Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

One

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You’ll have to indulge my Nilsson obsession a bit more tonight. One of his amazing songs is below. And here’s a snippet from his bio, which is oh-so-cool:

Because of the poor financial situation of his family, Nilsson worked from an early age, including a job at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. When the Paramount closed in 1960, Nilsson applied for a job at a bank, falsely stating he was a high school graduate on his application (he only completed ninth grade). He had an aptitude for computers, which were beginning to be employed by banks at the time. He performed so well that the bank retained him after discovering the lie about his education. He worked on bank computers at night, and in the daytime pursued his songwriting and singing career.

 

This Charming Man

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1207-morIt probably comes as no surprise to long-time readers that Morrissey is a favorite singer/songwriter of mine. His hauntingly depressing music touches the souls, I imagine, of most bears. I was pleased to read in this morning’s Wall Street Journal (near an article titled, and I’m not making this up, “So You Want To Buy Your Own Vineyard”) that he has come up with his Autobiography Here’s a snippet, which strikes me as Pure Morrissey, as he speaks of his days as a schoolboy:

Its wearisome echo of negativity exhausts me to a permanent state of circumstantial sadness. I approach school each day with renewed fear, over the asphalt, treading underfoot, the flattened remains of people’s lives, and bigger and blacker the school’s edifice rises above its bludgeoned parish like a rat refusing to die. We small kids see no warm lights to welcome, and no hope in the literal darkness.” (more…)