Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth

The song of the day is See You Again performed by rapper Wiz Khalifa with vocals and piano by Charlie Puth. The song was written as a tribute to the late Paul Walker and was featured in the film Furious 7. The song reached #1 in seventeen countries.

Vast Wasteland

I complained to a fellow writer that lately I’ve had nothing to blog about. Actually, that’s been true for as long as I’ve been blogging, but until now, having nothing to write about hasn’t stopped me from writing. But now, for some reason, I feel my blog posts must really pop or I don’t publish them.

Having no writing ideas, I turned on the television for some mindless distraction. A talk show was airing. It featured several women sitting at a table and discussing the most mundane subjects. After a few minutes it occurred to me, “These women have nothing interesting to talk about, yet despite that they’re talking, and they’re on television and earning big bucks for blathering about nothing of consequence.” Then I turned off the television. Suddenly, I felt better about my blog.

In a 1961 speech to a convention of the National Association of Broadcasters, FCC chairman Newton Minow referred to American commercial television programming as a “vast wasteland.”

"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."

There were three networks in 1961. How many cable and satellite channels are there now? Hundreds. But I would say that not a lot has changed except the “vast wasteland” is more vast than ever. And yet there is still a large audience. People complain, “I get 150 channels on my TV and there’s nothing to watch.” But they turn on their televisions and watch anyway.

Television shows aren’t written by Hemingway and Faulkner, and neither are blogs. No one wants to be a part of a vast wasteland even if that’s how it ends up. So I can leave this page blank or I can put words on it. And my words may make some people yawn, but maybe a few will think, “I could write a more interesting blog/novel/short story/screenplay/children’s book than the stuff I’m reading.” And among those few, maybe one person will decide to try. To that person, I say, “Go for it.” Worst case, you end up a part of the vast wasteland and you discover you have a lot of company. Best case … who knows where that road will take you, but it will be an interesting ride.

Marian Hill

The song of the day is Lovit by Marian Hill. Marian Hill is a Philadelphia duo consisting of producer Jeremy Lloyd and singer Samantha Gongol.

Neon Jungle

The song of the day is Louder from the album Welcome To The Jungle by the British girl group Neon Jungle. (Coincidentally, Welcome To The Jungle is also the name of a single from the album Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses, as well as the name of a single by Jay Z & Kanye West.)

Kygo and Conrad

Today is “Cinco de Mayo” (Spanish for “fifth of May”), a day of celebration for Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. It commemorates the Mexican Army’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

The song of the day is Firestone by Norwegian DJ Kygo (Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll) with vocals by Australian singer-songwriter Conrad (Conrad Sewell).

Bartolomeo Cristofori

Today – May 4, 2015 – is Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco’s 360th birthday. Who was Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco, you may be thinking. He was an Italian maker of musical instruments. Bartolomeo also invented several musical instruments. He invented two keyboard instruments before starting work on an invention that is still popular today: the piano.

Bartolomeo wanted his invention to be called an "arpicembalo". The term “piano” comes from a phrase in an inventory book:

“nuova inventione, che fa' il piano, e il forte”
(“new invention that produces soft and loud”)

Piano and forte are Italian words for “soft” and “loud” respectively. Over time, the phrase was shortened to pianoforte, and when the word entered the English language it was further shortened to piano. Bartolomeo built a number of pianos during his life, continually improving the instrument. Three of his pianos have survived to the present time, but two are in such poor condition they cannot be played, while the third has been so extensively altered during “restorations” that the original sound has been lost.

Thanks for your invention, Bartolomeo. Few things sound so nice.

Tori Kelly

The song of the day is Unbreakable Smile from the album Unbreakable Smile by Tori Kelly (Victoria Loren Kelly).


Another song from the album is Nobody Love. The album is set to be released on June 23, 2015.

Kiesza

The song of the day is Hideaway from the album Sound Of A Woman by Canadian singer Kiesza. The song was released in January, 2014, and the video has racked up a stunning 223 million views. The video was shot in the streets of Brooklyn in one take after 3 days of rehearsal. At the time, Kiesza was nursing a broken rib. She says Navy boot camp taught her to push through limits.

Rihanna

The song of the day is American Oxygen by Barbadian singer Rihanna. The song was inspired by Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 single Born In The USA.

May Day

As I type this, the date is May 1. Also called May Day. Also called International Workers’ Day to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in Chicago. Also, on this day in 1942 the US government seized the nation’s jukebox factories and instructed them to produce war materials. But enough history.

I drove to Walmart just before noon. I felt like eating pizza for lunch and their deli pizzas are pretty decent. I also picked up a seafood salad, the one topped with faux lobster – or more properly, surimi. Surimi is a Japanese word that means “ground meat.” In this case, the ground meat is a white fleshed fish such as pollock that has been pulverized into a thick, gelatinous paste. Then other stuff – spices, oils, egg whites, even other fish – are added to make the surimi taste like crab or lobster or whatever.

As I left the store, I made a new rule for myself: never go to Walmart on the first day of the month. Of course, if everybody observes that rule and we all go there on the 2nd day, then the rule doesn’t accomplish anything. So I’ll go on the 2nd, and all you guys: keep going on the 1st of the month like you do now.