The Sixties

50 & 60 years later

By Ed Rogers

[10 years ago (on April 2, 2013), Ed Rogers remembered the Sixties. This re-run of his “Tuesday Voice ‘The Sixties’” gives us [and him] a chance to remember (or imagine) them again: the Vietnam War, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, marijuana….]

Reflecting back on my life, as most of us old farts do, I realized that most people only know about the sixties through history books, newspapers, or bullshit stories that people like me tell. I don’t claim to have been in the belly of the beast, but I had a hold of its tail.

Sketches from the Twin Cities: A Song Sung Red, White, and Blue

Geoffrey Dean, Sketches, Gustav Mahler, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra

War, Jazz, and The Star Spangled Banner

By Geoffrey Dean

Books with an implied musical “soundtrack” have always interested me, as some of my earlier posts on this blog will attest. So when I came across a new tome by E. Douglas Bomberger titled Making Music American: 1917 and the Transformation of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), I knew I had a music-filled read in store. 1917 was the year that jazz made its sensational first appearance in New York City and on records, with the Original Dixieland “Jass” Band’s “Livery Stable Blues.” It was also the year that the US entered World War I, making the presence of music by Wagner, Beethoven, and other German composers on concert programs increasingly controversial and the appearance of jazz on the national scene a timely diversion. The Star Spangled Banner, not yet the official our national anthem, became in 1917 a source of heated debate: should it be played, and if so, where, how, and by whom?

Sunday Review: Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

Now open at Lake Tahoe

By Jim Rix

After the better part of a year and $60 million (I’m told), the renovation of Lake Tahoe’s old Horizon Casino got completed. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino opened to a much anticipated local crowd on Wednesday, January 28.
    It was fortunate for my friend Heather and me that we entered through the back door, because we found out later during our meandering that the front entrance was jammed and backed up. It was basically a madhouse. It was so packed that Security was letting people in the front door only as others exited.