With the unprecedented millions of new gun owners and substantial upkick in hunting and fishing license sales in America as a direct result of increasing chaos around the world, this is a sure sign that this simplest of primal survival instinct is alive and well even in the hearts and souls of the totally citified amongst us.įan those primal flames by inviting them to take the next exciting step back to their instinctual predatory urges. I am convinced that every human being alive would fall in love with the firearm marksmanship and archery disciplines, and of course, the great outdoors escape zone. We still have a few months to go before the fall hunting season erupts in earnest, so now is the perfect time (always is the perfect time!) to share our hunting knowledge and joys with those in our lives we wish to inspire to get back to these simple things. Quite honestly, in these times of runaway corruption and criminal abuse of power by our current so-called political leadership, it is most likely at present than at any time in our lifetime that our hunting skills may indeed make the difference in surviving or not. Unlike our founding fathers and pioneers of old, if we fail to bag game, we always have a totally stocked grocery store nearby just in case.įor many hunting families across America, mine included, the inescapable instinct to remain connected with the source of our lives and being self-sufficient are at the core of our drive to hunt and survive. And of course, all that is forever serious fun, as well. The constant honing of our proficiency with our bows and guns and the never-ending lessons of predatory skills are some of the most serious endeavors man can undertake. Just making time in our otherwise increasingly hectic lives is challenging enough.
Sure, it is all ultimate fun, always challenging, and every hunt demands a serious degree of hard work and dedication. On the surface, I know the hunt in the modern world appears to have changed in many ways and gone far beyond the simple act of just harvesting venison, but all those various, ever-fluctuating ingredients of the hunt, both now and then, are what makes it all so endearing and eternally celebrated. If the unmatched joy of our hunting lifestyle experiences have taught us anything, it is how very important are the simplest of things that create the most powerful memories in our lifetime.Īnd let’s face it could anything be simpler and more fundamental in life than the procuring of food from God’s natural bounty for ourselves and families? Stoking a woodfire after a long, cold, wet morning in the duckblind.įixing a bad law and putting a bureaucrat in his place.Įvery campfire. The electricity of predawn on opening day. Photo courtesy Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids.Ī squirrel or songbird sharing a limb in our treestand. The bug-eyed laughter of a grandkid as they reel in their first bluegill. Planting trees with the grandkids on the family farm. The delicious, overpowering aroma of thick-cut slab bacon sizzling at 3 a.m. Rolling Stone contributors selected 50 of the most influential songs in Latin pop history, ranked in chronological order.The unrivaled thrill of hearing the glorious words: “Here he is over here!!” Some of the most famous Latin pop songs have survived military dictatorships, war, famine and natural disasters – and they still hold up in spite of passing trends. Just ask Romeo Santos and the Bronx-based bachata group Aventura, whose 2002 single “Obsesión” scored Number Ones across France, Italy and Germany before the United States caught on.Įncompassing everything from salsa to rock en español, Latin pop is a constantly evolving genre colored by the traditions, migrations and innovations of Latinx people in spite of all odds. From the Cuban mambo craze of the 1950s to the global virality of “Despacito,” Latin American music has been a fixture of popular music around the world so long as it’s been recorded. and the Blackout All-Stars supergroup in 1996.īy reading Anglophone music media, one might think Latin pop’s ubiquity in the United States is a sudden one – but it’s hardly as recent a phenomenon as new listeners believe. This summer “Latino Gang” Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin nabbed the Number One spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with their Latin trap hit, “I Like It.” But in sampling the Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez-penned single, “I Like It Like That,” this win marks the third time the boogaloo song has cycled through the United States pop chart: first by Pete Rodríguez, whose original recording hit Number 25 in 1967 then again by Tito Puente, Sheila E.
With Latin pop getting heightened visibility in the American mainstream this year, it’s time we call for a history lesson.