2022-11-29 16:58
Well hello again! Another year has zipped by, and once again the holidays are upon us. Seems like we were just here. Time for another Christmas mix! This year I present Christmas Time is C… Read More
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Welcome to Brainstembob.com, thoughts and musings from the Suburban Underground.
2021-11-24 22:17
The Kinds of Christmas Holiday Music mix is here! A nostalgic trip back to a time when the same tired Christmas music from Mariah Carey, Pentatonix and the like wasn’t being crammed… Read More
2021-10-28 16:31
Scar Stuff was/is a Halloween-themed blog that I used to visit often back in the heady days of blogs…Run by animator Jason Willis, it’s been inactive for several years….u… Read More
2021-02-10 16:01
As I’ve written about in my last couple of posts, I’m trying to be less wasteful and use less disposable plastic in my everyday life. Luckily, it’s getting easier all the t… Read More
2020-12-07 21:54
Season’s Greetings y’all! As this twisted year (finally) winds down and the holidays approach, it’s time for me to share out my annual Christmas music mix. This year&rsqu&hellip…Read More
2020-10-06 19:37
In today’s world, it seems everywhere we go, everything is wrapped in plastic. Take the “bag lunch,” for example. While yes, the bag may be paper (it should be a reusable b… Read More
2020-09-28 19:58
Reducing the amount of plastic we all use in our everyday lives should be easy, but it’s often not. We live in a plastic world, surrounded by items made of plastic, packaged in plastic… Read More
2020-09-21 18:46
Hey everybody! I’ve been away for awhile, trying to find a way through the coronavirus epidemic without losing my sanity. I can’t say that I’ve been 100% successful, but he… Read More
2020-03-21 14:06
Hey everybody. So…what’s new? What a difference a week makes, huh? These are some strange times. Everything has changed. Well, almost. One thing hasn’t: I’m still ma… Read More
2020-03-06 12:55
WFMU, New Jersey’s landmark freeform radio station, is in the middle of its annual fundraiser, and they need money! In a world gone insane, WFMU is a non-commercial freeform oasis in a… Read More
2019-12-17 18:33
A One-Way Ticket to Yulesville
I have a playlist problem. I can’t stop making them. My spare moments are spent assembling songs into playlists that more often than not never get listen… Read More
2019-12-03 17:39
It’s Christmas Time! A Doo-Wop Holiday
Well, it’s time again to put another dime in the Christmas jukebox and see what plays, and this year’s musical mix is called It&rsqu&hell…Read More
2019-11-25 21:42
Still easing into Holiday Mode around here…Universal Music has released another animated video for one of their Christmas classics. This time around it’s The Jackson 5 – I… Read More
2019-11-14 14:29
The weather outside is frightful. It’s only mid-November but we’re already dealing with super-cold temps, gray skies, and loots of snow. You know what makes all of this more tole… Read More
2019-11-06 19:15
Halloween is over, the first real snow is falling, the Holiday season is kicking into gear. I love Christmas music, but the first week of November is, in my opinion, way too early for… Read More
2019-10-25 15:42
How far do you walk to get your water? Maybe a few feet over to the sink or the fridge? It’s probably not full of nasty things that can cause disease, either, I’ll bet. Tha… Read More
2019-10-14 16:03
October is here, time for some seasonally appropriate music! Here’s the IGOR Halloween Mix 2019 , a collection of spooky tunes for your Halloween pleasure. Put this thing on shu… Read More
2019-08-23 18:39
Bruno Kelly/Reuters
The Amazon is burning. It seems like the entire planet is dying, but it’s not. It’s being killed. While it may seem like a hopeless cause, there are some thin… Read More
2019-07-09 15:33
It’s summertime! Is the livin’ easy? I guess that depends. I do know this: Summertime means summer tunes. And there’s nothing I love more than discovering some old song tha… Read More
2019-01-08 12:57
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
– Pablo Picasso
