Celebrating Sue Mingus
Sean MurphySad to hear the news of Sue Mingus's passing, but am here to celebrate an incredible life fully led, with adventure and passion to spare. And for us jazz fans…
Yes: Close to the Edge at 50
Listening to Yes is like listening to opera: the words are, or may as well be, in a different language. It’s all about the sounds: that voice, those instruments, that…
Barbara Ehrenreich and the Dignity of Labor
image via The Nation It seems specious, even disingenuous, to suggest that a well-known, best-selling author is both underrated and insufficiently read. As it happens, Barbara Ehrenreich, one of the…
Sy Johnson: RIP
Let's face it. There were few human beings who could give Charles Mingus what he needed (what he wanted? the universe can't contain such multitudes and appetites); there were a…
August 2002 – August 2022: Sanctuary
I visited my mother’s grave the first several years for the same reason I used to attend church: it was expected, it was meant to make me feel better, it…
August 2002 – August 2022: Three Poems
The Things Prepping for a Colonoscopy Procedure Prepares You For… The pre-procedure, a to-do list equal parts ordealand ritual preparing you for what will happen, is A preparation of sorts…
August 2002 – August 2022: Gifts & Blessings
i. August 2002 - August 2022 Twenty years. I’m of course of a certain age (and have been for some time now) that just about any event may seem like…
For My Mother on Her Birthday
I’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 that?…
Please Talk about Me When I’m Gone
MY MOTHER EVENTUALLY became acquainted with the white-walled world of procedures and all that happens—before, during, after and beyond: Hope and fear, faith and then despair, the nagging need to…
Roger Waters: Shining On
There are so many musicians I admire, a smaller circle I adore, a smaller one still I revere, and a relative handful I’m grateful for. Artists whose work has changed…