Rock legend David Bowie died this week only a few days after his 69th birthday, following a lengthy battle with liver cancer. Bowie was a relentless trailblazer in areas of music, performance, technology, and sexuality and was a significant pop cultural force on both sides of the Atlantic for decades. I can’t say that I…
In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday the 13th of November, a hue and cry has been raised in the United States aimed at President Obama’s plan to give shelter to 10,000 refugees of the Syrian civil war. Some people seem to fear that among the refugees will be secret…
I’ve been playing guitar pretty seriously since 1986, and for almost all of that time I have subscribed to guitar magazines. I have a collection of just about every Guitar Player magazine from 1987-2010, at which point I got so frustrated with their poor editing and lack of substance that I abandoned my subscription…
It sure has been a long time since I posted on this blog! Lots has been going on: I moved to another state, started a new job, and have spent quite a lot of my blogging energy on my college admissions related blog, Tip of the C.A.P. But I’m always trying to come…
I recently wrote about how I have used video games in my high school history classes. This post will describe how I’ve used simulations in place of quizzes and tests in one of my most challenging history electives. Over the past decade I have had the chance to create a series of trimester-long…
As I’ve mentioned before, in my day job I am a high school history teacher (the commentaries on this blog about pro wrestling, guitar playing, rock music, movies and ridiculous letters to the editor are merely hobbies). I teach American history to students grades 10-PG at an independent school in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Throughout my two…
In my day job (when I am not thinking about professional wrestling, or guitars, or rock music, or movies, or other distractions) I am a history teacher and college counselor at Wyoming Seminary, a boarding school in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I have previously written about my teaching, and with the 2014-15 school year right…
On January 10, 2014, the Sassy Librarian and I were treated to a night out by our awesome friends, Harry and Meredith. And not just any night out, but tickets to the WWE live event at our local arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. If you’ve been following this blog you know that I’ve been a…
As a history teacher, I am often asked to rank and evaluate things (like “who is the best/worst President of all time?”) and as a musician, the temptation to rank artists is omnipresent as well. Sometimes I combine these two identities, such as when I declare that the electric guitar was the most…
I’ve written about music before in this space, and those posts have proven to be among the most popular. As of this week, my post on guitar solos has received over 230 hits, my post on songs about the radio has over 380 hits, and my post on the album Layla And Other…