Happy New Year! 2019 is starting just like 2018 ended, with our nation in turmoil. That… Read More
2018-12-18 16:53
Holiday movies are a huge part of the Christmas season around here. One of our favorites, one that gets watched every single year, is ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.&rsqu&hell…Read More
2018-12-13 18:30
As a kid, Happy Days was one of my very favorite shows, and one of my favorite episodes is from the show’s second season. ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas’ is the Hap… Read More
2018-12-06 14:43
Christmas ephemera doesn’t get more ephemeral than this…The Year Around Christmas Present, 1970
I know nothing about this other than the scant description on the YouTube clip… Read More
2018-12-04 17:32
It’s that time of year again boys and girls! Time to share this year’s “It used to be a CD but now it’s not Christmas mix.” Yes, it’s my 2018 Christmas Mi… Read More
2018-11-30 18:42
The Christmas Ephemera parade marches on! This is a good one. Sony Music has just surprised us all with the release of a long-lost holiday jazz album from 1954. A Cool Yuletide by Urbie Gr… Read More
2018-11-29 18:15
My deep-dive through Christmas ephemera continues! Today let’s take a look back at The 1968 Dean Martin Christmas Special. It’s a delightful time capsule of the popular culture d… Read More
2018-11-27 18:02
Growing up in the 70’s, I was fortunate enough to be a kid during what could arguably be considered the Golden Age of Christmas TV specials. Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown, The Grinch… Read More
2018-11-26 15:54
The holidays are upon us! Depending on how you feel about said holiday season, this is either a blessing or a curse. For most people, it’s a little bit of both. One of the things I&rsq&hell…Read More
2018-11-06 16:14
psst….did you hear that today is Election Day? It is! I need you to do me a favor:
VOTE !!!!
If I find out that any of you didn’t bother to vote today, I’m going to com… Read More
2018-10-26 19:26
Well, that’s it. Filmstruck is cancelled. We didn’t deserve its greatness….My god does this news suck. In today’s streaming world, more than a hundred years of film… Read More
2018-10-12 18:30
I love the ephemera of our popular culture, things that are put out there, and then vanish. Very few pieces of entertainment, be it TV, film, music, whatever, go on to form a lasting impress… Read More
2018-09-25 20:12
Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in sch… Read More
2018-09-24 11:57
It’s September, and that means for lonely shut-ins like me who listen to Christmas music year-round that it’s time for record labels to start announcing their new Christmas music… Read More
2018-09-21 12:16
Here’s a killer Texas garage MONSTER from ’66 for today’s Friday Song. “The Hip” by The Sparkles, released on the small Hickory record label in 1966. The Sparkl… Read More
2018-08-17 16:41
Ahhh….Friday. The weeks fly by. Time for a Friday Song. This week, The Wayward Bus ‘The Prophet’ (With Predictions by David Hoy)
I have no idea where I first heard this c… Read More
2018-08-15 18:38
I’m not calling you a dummy; if anything, I’m the dummy. But everyone can use some water saving tips, and I’ve got one I don’t often read about. It’s so easy, i… Read More
2018-08-14 20:04
Say you just heard a song that you think the whole world should be listening to, and you want to share it with all of your social media folks so that none of them will listen to it…(I… Read More
2018-08-10 16:15
Yesterday’s post comes across as kind of gloom and doom, end of the world, and hopelessly depressing, and it is. Sorry ’bout that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have… Read More
2018-08-08 20:41
A 747 Drops Fire Retardant on the Carr Fire in California
In an article written for The Intercept in 2017 during that years’ wildfires and hurricanes and abnorma… Read More
2018-08-08 20:41
A 747 Drops Fire Retardant on the Carr Fire in California
In an article about climate change and its affects on our planet written for The Intercept in 2017, during tha… Read More
2018-06-05 17:50
