BEST OF 2016 In no particular order (spotify links): David Bowie: Blackstar (Columbia) Margaret Glaspy: Emotions and Math (Warner Bros) Maren Morris: Hero (Columbia Nashville) Alicia Keys, Here (RCA) Brandi Carlisle: The Firewatcher's Daughter (ATO) A Tribe Called Quest: We … [Read more...]
Sweet November, or Whither Anthony Newley
Dylan's Nobel Extra points for how the announcement landed on Paul Simon's 75th birthday (October 13). I like what Milo Miles wrote: Like many an academically beloved poet — say, Ezra Pound or T. S. Eliot — Mr. Dylan has always placed himself on a literary continuum where allusions focus and … [Read more...]
Regulators! Let’s Dance!
Master & Dynamic Comfort cans that deliver mucho fidelity, warm, spacious tones, and a wicked commitment to badass designery. Mic moves closer to your face than regular cables. Optional input on EACH EAR. MUTE button on Right can. Detachable ear foam pads. Also: boom mic stands, … [Read more...]
This Is What May Sounds Like
Take it to the Bridge: From the Boston Phoenix, Graffiti Bridge review, 1990 … [Read more...]
Producer’s April: George Martin, Sam Phillips
bit.ly/georgemartintr "...And while the pillars of Phillips’ life rest on how to frame aesthetic ideals, the story bulges with juicy … [Read more...]
Marching Through Springsteen Chapter Titles: Definitive Pianists, Composers to Follow
Bruce Springsteen's memoirs announced, sample chapters include: Blood on the Turnpike, Human Town, Lucky Touch, Hear Those Tires SQUEAL, Chuck Berry Stole All My Riffs (So I Stole Some Song Titles), Prince Almost Stole My Mojo, Hitchhiking to We Are the World, Leftover Songs for Breakfast, Car Parts … [Read more...]
Don’t Stare at February’s Tassles: A Click In Every Pot
Blackstar, David Bowie (with the Donny McCaslin Quartet and guitarist Ben Monder) (Columbia) Peter Doggett on On Point, January 12, 2016 Jon Pareles Obituary, New York Times Greil Marcus on Lodger, 1979 ("...ideas are run up the flagpole, but try and find the flagpole..."), Rolling … [Read more...]
Jumpin’ January Jehovahs: Stuff Like This
River, Season 1 (BBC1/Netflix) As Detective John River, Stellan Skarsgård, agony in a trenchcoat, investigates his partner Stevie's murder. Bookended by the Tina Charles's 1976 No. 1 (UK) "I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance)," a pure a jolt of disco joy, the song seems to leak straight … [Read more...]
December Spinout: Links, Letters, Libraries
Van Gogh's Letters by Nicole Kraus "In Jewish mysticism, the empty space — the Chalal Panui, in Hebrew — has tremendous importance, because it was the necessary pre-condition for God’s creation of the world. How did the Ein Sof — the being without end, as God is called in Kabbalah — create … [Read more...]
Modified Limited November Hangout: Lowdown on the UpClick
There Is No White Race by Walter Mosley (July 9, 2014) "The white race is a fiction created by aggressive colonization and slavery. In the colonies destined to become the United States, the European colonists found themselves pitted against the indigenous (red) people while enslaving Africans … [Read more...]
October Blues: Line-Dance Clicks
Owing to the Greeks Tom McCarthy on historical roots of the European Union fiscal crisis "This echo in German of a Greek theme or relation is exemplary: Germany has always been particularly indebted to Greece. Indeed, from a cultural point of view, it could be argued that Germany more or less … [Read more...]
Links Gone Wild: September Gurl Clicks
Love and Mercy The Brian Wilson of Your Dreams A film of great ambition and daring, with performances than extend, rather than rescue, the script. And a soundtrack for the ages, both in Wilson's primary material (and cunning recreations of studio sessions), and the interior soundscapes by Trent … [Read more...]
Links Go Flapping: August Shower Tunnels
Season 7 Community's bravura 6th season closer: “If I had no self-awareness, I think I’d know,” (Britta). Send Yahoo kudos, #andamovie. Their Satanic Majesties Rolling Stones featured on Visualoop Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman Should Not Have Been Published by William Giraldi, TNR "In a … [Read more...]
Meatball Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard
Normally I eschew McCarthy vehicles for their overheated preoccupation with fat luggage and morose sexism. But this Feig script contains more jokes per square inch than a Steven Wright phone message, and Jude Law's hairpiece wins James Bond rug of the year. (Was there an Allison Janney before … [Read more...]
What Makes a Woman? – NYTimes.com
The “I was born in the wrong body” rhetoric favored by other trans people doesn’t work any better and is just as offensive, reducing us to our collective breasts and vaginas. Imagine the reaction if a young white man suddenly declared that he was trapped in the wrong body and, after using chemicals … [Read more...]