Category: Uncategorized

Colorado debates the world’s oldest profession

Coloradans are currently debating SB26-097, a bill that would remove all penalties for consensual commercial sex work.

Oh, my. Republican pearls are being clutched. The Democrats who sponsored SB26-097, meanwhile, are anxiously citing boring and ambiguous studies from foreign countries that have legalized prostitution.

The legalization of sex work is generally unpopular in the USA. Conservatives don’t like it because it involves sex. Progressives don’t like it because it involves free enterprise.

Many men and women—of both political persuasions—don’t like the idea of turning sex into something mundane and fungible…because that could upset innumerable social hierarchies. There is inherent and potent social power in the asymmetry of sexual opportunity, for certain men and women alike.

What about me? As I note in the video below, I assess consensual adult sex work through the same lens that I apply to marijuana legalization. (In my view, recreational marijuana is far more harmful, because marijuana use is more widespread and unhealthy than nookie-for-cash will ever be.)

Commercial sex work, like recreational marijuana use, should be discouraged but tolerated within reasonable limits.

That means no brothels in shopping malls, no sex workers speaking at your local high school on Career Day.

But if a man and a woman want to have sex, why should it automatically become a crime if one of them (almost always the man) forks over some money? What can be freely given can be freely sold, is the way I see it.

But I’m not a resident of the Centennial State. If the news stories are any indication, Coloradans disagree on the measure. To be sure, this would be a radical change; and reasonable people can disagree about its justifications and impact.

But there is one line of argument that is particularly weak: a generic appeal to the sensibilities of families and children.

We all love families. But if a particular family can be destroyed by someone else having family-unfriendly sex, then maybe there’s a problem with the family in question. Are families also threatened by consenting adults having non-commercial sex outside of marriage? (Some Colorado Republicans are already looking into that question, no doubt.)

And while the protection of children is a laudable concern, there is an important distinction between an imminent and unavoidable threat to children, and a hypothetical threat.

Otherwise, adults should never be able to do anything unsuitable for children, or anything potentially harmful to them.

That means no bars, no bow hunting, no alcohol sales, and no cigarettes or vaping. I can think of any number of ways such indulgences might bring harm to children.

Oh, yeah…and of course: no private gun ownership, either.

While we’re at it: maybe adults should  stop driving cars, too. During my childhood, three kids I knew were killed by adults driving cars, after all. If “protect the children” is the primary consideration, then I can make a strong case for banning all non-essential use of the automobile, based on empirical evidence from my own tender years.

On the subject of drivers, people who drive while talking on their phones are an imminent threat to all of us—including the children among us.

Drivers who use hands-free bluetooth connections are dangerous, too. I’ve met very few people who can adequately pay attention to traffic conditions while yapping on the phone—usually about inconsequential nonsense. And the vehicle next to such a driver might very well be a minivan full of children.

So how about a nationwide ban on any and all non-emergency cell phone use in moving vehicles?

What? You mean you like having the freedom to catch up on meaningless gossip while you run your errands? And here I thought that you wanted to minimize the dangers to children…?

-ET

Birth rate declines, and the fretting and scheming of social engineers

I’m distrustful of social engineers, regardless of whether they spring from the right or the left. Perhaps this is a function of my Gen X cynicism.

Speaking of generations. A lot of folks on the traditional, conservative right are alarmed by falling birthrates, and the shrinking of recent generations. And since we’ve decided, through our immigration policies, that we won’t be importing young Haitians and Nigerians to fill the gap, US deaths will inevitably outnumber births—perhaps within a decade. All this, according to a recent position paper from the Heritage Foundation, a right-leaning group of busybodies.

The Heritage Foundation proposes a variety of measures in response to the perceived crisis, some arguably reasonable, some laughingly ham-fisted. Among other initiatives, the Heritage Foundation proposes a “marriage boot camp”.

We’re all going to marry up and start having babies, if the Heritage Foundation has its way. I’m not sure where a never married, childless 57-year-old like myself fits into all of this. Will the Heritage Foundation issue me a young, fertile bride if I attend a marriage boot camp? Just asking.

The demographic alarm is not entirely the stuff of fantasy. But there is another, more historically grounded way to look at it.

The history of birthrates is not one of linear increase, but of rising and falling in waves. Birthrates were high in the pre-modern era, but were offset by high death rates. The early industrial era saw a population surge, as living standards matched the high birth rates with longer life expectancies.

