Music

Rock-Ola Bubbler Harley-Davidson Digital Music Center Jukebox Some people collect stamps. Other people like old coins. My wife and I have always been fans of music and have transitioned over the years from albums, cassettes and 8-tracks to hundreds of CDs and now MP3 and streaming services. Several years ago, we commissioned Rock-ola in California to build the Bubbler Harley-Davidson Digital Music Center jukebox pictured above. Each jukebox is built by hand and if you were

Cranberry anyone? Left to right, Jeff Aulich, Jimmy Dormire, Randy Threet, Henry Paul IV, Henry Paul. Not pictured, Mike Bailey and Dave Robbins Penns Peak hosted the American Southern rock band, the Outlaws this past Friday night. The Outlaws are from Tampa, Florida and have been around for more than 50 years with various band members coming and going during their tours. I saw them in 1976 at the Scope in Norfolk Virginia and again in 1979 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

What has 8 legs and looks like Mr. Potato Head? You're probably wondering why a post on Octopuses? Part of the creative nonfiction class that I'm taking at LCCC is required reading of a book by Sy Montgomery entitled The Soul of an Octopus. I read quite a variety of different genres but have never come across this New York Times bestseller before and quite frankly, I'm intrigued by the content. Montgomery's book explores how surprisingly intelligent octopuses are and goes int

Photo from thereviewgeek.com What do Yellowstone, 1923, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Lioness, Landman, The Road, U.S. Marshalls, The Madison, Wind River, Sicario, Hell or High Water among others have in common? They're all created, produced or written by Taylor Sheridan. I've been accused of being a fanboy for a few things in my life - Apple products, Harley Davidson, Veteran's rights, live music, Buddhism, Fender Guitars, Blues Music, Grateful D

What are you looking at? Chuck Norris passed away suddenly on Thursday at the age of 86. He was surrounded by family and was in a Hawaiian hospital for days prior to his passing due to an undisclosed medical emergency. No cause of death has been released at the families' request, but they did say he was at peace. Carlos Ray Norris was an American martial artist, military veteran, actor, screenwriter, and author. He held black belts in karate, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Brazi

I worked for 18+ years at Lehigh Valley Health Network and would hear about the new batch of resident doctors that would be coming to our network each year without really understanding the process of how they got there. It became "real" to us when our daughter-in-law, Ali, who will be graduating in May from med school and went through the Match Day process. Ali and our son, Rob, have given us permission to tell their story. Ali has been a med student at Penn State College of

Excerpts from That's a Fact Jack! Here's some more fun facts and trivia for you: If you put a mirror one light year away from Earth and looked at it through a telescope, you would see two years into the past. (This one confused me a little, I'll admit) Potatoes have more chromosomes than humans do - 48 verses 46! The steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amount of antioxidants as three oranges! The largest human cell is the female ovum. The smallest is the male

Green Beer Our family is Irish and German, and we take our Saint Patrick's Day celebration seriously! Let's get one thing out of the way - It's ALWAYS Saint Patrick's Day and NEVER Saint PATTY'S day! Our uncle Pat would be rolling in the grave to hear it called anything other than Saint Patrick's Day... Like most good traditions, Saint Patrick's Day origins come from our ancestors and the old country. Compiled from a Copilot search on the subject: Saint Patrick's Day, celeb

What??? Another article on Drones? Didn't he just do one? For those of you that have been reading my posts since Roberts Reader started last fall, you may know that I write all the articles myself but research a ton of websites before sitting down to pen a story. I initially started writing a general article on drone technology a few weeks ago but because of the operations in Iran, I kept running into news cycles that talked about how drones were being used in battle. I made

3.14 is Pi Day Today is 3-14, internationally known as Pi Day! Pi Day originated in 1988 as a playful celebration of a math theme by Larry Shaw. Larry is a physicist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco who started the tradition to mark the date 3/14 as Pi Day because it matches the first three digits of Pi (3.14). Here's LARRY! Originally, the activities involved: Marching around in a circular space Eating fruit pies Reciting digits of Pi Celebrating Albert Einstein's Bir

