Rosanna

If you have spent even the briefest of times on the Interwebs in the past 6 months then you are fully aware of the rarefied place that Toto’s “Africa” has...

Sonos: Another Killer IPO?

For the last few years, investors have been somewhat cautious regarding new  IPOs (Initial Public Offerings of shares, as companies move from privately-held to publicly-traded). So far during 2018, however,...

In Search of Meaning, Where There Is None

First off, don’t look at the title and image above and think, “oh, great, Leebs is off on his midlife crisis—finally.” For starters, “midlife” applied to me would mean I...

A Conversation

Well, conversation might not be the word. I was going to write a bit about my bedroom system. But on Sunday I had an encounter so bizarre that I have to write...

The Ondine All-Stars

For the classical record industry, it’s gotten hard to tell whether these are the best of times or the worst of times. The CD revolution of the mid-1980s brought a...

Marianne Faithfull

In the 1960s, British storyteller-in-song Marianne Faithfull fascinated fans as much for her affair with Mick Jagger as for rather mystical voice and persona. As she heads toward her 72nd birthday, she can...

Grand Canyon, Western Rim

"New Old"?

The first time I heard the word “oxymoron,” I thought it was a detergent for the intellectually challenged. No, really. For those unfamiliar with the term, it means a phrase...

So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star

But first: No, I didn’t forget about Tommy Emmanuel. It just doesn’t warrant a full analysis except to say that, in the here and now, if I could play like...

Command and Control

I have just read what is without hesitation the most … what is the correct expression here? … profoundly unsettling work of non-fiction that has ever passed through my hands.  It is...

Hotel Tales

St James Club. I had come to LA on a sales trip. I was new to the business and still trundling door to door with my Revolver Turntable. Los Angeles...

Testing, 2

Counting Butterflies

I used to be a moderator of a now-defunct Indian bicycling forum called Bikeszone. BZ, as it was called, was the epicenter of the burgeoning recreational cycling movement in India....