Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The 1960’s was a great era of protest music. People were trying to stop the Vietnam War, civil rights had taken center stage, and many other ills of society were highlighted in some of the great songs from the 1960’s. We haven’t seen protest music like that since the 1970’s. Until now. This year has…

Long weekend – last time to enjoy decent weather in the Northeast? Perhaps. Big birthday month – mine and many others (happy birthday to everyone with birthdays in the month – as you know, I’m generally bad at wishing people birthdays, so let this work as a general happy birthday). Celebrating birthdays mean music, so…

Hi, here’s the third of the 1970 podcasts I’ve done. This one focuses on radio hits from 1970 – back when radio still played all sorts of different music. I mean, really: “Lola was a hit on AM radio, and the Kinks got in trouble, not for the subject matter, but because they had to…

Masks…just masks. And while masked up, listen to today’s podcast, featuring Beth Orton, Everything But the Girl, Human Sexual Response, Barrence Whitfield & Mambo Jambo, Screaming Blue Messiahs, Guadacanal Diary, Game Theory, Foxpalmer, Sam Phillips, Elvis Costello, John Hiatt, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Elvis Presley. This podcast is, as always, available to…

Shh – I’m pretending that this isn’t the last day of my vacation – it’s Sunday, after all. Had a good time – went up to Rockland, ME for a couple of days, and communed with nature. More next week. It’s Sunday (again), so I do have music for y’all, with John Lennon, Fats Domino,…

I’m taking a vacation – finally. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a full week off. We may go somewhere as well for a couple of days – weird in this new world. It’s not a great time for me to be out at work – I’ve been doing tons of stuff to…

I keep reminding myself not to get excited about the return of football. Sports has been a welcome distraction in this time of staying home all the time. But while I’ve enjoyed the NBA bubble success, the same can’t be said about baseball. I know part of it is due to the team for whom…

Part 2 of 1970’s best music. We’re focusing on soul music in this one. We had new bands (the Jackson Five, old artists breaking away from bands (Diana Ross), and other stars stepping up (Stevie Wonder, etc.). It was just a very fertile time. So let’s get groovy and listen to these artists in Part…

A Federal holiday since 1894, Labor Day celebrates the American Labor movement, which includes unions (trade unionists fought to get a day set aside for laborers). Really, it’s the end of summer celebration. Schools are starting back up, and it’s about the time that we see a change in weather (in the more northern climes,…

1970 was a great year for music. The post-Woodstock hangover hadn’t quite hit yet – most of this music was probably recorded during 1969, before the hangover, or even in 1970, when the realization that it was the end of an era hadn’t occurred. When I think back on that time (let’s see, how many…