$500 Backpack sized Kamikaze Shahed Drone VS $4,000,000 Patriot Missile The geek in me has become fascinated by drones over the past few years. I'm researching another post about drones in more general terms but wanted to talk about an issue that's been dominating the news lately. We've been hearing a lot about drones being utilized in Operation Epic Storm. While the United States has been dominating against Iran, it comes at a real financial cost when the enemy uses chea

Sugar Mountain, a Neil Young Tribute band played at Penn's Peak on Friday night with a new leader singer and guitarist, Geoff Doubleday, replacing John Hathaway. This was only Geoff's second performance since joining the band. They were tight, authentic and true to the magic of Neil Young's music. Geoff is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and song writer from Sparta, New Jersey. He has been playing guitar since he was three years old and professionally since he was thirteen.

Dad Jokes never get old The following Dad jokes are from various sources and are specifically designed to make you laugh, groan or shake your head. But I bet you repeat at least one of them to someone else! Enjoy! What do you call a cow that can play a musical instrument? A moo-sician. What is a UPS driver's favorite sport? Boxing. How do amoebas make calls? On a cell phone! What car always breaks the rules? A Nissan Rogue What kind of watch does Bigfoot have? A Sasquat

What, are you crazy? We come from a family of strong opinions, which I consider a good thing. We are well read, keep current on politics and world events and like to make our views known. Unfortunately, we don't agree on many things, and it's caused a lot of friction within the family. It's to the point where we have agreed NOT to discuss politics within the family. I will certainly take my share of the blame for things getting out of hand and over the years and while I W

Daylight Savings Time Good morning! This is your friendly reminder to turn your clocks ahead this coming Sunday March 8th at 0200 hours (2AM). That is unless you live in much of Arizona (Yes, talking to you, Bobby and Cindy) or Hawaii, because these states don't follow Daylight Savings Time. For those interested in a little history, Daylight Savings Time was first introduced in Port Arthur, Ontario Canada on July 1, 1908. As time went on, other locations in Canada followed

More excerpts from True Facts that Sound Like Bulls#*t Here's some more fun facts and trivia for you: Beavers butts taste like Vanilla -Beavers secrete a substance from their glands that's used in artificial flavoring - Yum! Although the earth is 70% water, just 1% of it is considered drinkable! Zebras and Tigers each have a unique stripe pattern - Much like a human fingerprint. Reindeer eyes change color throughout the year - In the winter, they turn blue to allow them to

If it's on the Internet, it must be true, right? How many times have we turned to the Internet to research something or just get basic information and come away with some new knowledge that makes us feel a certain way or believe some truth that we read? I used to be naive enough to believe that everything I read online was verified or fact checked by the Internet Gods somewhere before it was allowed to be published. Then, as time went on, I came to understand that ANYONE, AN

Some people are naturally mechanical, others a knack for numbers or cooking, some can write or have musical abilities. And some, like my friend, Curtis are artists. Curt Curran recently retired after a career in telecommunications as well as a stint in the Navy. Our paths ran parallel in that regard, and I've considered him a friend for several years. Curt Curt discovered his love and skills for drawing as a youngster. He drew ideas from wherever he saw; copying character

When it's cold and dreary out like this and everyone is getting cabin fever, it's easy to start wondering about friends and family you haven't seen or talked to in a while. I read an article recently in Medium that discussed the complexity of adult friendships and why it's so difficult for adults to make new friends. When I retired last year, I had 5,068 contacts in my outlook contact list. I made the mistake of not backing this database up to a personal file or drive and w

Agnes is M.A.D. Over the years, all of us have either heard or told ghost stories around the campfire or at parties, but there's a local legend right here in the Lehigh Valley about a REAL ghost story at one of the local sports bars in Emmaus that has survived the test of time and has enough credible witnesses to make it a worthy story to share. Volpe's Sports Bar at 501 Broad Street, Emmaus has a ghost by the name of Agnes living and lurking in the basement of the establishm

