Pióro

I’m thrilled to announce my air guitar memoir in today’s National Post. The print edition features photos from my man Scott Morgan.

For more than an hour before things got started at the El Mocambo, music heavy on guitar—like Pantera’s Respect and Weezer’s Hash Pipe—came through the speakers. Friends stood in groups and often someone would mime playing a guitar or bang his or her head to the music. These were mostly spectators, not competitors in the [...]

On today’s very funky Put the Needle On the Record show hosted by Billy Jam, the WFMU DJ played Afrika Bambaataa’s version of Soul Makossa. If you spent a good part of 1983 trying to moonwalk to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, you will hear echoes of I Wanna Be Starting Something, especially the final bridge, which [...]

Take German techno and mix unemployment. Take a Portuguese community centre and fade it into a club for Mods. Take a dance-floor and drop in a crowd of people who want to be there, young men who didn’t have to change before coming and women from backless tops to sweaters. Ladies’ choice. One woman looks [...]

It was in some Mediterranean country, Portugal I think, that Martha and I were flipping through a tourist brochure of things to do. On one page, in big bold letters, was the word ‘Tosca.’ I pointed to this listing and said, “Wicked. I can’t believe those guys are playing here. We should totally go and [...]