BY JONATHAN VALANIA For the record, I am home safe and sound from my journey through the high plains of the Andes. For some that will be good news, for others, less so (you fall into this latter category if you have ever uttered the words ‘If he writes one more word about being in that mother#$%& Wilco movie, I’ll murdelize him’ — you know who you are.) Anyway, it’s good to be back in the USA — you don’t realize how good we have it until you leave it. I am of course, referring to America’s superior Wi-Fi and […]
Search Results for: MOTORCYCLE DIARY
My Motorcycle Diary: Tea And Sympathy For The Devil
Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham at the Blue Boar Motorway Cafe, along the M1 between London and Birmingham, 1963. By Philip Townsend; never before published. BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Today I saw Andrew Loog Oldham standing in his kitchen making me a lovely cup of tea, high above the streets of Bogota’s ritzy financial district in his tastefully upscale bi-level condominium, where he has lived on and off since 1975. If you have to ask who Andrew Loog Oldham is, you’ll never know — unless you click here, go on, we’ll wait. Psych! OK, […]
MY MOTORCYCLE DIARY: Or Seven Days Through The Amazon On The Back Of An Ass Part II
BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT ZIPAQUIRA, COLOMBIA — Wednesday morning, I saw the most impressive cow erection I have ever seen. Actually it was the first cow erection I have ever seen, and hopefully it will be the last. The background: We got up at the crack of dawn to attend the livestock market in the nearby town of Zipaquira. Once a week all the area campesinos gather at the fairgrounds to buy, sell and trade cows, pigs and sheep. Being the only gringos in attendance, it is an understatement to say we stuck out like sore and throbbing […]
MY MOTORCYCLE DIARY: Or, Seven Days Through The Amazon On The Back Of An Ass
Our own Boss Phawker, man of the world and leader of the local ruling junta, is vacationing down South America way. This is the first of his dispatches. BY JONATHAN VALANIA SOUTH AMERICA CORRESPONDENT TABIO, COLOMBIA — Let’s just dispense with the cocaine jokes right now, shall we? Yes we shall. That is NOT why I am down here. As fate would have it, my Uncle William, a retired neurologist, is married to a wonderful woman from Colombia named Stella — that’s Aunt Stella to you and mostly me. And they have built a fairly spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright-ish home […]
New Bon Iver Album Art And Release Date Revealed
Bon Iver, Bon Iver comes out June 18th on Jaguwaguar. RELATED: Bon Iver, Bon Iver was recorded and mixed at April Base Studios, a remodeled veterinarian’s clinic located in rural Fall Creek, Wisconsin. The main recording space is constructed over a defunct indoor pool attached to the clinic. “It’s an unique space and destination; it’s our home out here,” says Vernon, who purchased the structure with his brother in late 2008 with the sole intention of converting it into his ideal recording studio. “It’s been a wonderful freedom, working in a place we built. It’s also only three miles from […]
BOOKS: Q&A With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist David Kinney, Author Of The Dylanologists
EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally posted on July 17th 2014 BY JONATHAN VALANIA Sometimes I think Dylanology — the obsessive study and consumption of all things Bob — is the new (and improved) Scientology. Think about it: Both are non-denominational pop cults formed in the latter half of the 20th Century that rally around a charismatic leader and rake in boatloads of believer money. Both have celebrity acolytes and promise extraordinary insight. But there is one vast and crucial difference, as vast and crucial as the difference between The Old Testament and The New Testament: L. Ron Hubbard wrote Battlefield Earth […]
THIS IS OUR MUSIC: Our Favorite Albums Of 2013
In the immortal words of the Chairman Of The Board, it was a very good year. So was last year, and the one before that and the one before that and so on. Why? Mostly, we can thank the disruptive, game-eating power of the Internet. The best thing that ever happened to music was the web-abetted collapse of the music industry’s one-size-fit-most paradigm and the death of radio as the prime determinant of what people like. Now people find music everywhere, it literally rains out of everything with an electric pulse, which has triggered a radical re-calibration of the […]
ROLLING STONES: She’s A Rainbow
Love it. From Her Satanic Majesty’s Request.
HOT DOCUMENT: Letter From Bogota
Keith Richards and Andrew Loog Oldham at the Blue Boar Motorway Cafe, along the M1 between London and Birmingham, 1963. By Philip Townsend; never before published. JONATHAN, INTERESTING WRITE-UPS. YOU’VE ALMOST MANAGED TO GET AS FAR AFIELD AS I INTEND TO. WHILST DRIVING BACK FROM THE JUNGLESIDE TODAY IT OCCURED TO ME, AS REGARDING KEITH’S MEMORY ON ” SATISFACTION”: THE FELLOW HAS GOT SO MUCH MORE OF A STONES RECORDING MEMORY BANK TO TROLL THROUGH FOR RECALL. BEST, ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM SO PLZD TO SEE THE BRUCE S. TOUR IS FAIR PRICED AND WILL SAVE AMERICA(NS) ONCE MORE. I PLAN […]