Artist: childhood

Miss Chisolm is the teacher of the year, so sayeth the plastic-letters on the marquee of an elementary school I pass each morning on the way to work. I don't recall any of the schools which I attended awarding such an honor. The students, of course, had teachers who were deemed as favorites. Mrs. Winston in seventh grade was popular as she was young, good-natured, and the closest any of us had ever gotten to a woman who could have been one of Charlie's angels. Z was held [...]

As the school year came to a close in 1984, synchronistic events were occurring that would shape that summer for me and my friends. By that May, all of us had obtained our drivers licenses, giving us the ability to escape the limited boundaries of our small hometown. The fledgling MTV had become available in our area and, as it still hadn't been co-opted by the major labels, those of us that had access to the channel had exposure to acts that we wouldn't hear on the radio. Those of us without MTV [...]

I missed a lot of class during my junior and senior years of high school. My friends and I, much like the prison escapees Gail and Evelle in Raising Arizona , felt that the institution no longer had anything to offer us. (especially now that we were mobile) We had our escapes down to a science. We worked through some office connections to erase any evidence that we had been absent or I would provide faked doctor's notes using the nom de plume Dr. A.E. Lifeson, DDS, an homage to the [...]

Today is a pretty day. Out my window here by the desk, I can see the sun shining on the leaves of the giant oak tree, and the leaves shimmer each time even the slightest breeze moves them. Fern is sprawled on the rug in the sun where it streams through the front door. Grace is sitting on the deck watching the yard. Maddie is on the dining room table-her usual perch. I have very little ambition. I do have one errand, but it will wait until later in the day. Gracie can come with me for the [...]

I must have been part of the last generation of kids who got to experience a filmstrip during the course of their education. If I were a teacher, I'd be tempted to show one to trip the kids out. But as a grade school tyke in the '70s, few things were more welcome than being in class and having the teacher set up the projector. The anticipation would be palpable. For fifteen or twenty minutes, you had a reprieve from the monotony of the day. Sometimes technical difficulties might result in a delay, taking more time [...]

Amidst the news last week of the deaths of Dick Clark and The Band's Levon Helm was that of Greg Ham's passing. As I was a high school kid in the early '80s, the name was immediately recognizable as the saxophonist for the Australian band Men At Work. Men At Work arrived on American shores at a time when I had just developed enough interest in music to be listening to a lot of radio, but I hadn't ventured much beyond mostly Top 40 stations. Most Saturday mornings, I'd tune for at least a portion [...]

★★★★ Listening to Doug Hoyer's full-length debut album, I found myself curious about Canada for the first time in my life. Hoyer, the Alberta native, has created a love story of sorts in Walks with the Tender and Growing Night , part ode to his beloved country, part celebration of all that is young and carefree. I do not think I have ever felt more of an urge to visit Canadia, land of elk and maple syrup, since his album mesmerized me into thinking the trip might just be worth it. Walks reminds me a [...]

The first time I visited the nation's capitol was with a buddy. His friend's band had played the night before in Philadelphia and we were still sobering up – a condition we quickly set to rectify with a few pre-gig drinks at a bar in Georgetown – when we arrived in D.C. The fact that the friend's band had a tab at the club – The Bayou, I believe – necessitated that we continue to drink. By evening's end, I was blissfully ignorant of the impending pain I had booked for the following day. As [...]

Some characters I've met were such random intersections and the details so hazy that I sometimes must remind myself that, yeah, that really happened. Once, while living in London, I went to check out an apartment, meeting some older fellow at his studio. He was a hat maker which explained all of the hats as we threaded to the back of the workspace and up some stairs. It was barely affordable, provided the food budget was kept to five pounds a day, and, as I recall, the flat was close to the heart of the city. [...]

I spoke with a college buddy last week. He had called days earlier to inform me that a young drummer friend of his was moving to town. I'm old enough to know better than to let him follow me home. Years ago, I spent twelve months or so managing a band. (and actually managed to get a label to offer them a deal) Not long after meeting them, the drummer crashed on the couch in the house where I was living. Within a couple weeks, he was living on that couch. [...]

