America's Biggest Loser: Gun Policy or the Cleveland Browns? - by Colin Gawel

 I have a question and I know you have it too: Which is America's biggest loser, our current gun policy or the Cleveland Browns? 

Now before all you Dawgs and gun nutz lose your shit, just hear me out. I'm not proposing any changes to current gun policy or the Browns. I have no answers.  More guns or less guns? More Manziel or less Manziel? Hell, I don't know. (Click here to read my open letter to Rep. Steve Stivers) What I do know is that going strictly by the numbers, both the Browns and America's gun policies are an unmitigated disaster. A total embarrassment. Or put another way, they both suck. Bad.

As a huge fan of both the Browns and the USA, it brings me no pleasure to point out the obvious. In fact, I'd much prefer to squint my eyes and tell you i see some hope on the horizon.  However, the cold hard numbers tell a different story and it isn't pretty. This isn't personal and it isn't my opinion. This is just how it is. Hopefully somebody smarter than myself figures something to get both things trending in the right direction in 2016. Until then, I'll leave it to you to decide which is America's biggest loser. From my vantage point, it's too close to call.  - Colin G.

                                                          Gun Policy

Click here to read "27 Americans were shot and killed on Christmas Day". 

                                                                vs                                                       

                                                    Cleveland Browns

Click here to read The Cleveland Browns are the suckiest bunch of sucks to ever suck. 

 

Revisiting A Very Pencilstorm Christmas 2015

Fairytale Of New York - by Ricki C.

I know it's gonna seem like I'm cribbing from Scott Carr's fine, fine, super-fine earlier Pencilstorm holiday tune post here, but I also have a "My first guitar" story for you.  Rockers will be rockers, ya know?

My sainted Italian father bought me my first guitar for Christmas, 1968.  Guitars were not the kind of presents given in my family.  Socks, shirts & underwear were much more the order of the day in the Cacchione household, if you get my drift.  I think Dad was so heartened by the fact that I wanted something which inferred an interest in the outside world and the people in it that he would probably have bought me a Gibson Les Paul if I had asked for one.  I was a painfully introverted, shy, book-reading child to that point, basically a loser with no friends and dad launched me onward & outward into the world with that guitar.

The Christmas guitar was a fairly cheap acoustic.  The next summer, when the neck separated from the body from constant use and Dad could see I was really serious about playing, he bought me a second-hand white Kalamazoo electric guitar for my June birthday.  It looked just like the Fender Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock, only cheaper.  My brain exploded. It was more than I ever could have hoped for.  Dad rewired an old World War II vintage radio we had in the basement so I could use the huge built-in speaker as an amplifier.  I was in seventh heaven.  I was in sonic heaven.  I was alive and amplified.

I sat in that basement for months, playing along to the radio or to the 45-rpm singles I bought at the Lazarus department store or Marco Records in downtown Columbus.  I know I must have eaten and slept and gone to school during that period, but I have no clear memory of those things.  I got good.  But there was no such thing as solo rockers in 1968.  There were folk singers, but I really wasn’t interested in that scene, ya know?  Even at that early date, Pete Townshend and Keith Richards were my inspiration, my heroes, my gods.

I had to find a band.  I did, and just about everything else in my life followed from that quest, from that guitar, from that Christmas.  Thank you, Dad.

Merry Christmas, everybody.  -  Ricki C. / December 25th, 2015


Quite simply: I consider "Fairytale Of New York" the greatest rock & roll Christmas song EVER - hands down, no contest.  I have never - from the first time I heard it in 1988 until listening to it with a Bailey's in my hand earlier this evening - heard this song without it bringing tears to my eyes.  There's something about the way Kirsty MacColl sings the line, "Well so could anyone," in reply to Shane MacGowan's muttered, "I could've been someone," that has always and forever well and truly broken my heart.   

inspirational verse; no way to separate out any one element, I consider every word,
every sublime sweep of melody in this song to be a masterpiece. 

Merry Christmas, everybody.....and raise a glass to Kirsty MacColl 1959-2000.
"some people left for heaven without warning" - Shane MacGowan, 1985

 

 

 

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - by Wal Ozello

By Pencilstorm Contributor: Wal Ozello

I became a rock ‘n’ roll musician for two reasons: to change the world and to get laid, not necessarily in that order. While the investment I’ve made into rock ‘n’ roll has paid back in dividends, I’m still working on that change the world thing.  Listen, it’s not that I have to save everyone from nuclear destruction, cure AIDS in Africa or stop world hunger… I’m just trying to make the world around me a little brighter.  My biggest thrill as a musician is to look out into the audience and see the crowd enjoying themselves, whether it's that leather-clad rock warrior fist-pumping while I covered Spirit Of the Radio or that girl in the tight mini-skirt swaying her hips to Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.