Birthrates in France, however, began falling in the 1800s. Birthrates plunged throughout the world during the Great Depression. They rose everywhere after World War II, contributing to the so-called Baby Boom (1946 to 1964).

And now global birthrates are falling, continuing a trend that began, throughout much of the industrialized world, in the early 1970s. Even champion breeders like India and Brazil have seen recent birth rate declines. Nigeria remains a fecund nation, but its birthrates are falling.

Birth rates seem low now because the Baby Boom generation, born between 1946 and 1964, has now reached an advanced age. The oldest Baby Boomers will turn 80 this year. The youngest are now in their sixties. And they outnumber every generation that followed them.

This will mean a period in which most societies are “top heavy”—more oldsters than youngsters, more senior citizens than newborns. And yes, it may mean that some populations temporarily decrease.

I say “temporarily”, because human behavior is not fixed. Right now, Americans, Japanese, Germans, and Italians—all beneficiaries of the postwar Baby Boom—are having far fewer children, just as this giant demographic wave of Baby Boomers reaches its elder years.

But let’s fast-forward thirty years or so. By that time, the Baby Boomers won’t just be old, almost all of them will be gone. (For that matter, I’ll be 87 years old in thirty years, if I’m still alive. Many of us Gen Xers will be fading away, too.)

The young generation of 2056, just to pick a year, may be much more eager for children. In fact, history suggests that they will be. Thirty years from now, young Americans may be breeding like coneys.

Here’s the point: unless the birth rate goes to zero, no country is ever more than one generation away from population replenishment. The post-World War II era proved that. So did Europe’s recovery after the Black Death, which killed off thirty to fifty percent of Europe’s population.

If Europe could survive the Black Death and World War II, then we can be reasonably confident that the US, Japan, and other nations will survive the current drop in birthrates. And it’s unlikely that cockamamie schemes like marriage camps are going to make a significant dent in the current trend, anyway. At the end of the day, people are going to do what they want, the fretting and scheming of social engineers notwithstanding.

-ET

What happened to Kid Rock?

Kid Rock has been getting a lot of hate recently—and no small amount of ridicule. He was the headline act at TPUSA’s alternative “all-American” halftime event for Super Bowl LX.

Even Fox News gently suggested that Kid Rock’s schtick—or at least his voice—is getting a little long in the tooth.

First things first. According to the internet, Kid Rock’s net worth, as of early 2026, is around $150 million. Do you have $150 million in cash and assets? I certainly don’t.

Kid Rock is a 55-year-old man who has achieved worldwide fame and fortune (what else do you call $150 million?) doing what he loves. He didn’t have to spend 30 years toiling away within the bowels of a corporate hellhole to make all that money. This alone makes him demonstrably more competent than 99.999% of the population.

On the personal front, Kid Rock married Pamela Anderson back when Pamela Anderson was still a universal object of male fantasy. No—his marriage to Pamela Anderson didn’t last. But so what? That’s the way celebrity marriages typically go.

When Kid Rock had his heyday in the early 2000s, I was in my early thirties. I had recently reached the point where I had decided that I no longer needed to keep up with popular music.

This had been a long time coming. I was a big fan of the pop and metal acts of the 1980s. Then the 1990s gave way to grunge, R&B, and rap—none of which interested me very much.

But Kid Rock caught my attention. Perhaps because—like me—he came from a Midwestern background that is a little rough around the edges. I emphasize edges here. I grew up in relative comfort near Cincinnati, Ohio. Kid Rock, though he presents himself as a streetwise Detroiter, grew up in the suburban enclave of Romeo, Michigan. Kid Rock’s father owned multiple car dealerships. 

I remember purchasing Kid Rock’s 2000 compilation album, The History of Rock, at my local Kmart in 2001. At this time, most music was still purchased on CD, and the CD is probably still in a box in my basement.

I found one or two of Kid Rock’s songs to be catchy. I rather liked “American Bad Ass”, and its accompanying music video. This was a song that glorified white working-class culture, back when no one else was doing that.

But Kid Rock was always a one-trick pony. His music never evolved beyond “American Bad Ass”. That same message, while fresh the first time you hear it, gets old after repeated playings.

America has changed since 2001, too. It might have been reasonable to assert that the white working class lacked a voice in the pop culture of 2001. That argument is harder to make today, in the second administration of Donald Trump.

