Category: Pop Music
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Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — A Retrospective Review
Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume III — 1985–1997 Year of Release: 1997 Record Label: Columbia Genre: Adult Contemporary, Pop, Soft Rock I’ll admit it freely now: I almost skipped this album. When Billy Joel Greatest Hits: Volume III arrived in 1997, I was deep into my classical music phase, spending what little discretionary money I…
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A Monday Musicale for an August Afternoon
Monday, August 10, 2026 – Orlando, Florida Hi, there. I’m still on a longish break from Professional Daydreaming™. I also don’t have any interesting life updates to share, so how about some music videos instead?
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On Writing and Storytelling: Why ‘An Innocent Man’ Had to Score “This Night” in ‘Comings and Goings’
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Amazon Music, Amazon Spain (Amazon.es), Amazon UK, An Innocent Man (1983), An Innocent Man (song), Billy Joel, Classical music, Comings and Goings (Short Story), Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ludwig van Beethoven, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Pop Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaOn Writing and Storytelling: Why An Innocent Man Had to Score “This Night” Some choices in storytelling are deliberate. Others are instinctive—felt before they’re understood. When I wrote Comings and Goings, I knew Jim and Kelly needed music playing in the background of their brief, luminous night together. I also knew it had to be…
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How Pop Culture and Music Inform the Garratyverse
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in A Bridge Too Far (1977 film), Alex Diaz-Granados, All the Things You Are, All the Things You Are (Kern and Hammerstein), Amazon, Billy Joel, Classical music, Comings and Goings: The Art of Being Seen, Creative Writing, John Williams (Composer), Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Ludwig van Beethoven, Melodies and Memories: Music, Songs, and Singers, Movies, Music, Music & Concert Specials, Pop Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: Coda, Star Wars, Superman: The Movie, The Summer of Two Movies, West Side Story – Original Broadway Cast (1957)How Pop Culture and Music Inform the Garratyverse If you spend enough time inside the Garratyverse, you eventually notice something: Jim Garraty’s world doesn’t just contain pop culture and music—it breathes through them. Songs, films, TV shows, and the cultural noise of their eras aren’t background decoration. They’re emotional weather systems. They shape memory, mood,…
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Saturday Afternoon Musicale: ‘The Way You Look Tonight’
Saturday, May 2, 2026, Orlando, Florida It’s a hot, windy, and potentially stormy late spring afternoon in Central Florida. As I write this, it’s almost 2 PM, and the temperature is 90°F (32°C) under cloudy and windy conditions. With humidity at 49% and a brisk southwesterly breeze blowing at 22 MPH (35 Km/H), it feels…
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A Friday Musicale (No News is Good News, I Guess)
Friday, April 10, 2026, Orlando, Florida Hey, there! I’m off to a late start on this last day of the regular workweek! As I write this, it’s already mid-afternoon in my small corner of Central Florida, and the weather is typically warm for spring in the subtropical zone. With partly sunny skies and the relative…
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A Tuesday in December’s Musicale
Hi, everyone. I’m still tired after that brief trip down to Miami to retrieve most of my belongings from the place where I lived for 10 months after decamping from New Hampshire last fall. So, instead of a regular post or review, I offer a selection of music videos from YouTube.
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Sunday Musicale for November 30, 2025
It’s early afternoon on this last day of November here in the Orlando area. Try as I might, though, I can’t seem to pick a topic for my daily blog, and I don’t feel like checking to see what the WordPress daily prompt is. So…how about some music videos instead?
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Where Time’s Winds Blow: The Scene That Started It All
Every story has a beginning. Sometimes, that beginning is clear and deliberate—a spark of inspiration that feels undeniable. Other times, it sneaks up on you, a seemingly small moment that quietly takes root, only revealing its true significance years later. For Reunion: A Story, that moment came in the late 1980s when I was a…
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Sunday Serenade: Songs and Compositions I Enjoy
Midday/Early Afternoon, Sunday, January 5, 2025, Miami, Florida Hi, everyone. Well, while I am feeling a bit better today, I’m still under the weather. So, instead of the usual narrative blog post or occasional review, here’s a selection of music from YouTube for this first Sunday of 2025! Enjoy!
A Certain Point of View, Too 