Monthly Archives: May 2020

by Michael Patrick Welch. Written every weekday from Jan.-May 2020 Click the links below to jump to each fun, funny vignette. The stars by each name denote the encounter’s meaningfulness, with three stars being most meaningful. PLEASE consider tipping the writer … Continue reading →

The shredding Swede, Yngwie Malmsteen, remains peerless; a classical composer whose too-fast guitar playing owes more to Bach than Eddie Van Halen. His influence is hard to spot these days, because no one else can do what Malmsteen does. Also, … Continue reading →

The Simpsons’ baby mama. I love her. #126: RATT’s Stephen Pearcy: One of the few hair bands that I still love, RATT came through Tampa in the late 90s, and I interviewed both Pearcy and Brett Michaels of co-headliners, Poison. I … Continue reading →

“Oh wow, jeez. I dunno.” When interviewing a funny person, you just lob them softballs that they knock out the park. But the funniest thing about Weird Al was how radically unfunny he was during our interview. So unfunny that it … Continue reading →

#118: Comedian Judy Tenuta: I interviewed the accordion playing Love Goddess over the phone. You may not remember her, but she was huge for a minute, with flowers in her hair. Sort of the feminine answer to Bobcat Goldthwait, with … Continue reading →

Tec-9 on Sixth and Barrone New Orleans Rapper Tec-9 steps onto a helicopter to be flown to his lucrative gig. He’s been off work for two weeks but is about to embark on twenty-eight straight days of giving people what they … Continue reading →

The PR photo Of Montreal used on the tour where we opened for them #94. 5’8″: Not really famous, this GA band was much beloved throughout the south in the 90s. They packed shows way down in Tampa, where we opened … Continue reading →

good dudes / sweet nerds 2004, New Orleans White Bitch, my “band,” first opened for TV on the Radio at a giant, beautiful but terrible sounding Uptown venue called TwiRoPa. TVotR had just wrapped a tour opening for David Bowie and … Continue reading →

first famous person I ever met: Lloyd Bridges #88: Jan Hooks (SNL): As a pre-teen comedy nerd and passionate fan of Saturday Night Live, of course I recognized then SNL cast-member Jan Hooks at my local video store in Ft. Myers, … Continue reading →

The name Trent sounds like the male version of Karen. but this former NOLA resident seemed nice enough The dark lord of industrial music, Trent Reznor, famously lived in New Orleans for around a decade. The period when both he and … Continue reading →