The End of MTV, Part II

 January 3, 2026

   Having fun in the studio studying the effects of dusk. 

Daily Whip Out:

"The Vaquero Rode In at Dusk"

   Speaking of being snuggly on a chill desert morning.

My Big Bug Creek Pot Belly Stove

taking the chill off

   Out here on the Sonoran Desert it's been raining on and off for the last three days. Spent a quiet day in front of a roaring fire on New Year's Day, and we all three enjoyed that.

Uno appreciates New Year's Day fire

The End of MTV

(1981-2025)

  "Yes, I was in the music biz when MTV hit and it was great in that it re-awakened people’s interest in music, but horrible in many ways like: Similar to when sound was introduced to film, now music acts not only had to play great, sing great and write fantastic songs, they also had to look like movie stars. This led to such horrible new genres like “hair metal” for men as well as half clothed women cavorting around in lingerie. Then every act had to outdo the competition with more expensive, outlandish videos that cost the labels a fortune. Sometimes the video budget would be more than what it cost to record an entire album! 

  "The backlash to all of this was 'grunge,' a musical genre I never warmed up to that always seemed as posed to me as the above mentioned hair metal. Yes, Nirvana was great but look what it did to Kurt Cobain! And all the other grunge acts that followed were great for the youngsters, but not for me. 

      "At any rate, the times they are a changin’ too fast and not always in a good way. But then again, I’m Old and In the Way!"

—Tom Vickers, the author of the forthcoming book, “Almost Funky, How I Freed My Mind So My Ass Would Follow” It’s about his five year run as Minister of Information for George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic group from 1976-81.

Daily Revised Whip Out: "Divisadero III"

“The secret of being a bore is to tell everything.”

—Voltaire

(And, just for the record, I’m really good at this.)