Then Kid Rock went overtly, loudly political. A certain anti-elitism was always an ingredient in his music; but the specific politics were left to the listener’s interpretation in his earlier work. Now Kid Rock has become so closely identified with one political faction, that to declare oneself a Kid Rock fan is to declare one’s politics.

Like most celebrities who use their artistic platform for bait-and-switch politicking, Kid Rock is neither articulate nor original as a political analyst/commentator. Listening to Kid Rock decry the liberals is no more interesting than listening to Robert DeNiro and Cher trash Trump. No more enlightening than listening to Alyssa Milano prattle on about abortion.

It may be possible for an artist to hold public opinions about politics. But when a creative entertainer reaches a point where he becomes obsessed with politics, the politics inevitably take over the art, and the art degenerates into agitprop.

Evidence of just how far Kid Rock has fallen can be found in the video for his 2022 release, “Don’t Tell Me How to Live”. The song consists mostly of a stream of f-bombs, hurled at establishment and media liberals.

The high point of Kid Rock’s alternative  Super Bowl performance was his rendition of “Till You Can’t”, a touching song originally performed by country music singer Cody Johnson.

The problem is…Cody Johnson does a much better job of performing the song. Kid Rock was never beloved for the raw quality of his voice. The appeal of Kid Rock was always in his persona, and now that persona seems like a relic from 2001.

There is a lesson here for all politically motivated artists. Speak out on important issues, if you must. But never mistake political expression for artistic expression. No one listens to political diatribes for entertainment, even if those diatribes are set to music.

-ET

Remembering those Burger Chef ‘Star Wars’ posters of 1977

I was part of the original Star Wars generation.

I remember being nine years old in the summer of 1977, sitting with my dad in the cinema, watching that first epic Star Wars opening crawl.

I became a total fanatic for Star Wars. And yes, that meant Star Wars action figures, Star Wars trading cards, and much else. During that first two years of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, I wasn’t thinking about stagflation or the energy crisis, or Jimmy Carter’s “malaise”. I was thinking about Star Wars.

Among my favorite Star Wars memorabilia of that era were the four Star Wars posters issued by Burger Chef. (Burger Chef was a once popular fast food chain that went out of business in 1996.)

I had all four posters, and they were hung all around my bedroom. (I can still recall the exact placement of each one, in fact.)

These are now collectors’ items, of course. But they were just delightful children’s bric-a-brac in 1977.

1977 Burger King Commercial

The original Burger Chef posters from 1977. (I can vouch for their authenticity, because I was there!)

Star Wars replica posters you can buy on Amazon (quick link):

Horror from the 1980s

Or…why I chose to set 12 Hours of Halloween in the year 1980.

A reader recently asked me via email why I chose to set 12 Hours of Halloween, my coming-of-age horror novel about three friends who battle supernatural forces on Halloween Night, in 1980 instead of the present day.

Good question.

There are two reasons behind this choice.

First of all: there’s the generational factor.

What I mean by this is: I know my limits.

Although 12 Hours of Halloween is a supernatural tale, it is also a coming-of-age story. This means that it involves getting into the “head space” of the story’s adolescent protagonists.

Some aspects of adolescence are universal. But others are heavily dependent on changing generational factors.

I’m a member of Generation X (born in 1968). This generation reached the early teen years of adolescence around 1980—the year in which 12 Hours of Halloween is set.

I figured that I could depict the adolescent experience in 1980 most accurately, because I actually lived it. (I turned 12 in 1980.)  I’ve written before about the perils of middle-age adults writing about the present-day teen experience: During the 1980s, most of the teen films were written by Baby Boomers; and certain aspects of these movies seemed anachronistic, because the scriptwriters were actually writing about the teen experience of the 1950s and 1960s—even though they thought they were writing about the 1980s.

Another reason I chose to set 12 Hours of Halloween in 1980 is: The past is haunted.

The year 1980 is now 45 years in the past. (1980 was 35 years in the past when I published 12 Hours of Halloween in 2015.)

That is recent enough to be accessible to most readers, but distant enough to be surrounded by a certain haziness.

That year is  not quite like our own. After all, in 1980, there was no Internet, and no cell phones. We had television, but cable TV was still a “new” thing.

It isn’t difficult to believe that in 1980, wayward spirits and vengeful supernatural creatures walked the earth in one Ohio suburb—just like in the book.

***

Want to read 12 Hours of Halloween? You can preview the book here on this site, or get it on Amazon (available in multiple formats.)

