This is a story of two men on road trips toward Woodstock, New York in 1986. This is not the Woodstock made famous by a music festival; that was actually near Bethel, 90 km. away. This Woodstock, including nearby towns Bearsville and Saugerties, was the sometime home of Bob Dylan,
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Bob Broughton's Blog: Book review: George Harrison: the Reluctant Beatle, by Philip Norman
There are some stories I never get tired of hearing. One of them is the formation of the Jefferson Airplane; how they were rehearsing twelve hours a day and seven days a week, because they knew that they were creating something brand new. The early history of The Beatles is
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Thoughts on the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination
I was 13 years old, and in band class when the announcement came over the PA system that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Ever since then, I have paid an above-average amount of attention to the facts and theories surrounding that assassination. I used to love listening to a good
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Book review: Open, An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi
The obvious question here is, why have I written a review of a book that was published 14 years ago? The answer is, it’s the best sports book I have ever read. I am not alone in this opinion. It reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, and was
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Book review: Not On My Watch, by Alexandra Morton
This book (available here) was written by a remarkable and courageous woman, Alexandra Morton of Echo Bay, British Columbia. It has 335 pages (not including notes), but it took me a long time to get through it. That’s because it contains several stories. Two of them are Morton’s personal history,
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Mini-series review: The Offer
Paramount celebrated the 50th anniversary of “The Godfather” by creating an excellent mini-series about the making of the film, available on Paramount+. It is essential viewing for fans of 1970’s blockbuster films. The central character is Albert Ruddy (portrayed by Miles Teller), a film producer who had a success with the
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Book Review: The McCartney Legacy, Volume 1: 1969–73
By Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair I’ll address the obvious question first; is five years of Sir Paul McCartney’s life really worth 672 pages? Yes, it is. If I were given the job of cutting out some extraneous material, I wouldn’t be able to cut more than five or ten
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: My COVID-19 quarantine diary
My trip to the Northwest was originally planned for July 2020. I bought a Mexico City to Vancouver ticket from Aeromexico in February 2020, which was before the pandemic started. I postponed it a couple of times. Then, Aeromexico told me that I had to make a specific booking by
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: How “Peter Gunn” influenced Steely Dan
I recently read Eminent Hipsters, and autobiography by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. I highly recommend it if you are a fan of his music. Like any music biography, it goes into musical influences. In Fagen’s case, there was a major surprise; one of his major influences was the black-and-white
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: A refuge for migrants in Celaya, Guanajuato
ABBA House is a shelter for Central American migrants located in Celaya, in the Mexican State of Guanajuato. It is one of 57 such shelters in Mexico. It has been in existence for five years, and provided food and shelter for 25,000 people during that time. ABBA House serves both
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Why “mansplain” is an obscenity
The word “mansplain” is one of those English-language fads that I hoped would quickly go away. It’s hasn’t, and there seem to be some people fueling it. So, I will “lesbi-splain” why this is something that is wrong, and should be opposed. It recently came up in a Facebook dustup.
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: A survey of music biographies
Over the past 15 years or so, my taste in reading has gravitated heavily toward biographies, and one significant sub-genre of them has been musicians. I’ve read a lot of good ones, so I’m going to share my observations with you. I’m putting Life, by Keith Richards, at the top
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Radio station XEPUR, Cherán, Michoacán
Radio is important in rural and less affluent areas of Mexico. A lot of people don’t have computers, smart phones (a lot of areas don’t have 4G coverage), or televisions. Mexico doesn’t have any equivalent of CBC or NPR; the closest thing to it are some university stations. Community radio
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: A guide to the Parícutin volcano
I first heard of the Parícutin volcano when I was in elementary school, somewhere around 1960. There was a story about it in one of the weekly news magazines handed out to students. The way the story went was, in 1943, this Mexican farmer went out into his corn field,
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: A US battle against nature in the Galapagos Islands
An announcement came out on June 12, 2019 that an agreement had been made between the governments of the United States and Ecuador that would allow the US military to extend the runway of the airport on San Cristóbal Island, then use it as a base for AWACS surveillance planes,
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Book Review: Tone, Twang, and Taste: A Guitar Memoir, by Pete Kennedy
I first heard the term “Americana music” about four years ago, and it’s convenient, because it includes a lot of music I like: folk rock, folk, bluegrass, outlaw country, and Grateful Dead. When I was first exposed to The Kennedys, I thought of them as a folk rock group, and
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: PEN International observes Day of the Dead in San MIguel de Allende
I recorded and edited this. Includes Spanish subtitles/subtitulo en español.
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Why I walked away from Daily Kos
I first thought that something was wrong when comedian Bill Maher was invited to give the keynote address at the University of California Berkeley commencement in December, 2014. A small group of Muslim students there didn’t like it, and several articles in Daily Kos took up the “islamophobia” cudgel. One
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Two Mexican journalists banned from the US for five years
I sent this letter to Rep. Derek Kilmer (WA-06). Similar letters were sent to Washington Senators Maria Cantwell (up for re-election) and Patty Murray. Rep. Derek Kilmer 1520 Longworth House Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20515 Dear Rep. Kilmer, Let me introduce myself. I am now retired in Mexico. I lived
Continue readingBob Broughton's Blog: Free your vote 2.0
Guest blog by Paul George “Your input will help shape the future of our democracy,” declares a November 17 BC government press release. The release announces the BC government has introduced legislation to hold a referendum in the fall of 2018 through a mail-in vote that will ask voters to
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