The fireworks are hailin’ over Little Eden tonight
–“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” Bruce Springsteen

A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
For old and for young
–“Happy XMAS (War Is Over),” John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band

The fireworks in the picture are actually hailin’ over Boston Harbor. But I digress.

Purportedly, an ancient Chinese curse says:

May You Live in Interesting Times.

In point of fact, no such quote can be traced back to China. But now that we in the States live in a world where facts and intelligence no longer matter, I will ignore that piece of information and say that, yes, such a quote actually does exist and yes, we do live in interesting (conflict, disorder, chaos) times.

But Happy New Year anyway. And the Music Enthusiast looks forward to another year of posting and communicating with countries from US to England to Brazil to Mexico to China, to Australia to (now) Madagascar!

The Music Enthusiast does not have quite the following of some other blogs (80 or so at last count), but they are clearly eighty of the finest, best-looking, most knowledgeable music aficionados out there.** And, happily, the number of comments is up over 100% since January. And those discussions are why I started this blog in the first place.

Here’s a random sampling of some stuff I wrote about last year. You can find these under My Back Pages:

• The Police (October)
• Bonnie Raitt (March)
• Weather Report (July)
• Bruce Springsteen concert review (September)
• Doo-Wop (September)
• Billie Holiday (January)
• Woodstock (August)
• The Clash (July)

Here’s some stuff on the plate for next year:

• Green Day
• Ray Charles
• Dire Straits
• Rickie Lee Jones
• Kings of Leon
• The Indispensable 150 oldies you should know
• Charlie Parker
• Nirvana
• Jazzers who Rock!
• James Brown
• Kinks
• Aimee Mann
• Motown
• Led Zeppelin
• Muddy Waters
• Random musings on the music industry
• Bessie Smith
• Grateful Dead
• Yes
• Albert Collins
• Curtis Mayfield
• More random trivia
• More jazz!!
• More songs about buildings and food

I leave you with Bruce Springsteen’s version of – what else – “Auld Lang Syne” which I bet you didn’t even know existed.

**a fine example of shameless pandering if ever there was one