October 31, 1980: ’12 Hours of Halloween’

A new piece of artwork for 12 Hours of Halloween. (This was made for the “A + content” section of the Amazon listing, so the book cover is deliberately excluded from the graphic.)

As suggested in the graphic, most of the action in 12 Hours of Halloween takes place on October 31, 1980.

This is a coming-of-age supernatural horror story, about three young friends who endure a 12-hour, supernatural curse on the first Halloween night of the 1980s.

View 12 HOURS OF HALLOWEEN on Amazon

What kind of horror?

I don’t do graphic violence, for the most part. (There is no explicit sex in my books, either.) Think: a spooky version of a Ray Bradbury story, with a few nods to some of the classic horror films from the 1980s.

12 Hours of Halloween is available in Amazon Kindle Unlimited, too.

-ET

‘Risky Business’: an entertaining film that would never get made today

I was just turning 15 when Risky Business—the movie that launched Tom Cruise’s acting career—hit the theaters in August 1983. I was too young to get into an R-rated movie without an adult; and this wasn’t a film that either of my parents would have been interested in seeing with me.

I neglected to see Risky Business for more than 40 years, partly because I was put off by the much-played clip of Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear. Call me homophobic if you’d like; but that isn’t the way to get me to see a movie. And there were just so many other movies to see.

I finally got around to watching Risky Business a few days ago. (Better late than never!) The movie was quite well done for a film that was originally conceived as a throwaway flick for Reagan-era young adults. (Moreover, despite the ubiquity of that clip with Tom Cruise in his underwear, that scene is a minuscule portion of the 95-minute movie.) Continue reading “‘Risky Business’: an entertaining film that would never get made today”

The comparative joys of old (1980s) movies

I have been watching some old movies from the 1980s recently. Some have been movies that I saw, but have long since forgotten. Others are iconic films of that era that I never got around to seeing when they were current.

For example, I recently wrote a post about Mystic Pizza (1988). Last night I watched Risky Business (1983). I will have a post about Risky Business soon.

A scene from Mystic Pizza (1988)

One thing I’ve noticed is that many films created in 1980-something as disposable teen comedies were actually pretty good. In 1985, did anyone imagine that people in 2025 would still be talking about The Breakfast Club? Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) has been recognized by the American Film Institute for its merits.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the diversity in movies from that bygone era. In 1985, an original movie, properly executed, could make a lot of people rich. But the economics of the 21st-century box office encourage conservatism and a tiresome emphasis on franchise films. Continue reading “The comparative joys of old (1980s) movies”

‘Texas’ by James Michener (mini-review)

I have just finished reading Texas (1985) by James Michener.

James Michener (1907-1997) specialized in vast historical novels, usually centered upon the history of a particular place.

For example, Hawaii (1959) covered the history of Hawaii. Alaska (1988) covered the history of our 49th state.

View on Amazon

His books are long and vast in scope. A thousand pages is a typical length. Michener wrote novels that today’s short attention-spanned, Internet-addled American finds daunting. But he was quite popular during his heyday, the 1950s through the 1980s.

Because of the historical scopes involved, Michener’s novels span many generations, with wide casts of characters. His books are less novels, in the conventional sense, than collections of interconnected novellas. If James Michener were alive today, and publishing on Amazon Kindle, he would almost certainly be publishing his long books as series of novellas. But that wasn’t what the brick-and-mortar-centric book retailing industry of the 20th century wanted. And so James Michener’s long tales were delivered as doorstop-sized novels.

Texas follows the usual Michener formula. There are storylines from the Spanish colonial period, the obligatory story about the Alamo (of course), and characters from more recent times.

I have sometimes found James Michener to be a bit too didactic. (In the historical fiction blockbuster space, I much prefer Edward Rutherfurd and John Jakes.) A novel based in historical events is fine; but if I want to read an actual history, I’ll turn to nonfiction. But in Texas, Michener emphasizes story and mostly avoids the dreaded info-dump.

I am not even going to attempt a plot summary of Texas. There is simply too much to describe. Any plot summary I might write would run on for five thousand words, the length of a long essay or a middling short story.

Suffice it to say: Texas contains many plots and characters related to the history of Texas. It’s also a very entertaining book, if you aren’t daunted by the 1096-page length.

