comedy, perhaps because the name is not easy to remember. Bowfinger features the comic actors Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy leading a cast that are all perfectly chosen for their roles, what's more, Murphy plays two different characters as he is wont to do. In addition to starring in the movie, Martin also wrote the script. Frank Oz directed; you might know him as Yoda, Grover, Miss Piggy or many of the other Muppet characters that he helped Jim Henson develop on the way to becoming a film director. Steven Martin plays Bobby Bowfinger, a down on his luck movie director in Hollywood. In a wonderful opening sequence, Martin's performance synchronizes with the song "There Is Always One More Time" by Johnny Adams (see below). The actor and the song combine to lay out the premise for the movie. Bowfinger is pinning his hopes on his next movie, which he has little money to make. S...

Photo courtesy of artist "I'm not necessarily a fan, but I'm liking this new album." Stop me if you've heard this before, especially since last Friday, July 24th when Taylor Swift somewhat surprised the music industry with the release of her new album, folklore . Swift, the wordsmith, mostly stays within her comfort zone, which is the travails of love and friendship. Leave it to the Swifties to analyze song-by-song, but an early favorite for me is "Betty", a song that seems to hark back to Swift's early days with its concern for who did what and said what at the party. Not to diminish the importance of those events to the participants, but for the rest of us the appeal is akin to those kissing booth movies on Netflix. Maybe considering the unpleasantness of reality just now, this type of entertainment might be the perfect escape. All that said, I do like everything about this record. I like the soft style of the songwriting. I like the unclutt...

Mark Goff Photography, Leah Demarco/Allison Goff via AP 2019 was another great year for music. I only say that because I listened to more new releases in 2019 than ever before, I liked more of that new music than ever before, and I had to delete more items than ever before in the preparation of this article. In today's world of streaming, the music seeker is presented with a seemingly endless array of new music to choose from and it's easier than ever to bite off more than one can chew. The great fear is that for each fabulous discovery (this year's Ronnie Earl album for example), you might be overlooking several more... and you probably are. There is way too much music released every year for any one person or even one publication to have a handle on it all. What's more, if an album doesn't catch the wave of popularity or sales after release, a good record stands a better than even chance that it may disappear and not be heard from again. So, here is my littl...