Warren Bluhm's Blog, page 3

The W.B. Primer

Around New Year’s, blogger Toirdhealbheach Beucail reprinted his “Primer,” an introduction in which he explained a bit about himself and his life for those of us who have entered in the middle of his story, and I thought that was a lovely idea, so I’m adapting it for today.

Who I am

From my official Amazon author page: I (1953-) was raised in New Jersey but fell in love at first sight with the blue skies of Wisconsin, where I have spent my entire adulthood, first in radio news and more...

Unforgettable forgotten albums: Kongos

It’s spring 1972. I thought I had never heard anything like it before. When I reached the final track, I realized that I had.

The cover of the promotional LP I’d grabbed at random in the college radio station was striking. I mean, look at it. Fifty years later the colors have yellowed a bit, but it’s a striking portrait.

I recognize a lot of the names in the credits, beginning with Gus Dudgeon, the producer. Doesn’t he play for, or produce, Elton John? And Gus is listed as playing bicy...

Live Not By Lies

Monument to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in Vladivostok, Russia; Photo 76706347 © Anna Krivitskaia | Dreamstime.com

A generation born since Sept. 11, 2001, has never known a world where armed guards did not search the innocent when they enter airports and other public places. They think it’s normal and proper to confirm you’re not a terrorist before boarding a plane or attending a concert.

A generation born since the 1980s has never thought of measles, chicken pox and mumps as mostly benign chil...

The imposter’s imposter

I sat down New Year’s morning and banged out three blog posts and improved another one that was waiting in the queue. “This is pretty good,” I thought, “I wish I could keep up this pace.”

It was then that I realized I have imposter syndrome even with myself. Not content to bemoan that I will never be the next Steven King or Ray Bradbury, now I’m unhappy that I may never be as good or productive as me.

“That one piece I wrote in 2001 — that book I put out in 2018 — will I ever match tho...

Here’s to surprises

Photo 126256346 © motortion | Dreamstime.com

(there are literally times I sit down to write with no idea what will be written, and no-one is more surprised than I am when it shows up).

— Toirdhealbheach Beucail, in an aside in his New Year’s post.

In the first novel I published, The Imaginary Bomb, my two lead characters, Bob Whelan and Pete Wong, walked into a bar, where they got into an argument with a large, burly man named Baxter Hetznecker. I intended for Bob and Pete to detach th...

Ah, yes, the truth

Photo 9909382 © Dmitry Sosulin | Dreamstime.com

“I do still care deeply about the truth … I wonder why.” A commenter on a freedomista blog I frequent said that, as a conversation progressed about the current state of affairs and the prospects for the near- to long-range future.

The truth? We can’t handle the truth. Just ask the nearest representative of an institution that purports to run our lives for the common good. I subscribe to the old saw, “You can tell when one of those folks is ly...

These are the good old days

“We can never know about the days to come, But we think about them anyway … So I’ll try and see into your eyes right now And stay right here, ’cause these are the good old days.” 

Carly Simon, “Anticipation”

Carly Simon’s song about the difference between anticipation and reality comes to the wonderful conclusion that reality can be pretty darn good when you get right down to it.

These are the good old days: Now, you can take that at least two ways. 

One is to enjoy your life in the ...

A year without music?

I wrote my top 10 for 2021 in a bit of a hurry the night before it posted, and it shows. For one thing, I mentioned the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit as one of the year’s highlights, and I realized later that the show appeared in 2020 and was also on last year’s Top 10. Oopsie.

Most crazy was realizing that I’d assembled a top 10 of the year without once thinking about the music that moved me in 2021. How could I have forgotten? A year without music would be a year without a soul....

Thank you, and Happy New Year

One of my regular stops in the morning rotation, Toirdhealbheach Beucail, devoted his New Year’s Eve blog post to thanking folks for visiting during the course of the year, which struck me as a lovely gesture and worth imitating.

And so thank you, fellow traveler, for browsing past this website from time to time. I hope I’ve been able to say something that sometimes encourages, enlightens and/or entertains you. (Even though “fellow traveler” has a certain connotation among people of a certain...

W.B.’s Top Ten of 2021

Well, there goes 2021, gone in a blur, a year that was better than 2020 in some ways because people emerged from house arrest enforced isolation, and a year that was worse than 2020 in some ways because of the frustrating refusal of so many people to recognize they’re being played.

If I were to pick a Top Ten of 2021, my No. 1 pick is a direct consequence of one of the worst, the sudden death of my beloved Willow The Best Dog There Is, and on my birthday of all days. Worst birthday ever, ...