The Album as Storytelling Device

Individual songs often can serve to tell a story — good or bad. Cream played a song called Crossroads, later widely covered by Phish — it was based on the story of how Robert Johnson got to be great at playing the guitar after meeting the devil at a crossroads and selling his soul.

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White Room is the Scariest Song Ever

How is it possible for a song to terrify you?  There is something unnerving, ethereal and uncanny about Cream’s masterpiece — White Room — that still chills me over 40 years after its creation.

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Crisis in Coffee Culture

In Nebraska, if you want a “black coffee” you order a “regular coffee.”

In New York, if you order a “regular coffee” you get a “coffee with milk and sugar.”

In Nebraska, if you want a “coffee with milk and sugar” you say, “I want a coffee with milk and sugar.”

In New York, if you want a “black coffee” you say, “I want a black coffee.”

This crisis in coffee culture affected a young Nebraska actress so much she left New York after a year and found success on a Los Angeles-based Soap Opera where she could order a “regular coffee” and get what she wanted.