For My Mother on Her Birthday
Sean MurphyI’m scared, I said. “It’s okay,” she said. “You know I’ll never leave you, right? I would never leave this place without you.” How many times did she tell me…
Bobby Hutcherson: Thanks for the Good Vibes
Bobby Hutcherson was not just a major, and positive force for good in the jazz idiom, he was a genuine innovator. Before him, the vibraphone was largely considered a novelty…
Trumbo, Cranston and Ozymandias
A few random thoughts while watching 'Trumbo'. 1. You should watch this. 2. Bryan Cranston remains an American treasure. 3. Can you believe people used to smoke in movie theaters?...…
Intimation: A Poem
Intimation My fiancée informs me that I snore now: either comfortable enough to tell the truth, or else a commentary on my own contentment. Our unconscious understands and steers us…
Forever Never Changes: Remembering Arthur Lee (Ten Years Later)
Arthur Lee died ten years ago today (August 3, 2006). I not only am keen to remember --and celebrate-- his life and work, I also appreciate the fact that the piece…
July 28, 1979: The Long Way Home (Revisited)
If I ever need to check myself and consider what a privileged life I've led, I simply need to recall that moving across town in the summer of '79 was…
Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’: A Love Letter to the Process of Making Art
In Dostoeyevsky’s Notes From Underground the self-loathing narrator proposes that every man has secrets he will only reveal to friends and secrets he must keep to himself. And then there…
The Once and Future King: ‘SMiLE’ and Brian Wilson’s Very American Dream (Revisited)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Icarus soars too close to the sun. Othello, vulnerable and halfway crazy, mistakenly trusts the evil Iago. The product of a celebrated…
Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Bern
Hey Bernie Bros! What’s up, fellas? First, I feel you. To a certain extent, I am you. I love me some Bernie, and, to establish some obligatory street-cred, actually knew…
Remembering Michael Cimino’s Masterpiece, ‘The Deer Hunter’
Imagine this: Michael Cimino, fresh off five Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director) and the next big “thing” fails to complete the filming of Heaven’s Gate (1980) and…