-ET

The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners (quick review)

I’ve been reading more short stories of late. I find that I often enjoy them more than novels. A good short story contains no fluff, no filler. Short stories, moreover, are well-suited to this era of cell phones and short attention spans.

Short stories used to be almost as popular as novels, back when Americans read middlebrow, general interest magazines. (F. Scott Fitzgerald earned most of his income from short story sales.)

But that was in the distant past. For as long as anyone can remember, every fiction writer has dreamed of being a bestselling novelist. Publishers have been wary of short fiction collections, unless every story in the collection was authored by Stephen King.

View on Amazon

I recently picked up The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners, edited by Amor Towles and Jenny Minton Quigley. I bought the audiobook edition, so I listened to these stories as I mowed my lawn and did my bench press sets in the gym.

This collection contains a strong mix of stories. This isn’t to say that every story is a gem. As is always the case with multi-author anthologies, the reader’s mileage may vary. There were a few stories in this collection that left me cold. But most of them are good, and a handful of the stories are very good.

My favorites were:

“Hiding Spot” by Caroline Kim

“The Paper Artist” by E. K. Ota

“The Dark” by Jess Walter

Recommended reading…especially if you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump back into short-story reading.

-ET

View on Amazon: The Best Short Stories 2024: The O. Henry Prize Winners

Fast Times at Ridgemont High + 43 years

Fast Times at Ridgemont High, that quintessential teen movie of the first half of the 1980s, hit the theaters 43 years ago today, on August 13, 1982.

On that date I had just turned fourteen. I did not see Fast Times in the cinema. (I could not even drive yet.) I did catch the movie a few months later, on cable. By that time, it had become a must-see movie for anyone among the teenage set.

I liked the movie then, and not just because of the iconic scene in which Phoebe Cates emerges from the pool. Even at that age, I could tell that Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a thoughtful teen movie, as oxymoronic as that sounds.

The movie does contain explicit sex scenes, especially by today’s less tolerant cinematic standards. Fast Times originally received an X rating. The film was reedited to receive an R rating. Primarily because of the sex, all of the “teens” in this film were already adult actors by the time production began. (Jennifer Jason Leigh was almost twenty years old when she portrayed the 15-year-old Stacy Hamilton.)

And yes, that Phoebe Cates pool scene was unnecessary and tawdry, much as it delighted the 14-year-old version of me.

But underneath all the raunch and bawdy comedy, there is a message about hubris-driven teenage risk-taking, and the consequences that result. I would go so far as to call Fast Times at Ridgemont High a teensploitation film with a conservative message.

I watched this movie for a second time a few years ago. I was an adult in my fifties. The 1980s and high school were long behind me.

I thought the movie was even better the second time around.

I’m not the only one who believes that Fast Times at Ridgemont High stands the test of time. In 2005, the National Film Preservation Board recognized the movie as “culturally and historically significant”. This is one time when I agree with the consensus view.

-ET

**View Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Amazon

Southern Ohio’s Dead Man’s Curve

Not far from where I live, there is a stretch of Ohio State Route 125 that has been dubbed Dead Man’s Curve. 

The spot is just a few miles from my house, in fact. I’ve been by there many times.

According to the urban legend, if you drive this section of rural highway a little after 1 a.m., you might see the faceless hitchhiker. From a distance, this male figure may look relatively normal. Once you get close, though, you’ll see that he has no face.

Sometimes the hitchhiker isn’t content to stand there by the side of the road and watch you. There have been reports of the phantom actually attacking cars.

Creepy, right?

Yeah, I think so, too….

Dead Man’s Curve on Ohio State Route 125 has a long and macabre history. Route 125 is the main road that connects the suburbs and small towns east of Cincinnati with the city. But much of the road (including Dead Man’s Curve) was originally part of the Ohio Turnpike, which was built in 1831. (Andrew Jackson was president in 1831, just to put that date in perspective.)

That section of the Ohio Turnpike was the scene of many accidents (some of them fatal), even in the horse-and-buggy days. The downward sloping curve became particularly treacherous when rain turned the road to mud. Horses and carriages would sometimes lose their footing, sending them over the adjacent hillside.

In the twentieth century, the Ohio Turnpike was paved and reconfigured into State Route 125. In 1968 the road was expanded into four lanes. 

As part of the expansion, the spot known as Dead Man’s Curve was leveled and straightened. (As a result, the curve doesn’t look so daunting today…unless you know its history.) This was supposed to be the end of “Dead Man’s Curve”.