Thirty years ago, music was a still mostly an unexplored world for me. It had been no more than six months since I'd brought an old radio up from the basement. The quarter century of rock music that had preceeded me was of little consequence, yet. The songs and acts that were most popular - and, thus, most notable to me - were the ones which I heard most on the radio. In the spring of '82, radio would have led me to believe that the band Shooting Star was as popular as Journey. [...]

Yeah, so we scoured the internet, searched wide and far, etc and came up empty on information about the artists involved in this track. Obviously from the accent it sounds like Childhood is of some UK isles extraction and so we're throwing a soft bet out there that Only Real is British too. (EDIT: We found his Soundcloud, our dude is from London.) Identity verification issues aside "The Drivethough" is a great UK pop/hip-hop track you need to be listening to. Listen. Only Real [...]

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I noted not long ago that my relationship with the music of the Eagles is complicated. (a complication compounded by never being able to remember if it's The Eagles or simply Eagles) Whatever the name, the Eagles were done just about the time I wandered in and started listening to music. The Long Run was released as I was entering sixth grade and the thumping Heartache Tonight was guaranteed to be heard blaring from the bowling alley juke box where those of us not old enough to drive spent hung out. [...]

Yes, though I might recently have questioned Morgan Freeman's aquarium-related advice , I find the words of his iconic character Red from The Shawshank Redemption appropriate this morning. In less than three hours, the true opening round of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament - as opposed to the cash grab "first four" - tips off. For the first time in many years, I have arranged to be home to bask in ten hours or so of college hoops, the entire venture goosed by having upgraded to HD television. [...]

Paloma shook her head at the commercial which promised three nights airing National Lampoon's Vacation to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of Clark Griswald's trek to California. She knew that I - having not seen it in glorious HD - would be unable to resist the sirens' song. She has often heard me echo the query of Imogene Coca's deranged Aunt Edna - "Am I gonna eat? Or am I gonna starve to death?" and is good natured enough to have not brained me. There was a time that I could have recited [...]

I suppose that for someone as fascinated by primates, both of the skyscraper-climbing and planet-ruling sort , as I apparently am, The Monkees should be a favorite band for, if nothing else, their name. In what passes for my reality, The Monkees have been an act that has mostly been a part of the pop culture landscape with the foursome periodically popping up on my radar such as this week with the news of Davy Jones' death. I might have caught The Monkees via their television show during the late '60s, but as [...]

Recently, Paloma and I caught a late-night showing of a movie called Equinox , a sci-fi flick from the early '70s which has a cult following due to the fact that it began as a student film by Dennis Muren (Muren would earn acclaim for his special effects work on numerous films, including the Star Wars series) Equinox was a familiar feature from my childhood as it seemed to be shown every other week on WTTV's Science Fiction Theater. Seeing it again also brought back vivid memories of a personal [...]

Supported by Childhood It was supposed to be a three band performance tonight but Let's Wrestle cancelled last night's London show due to illness and they don't make tonight's either. Their loss is Childhood's gain who are promoted to main support and a later slot. They are, I believe, Nottingham based Londoners. It doesn't start too well for them, the sound is muddy, but it's soon sorted. At first, I think, typical indie. Could have been anyone. Probably were. Then they get a bit of a jangle going. Hmmm, quite nice. Catchy. Pleasant. Very [...]

Having had a reaction due to the ingestion of a certain plant-based substance, I once rampaged my way through several boxes of crackers, leading my housemates to dub me "Cracker Vacuum." (it was later translated into Chinese as the far more sonically palatable Bin Gone Kon). Munchies-inspired nicknames aside, crackers are delightful and the addition of cheese was a great moment in humankind. My enjoyment of this combination has been tempered of late by my concern that – based on knowledge gleaned from numerous viewings of Blade Runner – I might be a [...]

It was late January or early February and I was trapped in the special hell that was inventory at the large record store where I worked. The store was so large that it took our staff of sixty or so two days at about ten hours each day to accomplish the task of counting - and recounting - everything. And, the festivities started at six in the morning. (if you wish more grisly details, they're here ) On this particular morning, my head was splitting with a headache that - [...]