Lead Sinkers disguised as Pastries Today is Fasnacht Day The word is Hard It's just a Pastry Made with Lard Ah, February 17th, 2026. a lot is happening or happened today. We had the first solar eclipse of 2026 at 7:12 ET that created the famous "ring of fire" effect. For my Hindu friends, happy Bhaumvati Amavasya Thomas Jefferson was elected the 3rd U.S. President It's Michael Jordan, Paris Hilton, Billie Joe Armstrong and Ed Sheeran's birthday (as well as approximately 385

Not Bob - 3+3 = 6 - Rock on! One nice thing about living in this area is that there is always a lot of live music. Look to the PPL Center and Wind Creek Event Center for some of the larger shows, Penns Peak for a more intimate setting with a lot of excellent tribute bands and sometimes some headliners. Archer Hall is the new kid on the block and so far, appears to appeal to a more eclectic clientele base. Musikfest Cafe and the associated Levitt Pavillion offers up a mix of

From www: cspi.org I recently read a lengthy article on https://www.cspi.org titled Planetary health diet: Good for you and the Earth by Caitlin Dow, PhD. You can read the entire article from that website, but I found it interesting enough to summarize it a bit with my usual witty somewhat offbeat commentary: In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission released its PLANETARY HEALTH DIET which outlined how we can feed the expected 10 billion people by 2050 without causing undue harm

James Hood's Beautifica Last Saturday, we went to a show at the Neag Planetarium at the Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA called James Hood's Beautifica 360 - A Celebration of Life. James Hood is a Grammy-nominated composer and musician who was at one time the drummer for the band, The Pretenders. He is a creator of ambient and electronic musical projects including Moodswings, Mesmerica 360 and Beautifica 360 James Hood A little about the venue: The Neag Planetarium is lo

Photo courtesy of Derek Lee - UNSPLASH We've all been there - cruising along when all of a sudden, a traffic jam appears seemingly out of nowhere. We find ourselves sitting in a bumper-to-bumper jam up with no way to ramp off or turn around to avoid it. This post came at a reader's request as one of their pet peeves. Let's talk about not only traffic, but how people drive in general. While this topic is something we can all relate to, I wanted to do my due diligence and did

Super Bowl 60 Logo - designed to signify Northern California's redwood trees, coastal mountains, the San Francisco Skyline and the Golden Gate Bridge Super Bowl Sixty is this coming Sunday, February 8th with kickoff at 6:30 PM at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. The Patriots have appeared in TWELVE Super Bowls and Seahawks FOUR. The Patriots are currently 4.5-point favorites according to DraftKings...but und

Buckle up, Citizens...six more weeks of winter headed our way. We have the new and improved version of Alexa software here at home and I asked her if Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. She said, "He sure did! Six more weeks of winter! I guess we'll be spending more time together!" While I appreciate the folks at Amazon trying to make Alexa more user friendly, her response this morning creeped me out a little. I said to my wife, "Alexa is flirting with me..."

The Barn I've just about exhausted the story about our farm in Quakertown, so I'd like to thank everyone who has been following along through all ten chapters and for your kind words about the posts. Some of you have said how much fun it must have been to have this farm and you're right. It was a blast. Others have said how much work it must have been and you're also right. It was a TON of work. Looking back on those years, there was a lot of blood, sweat and yes, some tea

Don't let them kid you.... the television isn't even on. So, unless you've been living under a rock, you know Americans love their NFL games. With the Superbowl a little over a week away, I thought I'd take pity on those of you who know NOTHING about football and probably couldn't care less but want to be the cool guy or woman at that Superbowl party next weekend by bestowing a bit of football knowledge so you don't have that confused look on your face come gametime. Look fo

This weather is for the birds and when I say that I mean penguins! I don't know about you, but after shoveling and snow blowing a few times already this year, some minus zero-degree temperatures and soaring heat bills, I'm a little down. My bike is sitting in the garage waiting to be ridden, most of my home gym equipment would stick to my skin if I tried to use it and even the thought of venturing out to a gym or yoga class is daunting. I started a new class this week at LC

