Quadrophenia: “Ain’t it funny how we all seem to look the same?”

Emerging from the shadows of The Dolphin pub in Plymouth’s Barbican, we began walking toward the stunningly perfect natural harbor, the open sea a...

Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, et al (Part Two)

You'll notice I reversed their names in the title for the second installment. This 2007 film by Robert Levi helps provide context to the...

John Lennon: Life (and death) is what happens to you while you’re busy making...

(An essay originally published at NA Confidential in 2005, and often repeated. It has been lightly edited.) On the morning of December 9, 1980, I...

My year in music, at least so far

I remain wedded to the CD format, but these days I stream music first, then purchase the physical discs of those new releases that...

Roger’s year in music, 2022

It never hurts to repeat fundamental truths. Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. Sometimes...

Roger’s year in music, 2021

Music does something to me, and I’ve never been able to explain exactly why. It just happens. Sometimes when I walk into a supermarket,...

Absent Ian Gillan, it’s less of a Jesus Christ Superstar to me

Recounts the last days of Jesus Christ from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus’ following increases, Judas begins to worry that...

Forty 1970s-era albums for December, 2025

Complete as of December 27, 2025 Nostalgia regularly afflicts me, and as a result, I endeavor to keep it at arm’s length. But 2025 has been...

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40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 92: Pentecostal pews, beer judging exams and...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to NABC resuming it. It would be perfectly reasonable of the...

40 Years of Sidebars: Hugo Claus, Frans Masereel & NABC’s one-off Silent Oath Oud...

This Belgian cultural excursion didn’t slot handily into the “40 Years in Beer” narrative, and so I've declared it suitable as a “sidebar.” The...

40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 91: New Albany’s brewing history, prior to...

Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 90: A brewery for the New Albanian in all of us, Lite-free NABC debuts in 2002. In...