Today’s birthday band:
John Entwistle, Jackson Browne
PJ Harvey, too
BoDean Kurt Neumann
Beautiful boy Sean Lennon
Someone Sean misses
Imagine no guns
And John Lennon, rocking on,
Living life in peace
One of my favorite rock ‘n’ roll dates.
Buddy Holly, Sept. 7, 1936 – Feb. 3, 1959
Keith Moon, Aug. 23, 1946 – Sept. 7, 1978
Warren Zevon, Jan. 24, 1947 – Sept. 7, 2003
Chrissie Hynde, Sept. 7, 1951
“I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on. That keeps me honest.”
— Bruce Springsteen
September 7th
2 born, 2 died, rock rolls on
Much joy, some sorrow
Buddy Holly put
Lubbock on rock ’n’ roll’s map
Pioneering place
First saw Elvis there,
’55 — opened for him
Before year was out
Never wasted time
Burned like a comet’s swift mark
Three albums, two years
“Peggy Sue,” “Rave On,”
“Not Fade Away,” “True Love Ways”
Let’s say, “Well … All Right!”
Like that comet he
Fell from the sky, but song’s wrong
Music didn’t die
Yes, a few came first
Little Richard, Elvis, Chuck
On rock ’n’ roll’s trail
But Buddy’s the link
From them to so many: Stones,
Beatles, Dylan, Bruce
Through those big glasses
He saw the future, refused
To wait, made it now
Tonight we’ll rave on
Some of us do every day
Refuse to wait too
Speaking of ravers
Tormenter and tormented
Keith Moon died this date
A great drummer who
Blew up drum kits — and toilets
He loved to raise hell
Gene Krupa, Hal Blaine
Inspired him, but Moon was
Thunder and lightning
Stories of excess
Were legend, but what demons,
What pain lurked beneath?
Moon had a great run
But no one could keep the man
From self-destruction
Night before death saw
“The Buddy Holly Story,”
Dined with Beatle Paul
Now Moon rests in peace
God knows there wasn’t any
When he was alive
Warren Zevon lived,
Wrote, sang, played, did everything
Way out on the edge
Werewolves, mad gunners
Larger than life characters
Filled songs to the brim
But underneath it,
Drinking couldn’t quench the pain,
Empty-handed heart
For all his sadness,
Though, his songs made connections,
Shared true emotions
Friends sobered him up
Music saved him, till cancer
Ripped his lungs out, Jim
He left on “The Wind”
We promised to keep him in
Our hearts for a while
The real rockin’ deal
Lives in many, like Chrissie;
Hynde’s no pretender
Artist, journalist
Her talents many but she
Just wanted to rock
And she exploded
Just like a Keith Moon drum kit
When she got her chance
She sang “I’m special”
With a Jagger-like swagger
And damn she was right
Band mates came and went,
Lived and died, but she always
Kept the beat going
Tangled with Limbaugh
Passion for animal rights
Rebel with causes
63 today
Solo album, Uptown gig
Rock on, Chrissie Hynde
Written Aug. 12, 2011
It’s one of those days
Musical talent was born
All varieties
Brave Rostropovich
Most brilliant cellist, champion
Of all peoples’ rights
Honored the classics,
Encouraged new composers,
Dignity for all
In ’27
Porter Wagoner loped in
Circle the wagons!
Discovered Dolly,
Had own TV show, master
Of Grand Ole Opry
Next up, Buck Owens
In ’29, another
Bright star of country
Not the Nashville sound,
Buckeroos, but Bakersfield;
Stripped down, nice and lean
Ringo sang his tune
“Act Naturally”; Dwight Yoakam
Continues the sound
More guitar greats born
This day: Sultan Mark Knopfler
And Pat Metheny
Knopfler got into
Dire Straits, and then he played
His way out of them
A KC suburb,
Lee’s Summit, was Metheny’s
Birthplace, stomping grounds
You can hear those roots,
Edge of wide open spaces,
In much of his work
He also breaks bonds
Musical and technical
To fuse ideas
A jazz superstar
In so many ways, but keeps
Sense of fun, and awe
A personal fave
Completes the group, Kid Creole,
Born Thomas Browder
His names and bands changed
But the Kid was always hip,
Cool amid disco
His tropical blend’s
Still smart, funny, danceable
— Right for a birthday
August 12th, good job!
Serving musical pleasures
Across the spectrum
Peace, Robin Williams.