Kenneth Howard's Post on LinkedIn When I started Robert's Reader, I made a conscious decision to shy away from politics, controversy and posts that would divide readers. My thinking is that opinions are like a-holes. Everyone's got one and those on one side run parallel to those on the other side like railroad tracks - they never seem to meet. Kenneth Howard recently posted the picture above on LinkedIn that received over 2200 comments in the first 48 hours. I thought it

More excerpts from True Facts that Sound Like Bulls#*t Here's some more fun facts and trivia for you: Duck Bill Platypuses aren't just weird. They can poison you! Platypuses are one of the few mammals to produce their own venom, which is injected via barbs on the male's hind legs. This venom is highly toxic, and while it probably won't kill you, can cause an incredible amount of pain. How can you tell a quack doctor? By the size of his bill The streaming service HBO was or

In addition to the livestock on our farm, we also had a couple of dogs and cats. Not Gunner but he'll never know... We had a German Shepherd named Sasha and a Yellow Lab by the name of Gunner. If you're old enough to remember the magazine, Highlights that used to be in the dentist's offices, you may remember there were two brothers - Goofus and Gallant. Gallant was the good brother, and Goofus couldn't stay out of trouble. Gallant was Sasha. Goofus was Gunner. Highlights

Near Death Experience What does a 29-year-old white female baker from Cincinnati have to do with a 5-year-old boy from Italy? How about a 92-year-old black male atheist from California and a 57-year-old Japanese Buddhist scholar? Perhaps a 16-year-old indigenous south American native and a 70-year-old Welsh Philosopher? All six individuals have experienced near death experiences (NDE's). I was talking with a friend from high school last night who told me about an experience

More excerpts from True Facts that Sound Like Bulls#*t This post got some favorable feedback when first published a few weeks ago, so here's some more True Facts that I've learned. There's a species of ant that self-destructs as a defense mechanism. The Camponotus saundersi species of ant can cause two mandibular glands to explode when it's losing a fight. The glands are filled with a corrosive and sticky substance that can immobilize its attackers and save other members of

Ford 601 Workmaster As you might imagine, you need a certain amount of farm equipment to run even a small farm like ours. The beast above is a Ford 601 Workmaster. I bought it from a farmer in Sellersville and actually rode it up Route 309 from Sellersville to our farm in Quakertown. The Workmaster was made from 1957 to 1962 and was a 4-cylinder, 8 valve, liquid cooled engine with only 48 horsepower. While that doesn't seem very powerful, that tractor was geared in such a

Songwriting is harder than it looks If you've followed my blog from the beginning, you know that I took a History of American Music class this past summer and had to write a rap song, which was totally out of my comfort zone, but it turned out pretty well. I have been taking guitar lessons since I retired and have been encouraged to try my hand at songwriting. Because I write better than I play, I opted to write lyrics and let others add the music to it... I hope to get to

Squirt the Sheep Ah, sheep... We count them to help us sleep. They represent gentleness, innocence and sweetness. They provide us great wool for sweaters to keep us warm. Sometimes, they characterize that family member who has stepped out of line a little too often and gains the moniker of the Black Sheep of the group. Some interesting facts about sheep - They were first domesticated over 11,000 years ago in Southwest Asia and then about 5,000 years later through Europe, Nort

Chickens - yes, it's as bad as you think. Of all the animals on our farm, I will go on record to say I liked chickens the LEAST. Luke decided to raise chickens for his 4H project and like everything else on the farm, we knew nothing about how to buy, raise or care for our feathered livestock. But being clueless never killed anyone at our farm . We did a bit of research and spoke to the resident chicken 4H expert and decided on starting with about a dozen white leghorn chick

2025 - What a year! I love reading the many articles that come out at the end of every year depicting lists of things that happened during the year, the latest statistics, the news, who rose or fell in the charts, the political, economic and social events that shaped our world. I could spend literally days on these lists in various posts but for sake of brevity, will give you just a snapshot from various sources I've read so far - Time Magazine, LinkedIn, New York Times and