As convenient as it is today to stream movies right from home, I fondly remember the time when a huge part of the weekend experience (for me, anyway) was a trip to the local video store to p… Read More
2018-03-12 20:08
Freeform radio station WFMU is holding their annual fund raiser. They need your money. They need my money (and they’ll get some, though not nearly enough.) What IS WFMU? What IS f… Read More
2017-12-07 20:04
“Sitting here on Christmas Eve, with a brandy in my hand
Oh, I’ve had a few too many and it’s getting hard to stand
I keep hearing noises from my fireplace
I must be going… Read More
2017-10-23 19:29
The days are getting shorter, the leaves are falling, the pumpkins are ready for harvest, and…wait…what was that? Did you hear that sound? It came from over by that old cemeter… Read More
2017-10-04 18:11
After the gun massacre in Las Vegas earlier this week, where 59 Americans were shot dead and over 500 more injured, there are no more excuses, in my opinion, to put off talking about this na… Read More
2017-09-25 19:07
While we all sit around debating whether or not NFL players have the right to take a knee during the national anthem (they absolutely do), millions of our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and… Read More
2017-08-18 13:45
All this hubbub over removing Confederate statues from American soil…I’m so confused…I mean, the people commemorated by these statues ARE NOT AMERICANS. All of them, EVER… Read More
2017-08-16 14:49
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more importa… Read More
2017-06-23 15:07
Removed from Facebook and reposted here.
All of this Russia news is troubling. Every single bit of it. These are historical times we’re living in, and not in a good way. If you… Read More
2017-05-09 13:29
No, don’t call the police, really. It’s the name of the song. And in a world that’s seemingly going straight to hell, the new LCD Soundsystem single, their first in 11 year… Read More
2017-03-01 01:26
Welcome to the very first edition of the Facebook Dungeon! What is it? Simple. It’s where stuff that I would normally post on social media goes to die. Stuff that’s too long, too… Read More
2017-02-28 16:38
So I had this idea…
A few weeks ago a friend asked a favor of me, which I happily accepted. His mother had a couple old vinyl records that she wanted to listen to, but couldn’t… Read More
2016-12-15 20:15
Hello strangers! Hope you’ve been well. I’ve been laying low, trying to take in the events of the presidential election and its aftermath. I’m still not sure what to make… Read More
2016-11-08 13:18
Right Now !!!! Read More
2016-10-28 18:13
WFMU, the world’s greatest freeform radio station, needs our help! For decades the station has been home to Nachum Segal and the JM in the AM show, but now that show, and its financial… Read More
2016-10-21 15:11
Record stores. There’s really nothing like them in the world. In my opinion, at least. French trip hop/hip-hop producer Wax Tailor agrees, and on his latest tour around the U.S. stoppe… Read More
2016-09-22 19:05
I caught this fascinating documentary on Netflix last night. I hadn’t planned on it, Hell I had never even heard of it before. It just popped up in my Netflix feed…It’s a… Read More
2016-09-12 19:38
I totally understand, it’s only mid-September. I’m not going crazy. But I just renewed this site’s web hosting for another year,you see, so I figured I’d better do so… Read More
2016-08-03 15:33
I wrote earlier this spring about how we had gone ahead and cancelled our DirecTV account, leaving us without any ‘traditional’ source of television: No cable, no satellite, no a… Read More
2016-06-30 19:13
Is it just me, or does it seem these days that summer really doesn’t start to get rolling until the week before the 4th of July? When I was a kid, summer started about two weeks befor… Read More
2016-06-17 18:57
Posted without comment. We’re doomed. Whoops, guess that was a comment.
Trump Parking Lot from rumur on Vimeo.
Wait, that’s not all. This would be hysterically funny if it were… Read More
2016-06-16 16:50
After thinking about it, talking about it, thinking about it some more, threatening to do it, the deed is done. I have cancelled our DirecTV account. We’re cord-cutters now.