Heartbreaking that the laughter
Could not still your pain
The rainbow refracts
A new span of funky hue
Maya Angelou
Graduation day
May 18th, Twenty-fourteen
Olathe North High
Looking forward, back
At the same time — nostalgic,
Exhilarating
The class roll is called
More than 400 — each name
A life unfolding
Among them’s our girl
Just 18, so strong and smart,
With so much ahead
Some mid-’90s names:
Ashley, Cassidy, Amber,
Connor, Brody, Nate
Oluwatobi,
Guadalupe, Magali,
Isidro, Satchel
Sallem, Nabiyat,
Ramzi, Mihret — students born
In a dozen lands
And for this moment
We’re all one — one hope per heart
And one lump per throat
The last name is read
Principal’s farewell spoken
The Eagles take flight
Kansas admitted to the Union, Jan. 29, 1861
Eighteen-sixty-one
Midwifed by prairie turmoil
Kansas was born free
Two-thousand fourteen
Still free, precariously,
The state of my heart
Beauty, ugliness
Across this crazy-quilt land
A most human place
Harsh state for cities:
KCK and Wichita,
Topeka — tough towns
Johnson County sprawl
Insatiable concrete maw
Cul-de-sacs, strip malls
Small farm towns, small farms
Struggle gamely to survive
Agribusiness scythe
Lawrence, Manhattan
Now you’re talking — we know how
To do college towns
And the hills and plains
Providence made them perfect
Glorious to view
Some “leaders” right now?
Hard-hearted “Christians” astray
Jesus, let us pray
Yes, we Kansans make
Our share of awful mistakes
In fear, ignorance
But we also work
For each other’s good and share
Our food with the world
So don’t take our worst
To be our best as we find
Our way through dark times
Through difficulties,
One hundred fifty-three years
We’ve looked to the stars
If you’re looking for
A fun word puzzle to do
Try a Google search
Today’s Doodle marks
Hundredth anniversary
Of crossword’s debut
In 1913
The New York World’s Arthur Wynne
Made the first “word-cross”
A typographer
Later transposed feature’s name
The crossword was born
Today’s Doodle’s smart
Will save your answers for you
Till you are finished
So if you must quit
And come back later, there’s no
Need to be cross — Word
Maria Mitchell, Aug. 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889
Today’s Google Doodle
‘Twas astronomer
From Nantucket, famous but
Not in limerick
Maria Mitchell
Helped her dad compute eclipse
When she was just 12
Learned astronomy
At father’s elbow, other
Celestial joints
Quaker upbringing
Valued girls’ education
Equally with boys’
Thank heavens for that
Young Maria loved to learn
And she never stopped
First librarian
Nantucket Atheneum
Served for 18 years
At night she drank in
All the magic of the stars
Science, with passion
Discovered comet
Gave her international
Credibility
Once wrote she enjoyed
“Acting the part of greatness”
— But just for three days
New Vassar College
Made her its first astro prof
And students loved her
2,000-mile trip
To Colorado let them
See eclipse first hand
Learned she wasn’t paid
As much as men, demanded
A raise — and got it
She opposed slavery,
Pushed for women’s right to vote
And equality
Left Quakerism
Enjoyed Unitarians’
Thirsty quest for truth
She found truth, beauty
In colors of God’s heavens
“Dyestuffs from the stars”
Sunspots, nebulae,
Moons of Saturn, Jupiter,
Solar eclipses
Google her, you’ll see
She never tired of wonders
Astronomical
Today she lives on
Foundation in Nantucket
Keeps her legacy
Observatories,
Aquarium, science hall
And they’re building more
She knew — we’re stardust
And her scientist’s soul still
Sparkles among us
Julius Richard Petri, May 31, 1852 — Dec. 20, 1921
Berlin scientist
Julius Richard Petri
What a cultured guy
Enabled lab work
Ugly, gross — yet breakthrough was
Really quite a dish
Agar ‘orrible
Bacteria multiplied
But aided research
His round glass dishes
Became standard equipment
And are to this day
Today’s Doodle shows
Half-dozen cultures growing
Some colorful stuff
Smelly sock, doorknob,
Keyboard, dog drool, soil and sponge
Yield exquisite gunk
So thanks, JRP
Bacteriology just
Wouldn’t be the same
And I would’ve wrapped
Your birthday present but was
All out of barf bags
Greg's Hack-u 