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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: All This Is That
Part 6 of the Adult/Child saga. As ambassadors of the American Dream, The Beach Boys discovered that having all your dreams come true before your brain has emerged from the shadow of puberty can quickly turn into your worst nightmares. Just think of how haunted you’d be if you remembered…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Hold On Dear Brother
Part 5 of the Adult/Child saga. In the 2000 television miniseries about The Beach Boys produced by John Stamos, the subtitle called them “An American Family“. It didn’t seem like it was meant to be subversive, and yet, when you look at what kind of a family unit the band…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys Love You
Welcome to the Adult/Child saga! This is an ongoing project of Beach Boys musings. Part one serves as an extended introduction to this blog series, telling the story of the late 70’s “Brian’s Back!” era by simultaneously rewinding to the time of Brian’s late 60’s withdrawal and interweaving the two…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: That Same Song
Part 4 of the Adult/Child saga. The Beach Boys’ 1976 “comeback” album was called 15 Big Ones, and by that they could have meant honkin’ jobbies. Folks, I’m telling you true, most of this material belonged in the toilet. It could be worse (oh, it would get so much worse), but……
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Time To Get Alone
Part 3 of the Adult/Child saga. After their best Lei’d plans fell apart, with the Wilson bros dropping acid for the Hawaii show and delivering a timid, bizarre performance, the group returned back home to L.A. and made a desperate attempt to patch the live recordings together with studio tracks before…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys: Let Us Go On This Way
Part 2 of the Adult/Child saga. In 1983, on the cusp of being anointed Big Brother, Ronald Reagan cursed the Beach Boys with the moniker “America’s Band”. It wasn’t the first curse brought down upon the group, but it would perhaps be the darkest. Before the end of the year,…
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Continue reading →: The Beach Boys Love *Me*?
Part 1 of the Adult/Child saga. Until recently, The Beach Boys Love You, released in 1977, has been both the most cultishly beloved of the band’s works, and the least explored, especially compared to the Pet Smile Vibrations era. Making that journey reveals an entire sub-world of fandom within the…
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Continue reading →: Paths to the Cross
Colliding Worlds of Justice, Power and Spirituality in the Pacific Northwest “I wonder if this ground has anything to say? I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said? I wonder if the ground would come to life and what is on it? Though I hear what this…
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Continue reading →: John E. Smith pt. 5: elements of war
Previously: At Jacksonville, Johnnie Smith freighted from Crescent City, on the coast near the California line, to Jacksonville. In 1853 the Rogue River war broke out and many settlers and Indians were killed. Major General John E. Wool, commanding the District of the Pacific: March 31st, 1854 The difficulty of…
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Continue reading →: John E. Smith pt 4: the path
Previously: In 1853, Johnnie Smith went overland from Yreka, California, to Jacksonville, Oregon. At Jacksonville, I freighted from Crescent City, on the coast near the California line, to Jacksonville. Jacksonville had to be supplied from coastal ports. Until 1853, this meant coming all the way from Portland or Sacramento, roughly…