Wow - that came fast... I'm a big fan of shopping locally whenever possible. Yet, around the holidays, I favor online shopping to fighting crowds, snotty nosed germ factory kids and looking for someplace to park. For me, it's ho-ho-hell no. For better or worse, Amazon is the king of online ordering, fair pricing and superfast delivery. The company started in Jeff Bezos' garage in Bellevue, Washington as an online bookstore called Cadabra in July 1994. Over the past 30+ yea

Excerpts from True Facts That Sound Like Bulls#*t I got a book for Christmas titled True Facts That Sound Like Bulls#*t by Shane Carley with 500 insane-but-true facts to shock/impress your friends. Here's a few that seemed fun or incredible I wanted to share with you. If the post is popular, I'll do another one in the future. Feel free to chime in with some of your own in the comments section below. Hippopotamus sweat is pink . Hippos secrete hipposudoric acid which has a

Pigs We decided to try raising Hampshire pigs as a 4H project with some apprehension. One, we knew NOTHING about pigs. Two, we didn't know a pig from a hog. Three, we heard the smell was atrocious. Four, we heard pigs were mean and stupid. It turns out that most of our fears and uncertainty was unfounded. After some time, we discovered that pigs are extremely smart and really don't like to wallow in pits of mud after all. Hogs and pigs are both considered domesticated swine.

Quick post- This week's Powerball as of this writing is currently 1.50 BILLION dollars! The cash value for a quick payout is $689.3 MILLION dollars. The drawing is tomorrow night and without doubt, this figure will snowball into something incredible for sure. Back in September, I was trying my hand at songwriting for another class. The assignment was to write a rap song. If memory serves me correctly, the Powerball was high back them as well. I thought I'd dust off that so

I've mentioned before that I've been taking classes at the local community college. This semester is Introduction to Ethics. I'm trying to decide if I enjoy having my brain expanded to this level of fresh "enlightenment" or if I like my current hat size. It's only week one and we've got assignments like: Myth of Gyges discussion - In one of Plato's dialogues, Glaucon, one of Socrate's companions, argues that people only do what's right to avoid being punished. His basic ass

The mad scientist at work A profile in Technology I met with my friend Caleb Haines this week to check out his latest "hobby", making and recording music in his makeshift home studio. Have you ever met or known a younger person who you feel has an "old soul"? I've had the pleasure of being friends with Caleb for over 15 years and am constantly amazed at his energy and expanding skillset with his "hobbies". When I first met him, he was working

Adapted from various sources including The Chive, The Language Nerds and Reader's Digest Things we see every day but never knew they had an "official" name: 1. Glabella - The space between the eyebrows. 2. Petrichor - The way it smells after the rain. 3. Aglet -The plastic or metallic coating at the end of the shoelaces. 4. Wamble -The rumbling sound that the stomach makes. 5. Vagitus -The first cry of a newborn baby. 6. Tines -The prongs on a fork. 7. Phosphenes -The s

The Holiday Season shows an increase in charitable contribution requests Charities typically ramp up their fundraising efforts during the holiday season. This period is crucial for many nonprofits as they often see a significant increase in demand for their services. The holiday season, especially from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, is a time when many people feel more generous and are motivated to give back. Charities typically see an increase in giving during the months of Nov

Events in and around the Lehigh Valley for 2025 - compiled through Morning Call, WFMZ, Lehigh Valley Live As the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton and surrounding Lehigh Valley area grows and expands, so do the events and opportunities to see shows, tree lightings, holiday displays and events and parties. We've compiled a list from various sources of things to do and see in the area over the Christmas and holiday season: Camelback Ski Resort and Blue Mountain  Resort  have opened th

https://radio.garden - Click anywhere on the world globe and listen to what local radio stations are streaming at that moment. OneLook Thesaurus and Reverse Dictionary - A reverse dictionary/Thesaurus to look up words when you can't remember the word but can describe what you're looking for. MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials - Free curriculum of MIT courses online for free. https://www.music-map.com/ Shows you similar bands or music groups to the ones you