Rants, Reflections, Ruminations 3

Let’s Levitate Abbie From the Grave!!

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Humor and Satire Rants, Reflections, Ruminations
Post comments:0 Comments
Post published:April 12, 2016

"Wanted: Charismatic crusader. Someone who can combine smarts, satire, moxie, and adrenaline to combat all that plagues modern society, from gas drilling to corporate pillaging." Well, we have just the man for the job. Too bad he's dead. Attention: this is an important history lesson for all you sweet young things born after the baby boom! The subject is Abbie Hoffman, who died 25 years ago today. He was one of the most colorful pranksters and political activists of the 1960s, and a hero to many. His outlandish behavior inspired many to become politically active, question authority and protest the Vietnam war. Hell, his FBI file consisted of over 13,000 pages.What an adorable little bad-ass Jew!

Happy Rockin’ Velvet Revolution Day, Czechoslovakia!

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:On the Road Rants, Reflections, Ruminations Writers on the Storm: Books, Authors, Poets
Post comments:3 Comments
Post published:November 17, 2015

Post-communist Czechoslovakia was a country reborn of the fire of rock and roll! Today is the 26th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful student-led anti-government protest movement that led to the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in December 1989. The name of the revolution stemmed directly from Lou Reed's Velvet Underground, the house band of Andy…

I A.M. What I Am: Breakfast of Champions with KDKA

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Rants, Reflections, Ruminations Teenage Wasteland
Post comments:1 Comment
Post published:November 2, 2015

As a kid I had breakfast every morning with the 50,000-watt Godzilla of all AM radio stations - KDKA 1020, Pittsburgh, PA. The first commercial radio station in the world, launched by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, turns 95 years old today. My dad always had our kitchen radio tuned to 1020 on the dial. There was no fighting him on…

Love Some Vinyl on Record Store Day

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Rants, Reflections, Ruminations Teenage Wasteland
Post comments:3 Comments
Post published:April 18, 2015

Give an old record a loving home! Today is the eighth annual Record Store Day, so visit one of your local independently owned shops, browse the bins, and pick up a platter full of sound that you can actually hold in your hands -- a shiny groooovy disc with a sleeve that doesn't require a magnifying glass to read! And even if you no longer have a way to spin the record, stop in anyway. You'll marvel at those old LP covers and find yourself saying, "I had that one...and that one...and OH, I forgot all about that one!" It's like taking a trip in a time machine.

Walking the Haunted Chambers with my Guide, Emily D.

Emily Dickinson - Haunted Chambers

Post author:Dana Spiardi
Post category:Rants, Reflections, Ruminations Teenage Wasteland Writers on the Storm: Books, Authors, Poets
Post comments:0 Comments
Post published:November 1, 2014

If Halloween is about taking a little trip to the dark, spooky, loony side of life, then every day is Halloween for me. Always has been. I was born in the Season of the Witch, and the mysterious and the macabre are my muses. For me, thrills and chills don't come in the form of grotesque costumes, giant yard spiders,…