There's a great bootleg-turned-legit-release called Metallic K.O. that details the 1974 last-ever gig by Ann Arbor's (non)favorite sons - The Stooges - at a club called The Michigan Palace. The record is almost a non-visual documentary as much as it is a musical performance, as The Stooges plow through their set while being pummeled with ice, eggs and, at one point, by a camera hurled at the band by audience members, many of whom were members of a local Michigan biker gang whom Iggy Pop had called out on the air on Detroit radio earlier in the week.
Anyway, late in the set, a clearly exhausted (and, one would imagine, wasted) Iggy Pop - having expended The Stooges normal set on the audience (if there WAS such a thing as a Stooges normal set at that date & time) - slurs out "Whattya wanna hear?" And that is one and the same question Pencilstorm would like to ask out readers/followers today, the second day of a New Year.
Whattya wanna hear?
The Pencilstorm staff has always considered our little blog a cooperative effort with our audience: we wanna hear what you have to say, we've invited readers to submit their own pieces for publication (though precious few have taken us up on our invitation), we often try to reply to your comments (and not always to one-up and/or ridicule those comments, although that is our go-to/default inclination).
So, whattya wanna hear?
Do you wanna hear road stories from the Watershed days by Colin that weren't covered in Joe Oestreich's super-fine Hitless Wonder? Do you wanna hear what Wal Ozello's ten favorite science-fiction novels are? Do you wanna hear what Ricki C. thinks of T.V., movies & books, outside & apart from his usual rock & roll musings? Do you wanna hear Jeff Hassler recount tales of the dim heartbreak days & nights following his ex-wife Kim leaving him for a minor-league hockey defenseman? (Wait, scratch that, NOBODY wants to hear that.)
More sports coverage? Less sports coverage? Regular columns on movie reviews or music releases? Summary bad-mouthings on how much the Blue Jackets suck and wondering why they won't just TRY to play better hockey? You tell us. Seriously, in 2016, whattya wanna hear?