A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
The massive military bureaucracy is daunting to any junior or mid level solider, marine, airman, sailor dare we say—any person working in a bureaucracy—giving way to an entirely different form of innovation. If an Airman on a flight-line has a problem or a solider in field finds or discovers a new tool—it can take years …
Continue reading "Bootleg Innovation in the Military–or what happens when Punk Rock goes Mainstream"
By J. William DeMarco Sitting in the all too warm classroom….staring at the clock…wondering if sixth period English was ever going to end…glancing to my left… I notice Scott's Pee Chee folder with 6000 doodles on it…and a massive Union Jack labeled Teenage Wasteland in thick black Sharpie. A great song to be sure… but in …
Continue reading "Who is Baba O’Riley and where is Teenage Wasteland?"
The Byrds were an iconic band when I was growing up, although they were well before my time, the music is in a sense timeless. The song Eight Miles High was always one where there seemed there was this confluence of a million things all happening at once and as I did some “research” I …
It is probably just me...but ever since 1983--I seem to hear Bono's words...ever single New Year's Day...and does anything really change...on New Year's Day? "New Year's Day" is a song by rock band U2. It is on their 1983 album War and it was released as the album's lead single in January 1983. Written about the Polish Solidarity movement, "New Year's Day" is driven …
I consider myself fortunate—twice a year I get to return to the town of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Walking the streets in Cambridge is always a treat and there is nothing better than grabbing a cappuccino at Nero’s Coffee right across the street from King’s College and just pondering all the historical figures that …
Saw the Stranglers in Cambridge summer 2011...and I've always loved the> song; No More Heroes... and I wonder, are we there? I ponder the hero ... Someone that triumphs over adversity and evil... I'm not so sure about the Stranglers' choice of heroes...Leon Trotsky, Lenny Bruce, Elmyr de Hory, but--Sancho Panza was a pretty cool …
Like many classic folk ballads, the authorship of "The House of the Rising Sun" is uncertain. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads such as the Unfortunate Rake of the 18th century and that English emigrants took the song to America where it was adapted to its later New Orleans …
Continue reading "“The House of the Rising Sun” recorded in 1934….really?"
"The End" is a song by The Doors. Originally written by Jim Morrison as a song about breaking up with girlfriend Mary Werbelow, it evolved through months of performances at Los Angeles' Whisky a Go Go into a nearly 12-minute opus on their self-titled album. The band would perform the song to close their last …
I Still Haven't Found What I’m Looking For... What a strange dichotomy… What a strange paradox…to have found Christ, but not what you are looking for. A searching spirituality? A succinct theology? Or, a vulnerable integrity? https://youtu.be/e3-5YC_oHjE U2 — Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For from Adam Fromm on Vimeo. In the third …
Continue reading "“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”—DeMarco Banter"
A few months ago, while at Catalyst East in Atlanta, Jon Acuff mentioned John Mayer's song "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967" in reference to dreams, the power of vision, and tenacity. Of course, I don't recall Mr Acuff's exact words--but that's what I walked away with. So a few months later... I Googled the …
Continue reading "Walt Grace and The Power of a Dream–DeMarco Banter"
