Bill Cooper, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

Past Informs the Present

4 days ago | billstakes.substack.com | Bill Cooper

I’ll be honest, it’s been a little while since I’ve thought about Mayday Parade. The band was coming to prominence around 2007 when I was in high school. Hearing their name reminds me of a different time when the radio mattered more and CDs were still big. Though I wasn’t a huge fan of the band then, I’ve grown to appreciate one of their greatest-selling albums, A Lesson In Romantics.
One to One: John & Yoko

1 week ago | spectrumculture.com | Bill Cooper

Hand me the remote: let’s see if there’s anything to watch on the TV. Hmm … there’s a Tupperware commercial — click — there’s a car commercial — click — wait, is that Nixon giving a speech? Weird. Let’s see what’s on the next channel — oh, looks like a John Lennon concert! Hold on, did we time-travel back to the ‘70s? No, no, this is One to One: John and Yoko, an avant-garde documentary film covering a tumultuous time in both America and the titular couple’s lives in the early ‘70s.
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora

1 month ago | spectrumculture.com | Bill Cooper

If you frequent Reddit’s ambient subreddit, you’re apt to see at least one thread heaping praise onto Hiroshi Yoshimura. The internet has been a boon to the late Japanese composer and musician because, until semi-recently, his works were not well-known outside of Japan. Thankfully, this seems to be changing as his catalog is being reissued.
Steven Wilson: The Overview

1 month ago | spectrumculture.com | Bill Cooper

Only a few people in our planet’s history have been able to experience the “overview effect.” The term refers to a change in cognition that results when a person travels to space and sees Earth in a diminutive sense. This radical shift in perspective can be a positive or negative experience, depending on the person. Several astronauts have described the sight as “awe-inducing,” whereas William Shatner suffered feelings of grief and cold lifelessness.
Father John Misty: Mahashmashana

Nov 22, 2024 | spectrumculture.com | Bill Cooper

On Father John Misty’s new album Mahashmashana, the artist gives songs time to breathe. Out of the LP’s eight songs, spanning a wide variety of genres and sounds, six are over the five-minute range with two pushing past the eight-minute mark. Despite this, the album never feels tired, boring, or as if the artist is running out of ideas. Though the album may on first listen feel scattered in genre and song topic, there is a method to Los Angeles-residing Josh Tillman’s LP construction.
Linkin Park: From Zero

Nov 18, 2024 | spectrumculture.com | Bill Cooper

Before Linkin Park was Linkin Park, they were Xero. From 1996 to 1999, the band struggled with lineup/name changes and failed demo tapes but their persistence eventually paid off. By 2000, the group became a tour-de-force with their debut album Hybrid Theory. After only two years, the band sold a massive seven million units, becoming one of the greatest successes an act has ever had with a debut.
Falling into fun on the Ozark Trail

Nov 7, 2024 | thesalemnewsonline.com | Bill Cooper

Trails have been around since before mankind came on the scene. Animals, such as bison and elk created trails to food and water sources, and for migration purposes. Humans simply followed the already established game trails to travel across the landscape. As humans advanced so did their network of trails between valleys and villages to allow for trade and cultural interchange. Trails also lead to places of great beauty and spiritual significance.
Many big bucks are killed mid-day

Oct 30, 2024 | thesalemnewsonline.com | Bill Cooper

As the rut approaches its peak, mid-day becomes one of the most likely times for hunters to kill big bucks. In my 50 years of chasing whitetails during the rut, I have learned a good deal from my own experiences, plus the experiences of others. The availability of information from articles, tv shows, videos and social media have brought the information age to us like no other generation.
Deer hunting in October

Oct 22, 2024 | thesalemnewsonline.com | Bill Cooper

Bowhunters look to September 15 with great anticipation. It’s the much celebrated opening of archery deer season in Missouri. Many months of waiting are finally over and deer hunters hit the woods with visions of seeing lots of deer. It generally goes well for hunters as thousands of bucks and does are harvested early in the season. Then, like magic, it seems that most bucks disappear overnight when October arrives.
The rut is coming…how to hunt it

Oct 15, 2024 | thesalemnewsonline.com | Bill Cooper

Hunting the annual deer rut can be a short event, if you utilize the right tactics. The whitetail rut is the most exciting time of the year for deer hunters. Most hunters realize that the rut is the best time to kill a mature buck. Too, it seems that the most successful deer hunters hunt the rut with specific factors in mind. The rut captures the hearts and minds of deer lovers everywhere. The rut is the breeding season when does are in heat and bucks are crazed with the pursuit of the estrous does.