What’s this have to do with Christmas?  Everything.

See… I think the world would be better off if everyone thought like rock musicians. We all give a little bit of ourselves every time we sing a song, strum a guitar, beat on a drum, or whatever. Sure, you’re going to have your ego-hungry self-centered hell-beasts out there (i.e., Axl Rose), but for the most part we’re in it to entertain people and make the world a better place – even if that world is only the hundred feet around us.

So to rockers, every day is Christmas. Every day is about making things a little brighter in the people’s lives around us. We have that magic power that turns your plain, doldrum day into a rock-roaring evening. Make you forget about the worries of life – money, fear, terrorism, whatever… and remember that there’s happiness in this world.  That happiness may be found through a Marshall Stack Amp cranked up to eleven or a bass drum hit so hard you can feel it vibrate in your chest, but it’s still happiness.

You don’t have to be a musician to spread goodness either, just simply a passion for rock ‘n’ roll will do it. Whenever I pull up next to a guy that’s blaring out music from his car and beating his dashboard or steering wheel like it’s a drum set: well, that puts a smile on my face. Music infuses us all with a passion for awesomeness. It binds us a human race and helps us remember that there's some goodness in this world. 

Most importantly, it inspires us. How can you not be energized by the opening drum fill of Born To Run, the guitar riff of I Want You To Want Me, or chorus of Thunderstruck? 

In the coming year, we need rock ‘n’ roll more than ever. The fear-mongering is going to get to its worst with the election coming up and there’s bound to be more terrorism, politics, hunger, and people shouting that America is broken.

Prove them wrong. Listen to more rock ‘n’ roll in 2016 and spread the magic power. Do something good. So that in 2017, when you hear this song on the radio in December, you can answer John Lennon's opening line with a list all the great things you've done.

From all of us at Pencilstorm – a Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Check out more stories of Christmas from other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here for Scott Carr's story, here for Colin's story and here for James A. Baumann's story. 

Wal Ozello is a science fiction techno-thriller novelist and the author of Assignment 1989 ,  Revolution 1990, and Sacrifice 2086. He's the lead singer of the former Columbus rock band Armada and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.

Can I Talk About Myself This Christmas? - by Colin G.

Folks, If I had time, I'd spin a sweet holiday tale from Christmas past and certainly I've been blessed to have more than my share. But right now, I'm so busy shipping out copies of Superior: The Best of Colin Gawel, practicing for the show at Woodlands on Dec 23rd, trying to sell Colin's Coffee gift cards and lock down AC/DC tickets for Owen's stocking (shhhhh) that I've got to blow off the real reason for the season to focus on the fake side. 

Still, my heart is in the  right place and if you are looking a couple great holiday reads may I suggest clicking here for Scott Carr's story and here for James A. Baumann's story. Wal will have something posted on Xmas Eve and I'm sure Ricki C. has stuff cooking too. Basically, keep checking Pencilstorm. Yes, this heartfelt holiday post has turned into shameless plug for my own website. Ah hell's and jingle bells, let's just make the whole post about me. It's like Gene Simmons has taken over my brain. Or Donald Trump. (Who are very similar if you ask me.) But now I'm getting off track. Where were we? Oh yeah, I remember, back to me.....   

Colin Gawel and the Lonely Bones live @ Woodlands Tavern Wednesday Dec 23rd. 8pm Showtime. FREE! If you have trouble getting out use these magic words, "I have to step out and do some last minute shopping. It's a surprise." Doors 7 pm - show at 8pm.

Also- Rick Kinsinger and myself will be performing on WCBE 90.5 on Wednesday Dec 23rd around the 2 o'clock hour. Tune in to hear us play some tunes and chat with Maggie Brennan. Click here to hear it streaming.

Superior- The Best of Colin Gawel will be available at the show. The Kickstarter pre-orders have been shipped (Thank you!) and it should start showing up on Spotify / I-Tunes and the like very soon. Once we hit the New Year we will figure where else to sell it. But right now it's only available at the coffee shop or at the gig.  

Anyway, I hope everybody has a great Holiday and I really appreciate all the people who write for and read Pencilstorm. It brings me much joy on these dark lonely mornings at the coffee shop. Thanks to all. X O X O - Colin

Read about ME it in this month's 614 Magazine

Listen to my longest interview ever In The Record Store

Cheap Trick finally got into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Click here to hear an interview with myself about the subject.

The title song to Colin Gawel and the Lonely Bones' December 2010 release. We shot the video at the "Still Love Christmas" release party at Rumba Cafe in Columbus, OH. COLINGAWEL.com