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Get Your Götterdämmerung On
Or, If Loving Wagner is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Reich. (More on one of the most complex and controversial composers ever, HERE.) Seriously though, I came across an amazing article on Wagner, written by Nicholas Spice (from the London Review of Books). Check it out HERE (warning, it’s long). Reading this I could [...]
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
I knew I’d have to deal with this one of these days. So many of my favorite old-school rock legends died when I was young, or before I was born (think Jimi, Jim, Janis, etc.), they’ve never been part of my ongoing narrative. Ray Manzarek, one of the three surviving members of one of my [...]
Improving Upon Perfection, Part Five: Five Covers from The Black Keys
(Parts 1-4 of this series here, here, here, and here.) Before they became the Black Keys of Leon (a development that was equal parts unfortunate and inevitable) The Black Keys were one of the better rock bands around (really: check it out HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE –check #5). More, they were, hands down, the best interpretors [...]
This Week in Music: 1983
I don’t know what you were up to but I was partying like it was 1983. Due to the miracles of technology, we can see precisely how I was living, almost exactly thirty years ago. Let’s do a quick analysis of that picture. Grey Levi’s cords? Check. Untucked blue oxford? Check. R2-D2 light switch and [...]
Myself When I’m Real
This Week in Music: 1983
I don’t know what you were up to but I was partying like it was 1983. Due to the miracles of technology, we can see precisely how I was living, almost exactly thirty years ago. Let’s do a quick analysis of that picture. Grey Levi’s cords? Check. Untucked blue oxford? Check. R2-D2 light switch and [...]
A Day To Remember; A Life To Celebrate
August 30, 2002* Everything that is good about me is because of my mother. Fortunately, I was able to convey this simple truth many times in my adult life, but one of the unexpected blessings of the past few weeks was that I had the opportunity to repeat it, often, and in so doing, I [...]
Every Time I Scribble A Thought With Artistic Intent
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I ever do about holidays. But I’m still human. I still recall the almost breathless inability to accelerate time and make Christmas arrive more quickly. Or [...]
Music
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
I knew I’d have to deal with this one of these days. So many of my favorite old-school rock legends died when I was young, or before I was born (think Jimi, Jim, Janis, etc.), they’ve never been part of my ongoing narrative. Ray Manzarek, one of the three surviving members of one of my [...]
Pet Sounds: The Kind of World Where We Belong
5/16/66. A day that changed music, forever, for the better. A case could, and probably should, be made that we ought to refer to rock music as “BP” and “AP” (Before Pet Sounds and After Pet Sounds). Writing about Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and the miraculous release of the (miraculous) SMiLE Sessions, this is [...]
Ten Songs That Never Fail
With the emotional baggage associated with things like Mother’s Day and my birthday, it’s nice –and necessary– to step back and fully appreciate my family and friends. This was my birthday message, via Facebook to that extended network: I’m blessed, to the point of embarrassment, by the number of amazing, generous, inspiring people I’m fortunate to [...]