As I wro… Read More
2016-06-08 16:51
I’ve been trying to get myself to post here on a (much) more regular basis, but man…I’m not doing so well. What’s it gonna take? I don’t know. But I do know t… Read More
2016-05-25 13:22
Oh, hello. Didn’t see you standing there. How’s it going? Really? That’s great. Me? Oh, I’m fine I suppose. Keepin’ busy. You know how it is…
I’m… Read More
2016-04-27 17:51
Spoiler Alert: I don’t have any hair on my head! I’m bald, OK? To be truthful, I’m naturally only partially bald, but there’s so little hair actually growing on my he… Read More
2016-04-22 13:20
We’ve lost an unfortunate number of famous, important musicians this year. Prince is just the latest in a growing line of artists who’ve left us in 2016. Whenever someone famous… Read More
2016-03-16 18:04
Working at home like I do, I’m spoiled rotten by the fact that I can listen to anything I want, as loud (or as quiet) as I want, all day long. For a music-lover like me, it’s he… Read More
2016-03-11 20:39
Well hello there! Where’ve you been these last couple of weeks? What’s that? Where have I been? Why, I’ve had my head buried under my pillow, waiting for the horror show th… Read More
2016-03-11 20:39
Well hello there! Where’ve you been these last couple of weeks? What’s that? Where have I been? Why, I’ve had my head buried under my pillow, waiting for the horror show th… Read More
2016-02-19 16:31
Here’s the deal: I’m going to start writing (looks like I’ve already started!) without having any idea whatsoever what I’m going to write about. Consider it an exerci… Read More
2016-02-12 21:07
As a kid, on nights when I couldn’t sleep, I’d sometimes grab my radio and jump back into bed with it, flipping it over to the AM band, and start turning the dial, searching for… Read More
2016-02-10 16:16
It doesn’t get more ‘dead of winter’ than right now, the middle part of February. The skies are gray, the ground is gray, the trees are gray…Colors seem to have disa… Read More
2016-01-29 21:46
Another work week in the books…Another long, rather sad week. I had a long, rambling post planned, about the nature of death and how as we get older it becomes more and more a part of… Read More
2016-01-21 20:45
We’re already almost a month into 2016. How is that even possible? Despite the fact that the new year is already a few weeks old, I’m not done thinking about ways to make it, and… Read More
2016-01-15 20:42
It’s been a long week. Popular culture took a real hit this week with the death of David Bowie, and then actor Alan Rickman, both aged 69, both from cancer. Each in his own way created… Read More
2016-01-11 20:55
With the resurgence of listening to music on vinyl records, there has been a correlating explosion of information out there on how to properly care for all these new records (please don&rsqu&hell…Read More
2016-01-06 21:19
As I get older, and I am definitely getting older, I find myself watching more and more documentary films. Documentary films show us the neglected corners of the world that don’t get m… Read More
2015-12-30 15:28
Is it possible that another year is almost done? 2015, where ya goin’ to so fast? You know what? Go ahead and go; 2016 has gotta be better.
Almost all of my favorite websites are ful… Read More
2015-12-21 23:05
Christmas Week! As you may or may not know, or even care, I make a Christmas Mix CD every year for cherished friends and family…This year is Year 13 for my little endeavor, and now th… Read More
2015-12-18 23:52
I almost forgot! I almost forgot to post the Friday Song. It’s been a hectic day; I took a long (very long) lunch break and snuck off to catch Star Wars The Force Awakens. Suffice it t… Read More
2015-12-16 17:17
I’ve reached that point in the Christmas season where all the music everywhere is starting to get to me a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the classics…but still. Do they r… Read More
2015-12-11 18:22
It’s Christmas time. It’s also Star Wars time, officially one week away from Star Wars The Force Awakens. I’m excited. Very excited.
Now, around here we’ve been co… Read More
2015-12-10 13:00
Now this is what I’m talking about. This is the music from my childhood Christmas retail shopping experiences in the 70’s, and I’ll bet it was yours as well. This is an i… Read More
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