Jim Bartlett’s Blog

I have been fairly fortunate in that there’s not much left on my rock concert bucket list. A full Bruce Springsteen show is about the last of it—having seen him during John Kerry’s Madison presidential campaign rally in 2004, only a few feet from the stage, was merely an appetizer.

As you read this, I am on a business trip for one of my other jobs, a trip that requires me to fly. I don’t particularly like to fly, but it has nothing to do with going 500 miles an hour while sealed in a tube six miles above the

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about Robert E. Gard’s book The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names, originally published in 1968 but now available in a new edition. Here are some more origin stories about the places where we live and work. William McFarland was a railroad man who

In 1968, author and historian Robert Gard published The Romance of Wisconsin Place Names, the result of several years of research. He went back to old records and old-timers to find the reasons why places in Wisconsin, large and small, famous and forgotten, have the names they do. The book

A while back a friend tagged me on Facebook to participate in one of those name-your-favorite-things memes. This one was mostly musical, and here are some of my answers. Favorite Beatles song: “In My Life”Favorite Rolling Stones song: “Brown Sugar”Favorite Doors song: “Riders on the Storm”Favorite Bob Dylan song: either

Vinyl is a big deal again, with vinyl sales at levels unseen since the compact disc swept vinyl records away nearly 30 years ago. I have a lot of friends who have gone back to buying vinyl (although I have not), but they’re buying albums. Singles haven’t made much of

Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert (later husband and wife) had written John Denver’s 1971 hit “Take Me Home Country Roads.” After performing as Fat City, the Danoffs teamed with another couple, Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman, as the Starland Vocal Band, and released their first record in 1976, “Afternoon Delight.”

On a Friday morning not long ago I was filling in for Pat, and I asked the following question on the air: What’s the first big historical event you can remember while it was happening? For the next two hours, I played back phone calls and read Facebook posts and

Forty years ago this weekend, July 4, 1976, was the celebration of the American Bicentennial. The national blowout for America’s 200th birthday had been brewing for a couple of years. A government commission began planning for it in 1973. The U.S. Mint issued commemorative quarters, half-dollars, and dollar coins starting in

In 1980, I spent the summer as a nighttime rock ‘n’ roll DJ in Freeport, Illinois. It was a pretty sweet gig for a 20-year-old college kid. I was on the air Sunday through Friday nights from six to midnight, so I had Saturday nights to party with my friends at home. I