Fifty. It’s a nice, round number, isn’t it? Getting here isn’t an earth-shattering achievement, but it does signal a certain amount of persistence. So yay! Now let’s try for 100 ;)

…

I’d jotted down a couple of topics for today’s issue: Spotify v Neil Young was one of them; the surprise beta arrival of Universal Control was another. I’m typing this on my iPad via Universal Control and folks, it works, it’s real, and it’s spectacular. Borderline sorcery—that also feels instantly natural. As for Spotify, I never liked the company to begin with, so their CEO’s response was the nudge I needed—my music is now scheduled for removal. Few will notice, but you do what you can these days. Moving on.

We stopped buying or watching DVDs a long time ago. But in August 2019, I ordered WKRP in Cincinnati: The Complete Series, knowing full well this box set would eventually disappear. WKRP was an iconic TV series, that ran in syndication for years after going off the air. But it later suffered a cruel fate: the licensing rights to the music, which was such in integral part of the show, eventually expired, and all the songs were replaced by a generic, royalty-free “rock” soundtrack. I remember catching a few of those neutered episodes… they were, to put it mildly, unwatchable. The spirit was gone, killed. 

But for this compilation, Shout! Factory re-negotiated most of the music rights, bringing the show pretty darn close to the original. Close enough, anyway. One last chance to hang out with the gang. I spent days ripping every episode of every season, tagging and organizing, assigning cover images etc. And then, over a few months, we watched the whole thing from start to finish. And we sometimes cringed, but mostly, we laughed our heads off. 

Howard Hesseman passed away last weekend, at the honourable age of 81. Dr. Johnny Fever, burnt-out space cadet of the rolling plains, forever young, dazed, full of heart, caffeine, and unknown substances.

Godspeed, fellow babies.