But it wasn’t.

In 1969, there was a horrible accident at the spot. The driver of a green Roadrunner—traveling at a speed of 100 mph—slammed into an Impala carrying five teenagers. There was only one survivor of the tragic accident.

Shortly after that, witnesses began to report sightings of the faceless hitchhiker during the wee hours. (The hitchhiker is said to be most active during the twenty-minutes between 1:20 and 1:40 a.m.) There have also been reports of a ghostly green Roadrunner that will chase drivers late at night. 

Oh, and Dead Man’s Curve remains deadly, despite the leveling and straightening done in 1968. In the five decades since the accident involving the Roadrunner and the Impala, around seventy people have been killed there.

Is there any truth to the legend of Dead Man’s Curve?

I can’t say for sure. What I can tell you is that I’ve heard many eyewitness accounts from local residents who claim to have seen the hitchhiker. (Keep in mind, I live very close to Dead Man’s Curve, and it’s a local topic of discussion and speculation.) Almost none of these eyewitnesses have struck me as mentally imbalanced or deceitful.

I know what your last question is going to be: Have I ever driven Dead Man’s Curve between 1:20 and 1:40 a.m. myself?

Uh, no. But perhaps I’ll get around to it someday, and I’ll let you know in a subsequent blog post!

***

Hey!…While you’re here: I wrote a novel about a haunted road in Ohio. It’s called Eleven Miles of Night. You can start reading the book for FREE here on my website, or check out the reviews on Amazon.

You can also start reading my other two novels of the supernatural in Southern Ohio: Revolutionary Ghosts and 12 Hours of Halloween. 

Check out my FREE short stories, too….many of them have macabre elements.

 

‘Commando’: the ultimate 80s action movie?

I’m not sure how 40 years went by without me seeing Commando (1985). But I finally caught it last night with my YouTube Premium subscription.

Commando stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a retired military operative, who is called into action when a group of international bad guys take his daughter hostage.

It’s a very basic plot, with a lot left to assumption, or the viewer’s imagination. This is pure 80s escapism, and the film suffers somewhat from the production values of that era.

On the plus side, there are no boring moments in the 90 minutes that it will take you to watch Commando. The movie is a lot of fun, in the same way that the A-Team and Magnum P.I. were fun in the 1980s.

There is no romantic subplot in Commando. Rae Dawn Chong, however, provides a solid performance as Schwarzenegger’s sidekick (and, at one point in the movie, his pilot). The 12-year-old Alyssa Milano, who was decades away from becoming annoying and political, appears as Schwarzenegger’s daughter.

-ET

**Save on Amazon: Commando (Director’s Cut) DVD

‘Back to the Future’ +40, and why Disney rejected the film

This past week marked the 40-year anniversary of the release of Back to the Future on July 3, 1985.

I saw the movie when it was new. I enjoyed it; but I never thought that this was a film that would be remembered four decades later.

But hey, I was 17 years old in the summer of 1985. What did I know?

1985 theatrical release poster

One of the forgotten facts about the movie is that Disney originally rejected it. The dealbreaker was the subplot in which Marty McFly’s mother becomes infatuated with him during his time in 1955. Disney execs didn’t like the incestuous plot twist.

And it struck me as a little strange at the time. Never mind that this is not the sort of scenario that anyone is likely to encounter in real life.

Whether Disney was right to reject the film or not in the 1980s, herein lies a measure of how much Disney—and the movie business—has changed since then. As we all know, Disney is more than happy to let its freak flag fly nowadays.

-ET

View Back to the Future on Amazon

Should AC/DC retire?

Now let’s turn our attention to something really important: the future of the rock band AC/DC.

I’ve been a fan of AC/DC since the early 1980s, when Back in Black was the latest thing. AC/DC isn’t my favorite band. (That honor goes to Rush.) But AC/DC is definitely among my top ten.

The members of AC/DC, just like the rest of us, are getting older. Angus Young, the group’s iconic guitarist, is now 70. Lead vocalist Brian Johnson is now 77.

I’ve seen several articles in the press of late, claiming that AC/DC has been giving lackluster live shows, and that the band is overdue for retirement.

Perhaps. But I’ve also seen several video clips of recent AC/DC concerts.

No, it isn’t 1981 anymore. (And oh, how I wish that it were, for any number of reasons.) But AC/DC still gives a pretty solid live performance, by my estimation.

-ET