The College Crowd Digs Me

Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers, Vol. 1 Stan Lee (Writer), Jack Kirby (Illustrator) (2002) (First issues #1-10) Hardcover, 240 pages      It's all about the nostalgia.  Especially if you were a kid growing up in the early 60s.  But it's still enjoyable and entertaining, even if you weren't.  This Marvel Masterworks volume contains the first ten  issues of  The Avengers  comic book that  Marvel  created in 1963, in all  its colorful, innocent glory.   The  Marvel Masterworks  are hardbound, look and feel classy, and bring to mind the old Time/Life books many of your parents might have picked up, now collecting dust on their shelves.   These offerings can be pricey, but you can often find used volumes for much less.  And the dust jackets can be just as cool, holding Easter Eggs for those who take an extra moment to look.  If you tilt the book at a certain angle, famous comic book heroes a...

"Alamo" - Alamo (1971)      Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, Alamo's eponymous one-and-done album jams off and rocks out with classic acid rock aplomb.  Under the wide umbrella of early Grand Funk attitude, the album feels different enough, with its own strut, energy, and confidence to keep it real.   I just luv this era of classic rock and "Alamo" is a killer album when you just want to leave some highway miles in your rearview mirror.  Excellent guitar wahs and fuzz and churning Hammond organ strike a wonderful balance that's easy to like and hard to shake.  And the drummer on this album is the pusherman.  Good solid jammin' throughout.      The vocals are raw and raspy, melding perfectly with whatever track the band lays down.  It has a familiar Terry Kath-like timbre that sells every word.  And though the eight songs on this early '70s square don't especially push the envelope, they still bring the he...

"2 Originals Of Neil Young" - Neil Young (1975 )      Here's an album you seldom see.  It's the first one I've ever come across, and I would've passed right over it if I'd not seen someone in the vinyl community hold one up.  The square is easy to overlook because the album doesn't give off much of a Neil Young vibe, but more of a K-Tel Records compilation kind of thing.  Whatever vibe the cover may be casting, it certainly doesn't scream "Cinnamon Girl" or "The Loner."   But if you left it behind, you'd be missing something rather unique.       As strange as the outside cover of  "2 Originals Of Neil Young"  may be,   open the inside gatefold,  and  you'll discover two actual Neil Young albums.   The first is  "Neil Young" (1968), and the second is "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (1969) with Crazy Horse.   It's a cool and surprising mind-flip.      The album was pressed in Ger...

"Mystery Ride" - Bay Station (2026) (CD front and back)      Sometimes Bay Station strolls up to the house through the front gate.  Other times they come around to the back door, like familiar company often will do.  Led by alt-country singer-songwriters Deborah Crooks and Kwame Copeland , Bay Station's latest offering, "Mystery Ride," is a collection of songs that are Americana-warm with an almost progressive root-rock dusting.  Hailing from Alameda, California, Bay Station  makes for good company.      There's a lot of good stuff to be found here.  "And I remember the road that went on for miles. We were laughing so hard, we were leaping turnstiles." ~ "Missed Exit" is a wonderfully sweet memory of once-upon-a-time love.  "Such stillness down the canyon, just water in motion." ~ "57 Crows" ...about having one of those rare, amazing mind-rushes that hit you like a personal, private gift...in this case, catchin...

"Golden Earring" - Golden Earring (1970)       Golden Earring's eponymous album, sometimes referred to as the "Wall of Dolls" album (just look at the back cover), was already the Dutch rock band's sixth album, and yet it still left them virtually unknown in the States.  I mean, Golden Earring seems to have already lived a lifetime before the US ever caught wind of them.   That, of course, would finally happen  three years later  when the band dropped what would become their signature song,  "Radar Love,"  from the "Moontan" album.  However, this 1970 offering already sounds like fractured pieces from Classic Rock albums yet to come.  Very balanced in the spectrum.   It's not easy to find, but definitely one with plenty of bang-bang in the wax.       The album has everything I want.  It's a banger with driving guitar that rocks, but then can chill in much the way Zeppelin could mellow out w...

Tripwire by Lee Child (1999) Paperback, 581 pages NO SPOILERS:       Tripwire is the third novel in the Jack Reacher series, though you don't have to read them in order.  I certainly haven't.  I just grab one off a shelf and kick it.  And I have become seasoned to our all-powerful coffee-drinking hero, Jack Reacher.  Knowing that Reacher is always going to out-think and out-fight the bad guys in the end allows me to curl up with my own cup of "Chock Full…" and enjoy all the ass-kickery.  Lee Child's  page-turning concoctions are so much fun and just perfect to cleanse the palate between the more challenging novels I have on my reading list.      And that's not a knock on Lee Child , the brainstormer of all these page-turners.  I luv'em.  I mean, if it was easy, everyone would be mega-successful.  Here, Jack Reacher has been keeping it on the down-low, digging swimming pools in Florida, when he learns a strange...