Mom has seen fit to reward my optimism. Yesterday I broke with the pessimists in my life, and by nightfall I was shown that I made the right decision. Those of you who think I’m insane for believing this can go right ahead. I respect your opinion, and I— No I don’t. Cram it. Shove…
Ghosts and Ballyhoo album
October 18, 2013
The Ghosts and Ballyhoo album has been released. Drummer Steven Menasche, guitarist Ron Kukan, keyboardist Jai Young Kim, and Scott Thunes have created six tracks of improvised jazz based on the book. I know, I know: improvised jazz? You’re thinking this, right? Nope. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to that. Music like that has its…
Thomas Wictor unfettered
October 15, 2013
In a recent post I said that I was now unfettered, and that people who had done bad things would be held accountable. I knew that at some point, I’d write a post like this; I just didn’t think it would happen so soon. Scott Thunes said he wished he could see me really let…
Mom’s favorite song
October 14, 2013
Mom was a music prodigy. She gave her first public piano recital at the age of four. She quit playing when she was sent to boarding school at five due to family problems. Someday I’ll write about that. Mom’s time in the boarding school led directly to her death eighty years later. Since there was…
Dead in the water
October 12, 2013
Everything I’ve read about WordPress says it’s wonderful for search engines. Techies are ecstatic. Right out of the box, WordPress is perfect. But in this avalanche of accolades, I run across little “buts.” For example, WordPress doesn’t need no stinkin’ tags. Those are from the Stone Age. So, when I found out a few days…
Not a chance
October 8, 2013
I got a message. You’re too young to write your memoirs. Feels like a suicide note saying, “Thank you world and fuck you.” Well, I wrote the memoir because readers forced me to. No, that’s only partially true. Readers of Talkbass.com did demand that I write a book, but the truth is that I wanted…
On corruption
September 26, 2013
Those of you who’ve read Ghosts and Ballyhoo know that my brother Paul and I narrowly avoided being killed by an Irish Republican Army nail bomb in Regent’s Park on July 20, 1982. As a result of that experience, I’ve read everything I can about terrorism. It turns out that the terrorists who attacked the…
Why I don’t Mind Hermitude
September 16, 2013
I go out on shopping excursions and to visit Mom in the nursing home. Hermitude is the new normal. Since 2011 the longest car trips I’ve made were to meet with Scott Thunes and watch him play. Yet even in my nearly nonexistent brushes with the general public, things keep happening. It’s simply my fate…
Preach it, Gene Simmons!
September 14, 2013
I don’t have anything to say about Gene Simmons’s personal life. I did watch his reality show for a season, the one in which his children confronted him with his failings. I’ve also seen the episode where he went to Israel to meet his half-siblings and visit his father’s grave. To me he made a…
My first act of music journalism since 2002
September 6, 2013
My first act of music journalism since 2002 was completed with Scott Thunes, of course. I enjoyed it thoroughly. An excerpt: I used to be a music journalist. It was the best job I ever had, and I loved it. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t work out. A combination of factors—mainly my own problem with…