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Poetry Oughta Be Dumb
Lonesome Doc Doggerel Continue reading Poetry Oughta Be Dumb
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Falling Asleep in the Room of Tiny Drawers (Minutes of a Guided Creativity Meditation)
Seriously? Walking down to the basement of an abandoned house is going to relax me and bring me to a zone of imaginative freedom? Stop it. Trust the process. Continue reading Falling Asleep in the Room of Tiny Drawers (Minutes of a Guided Creativity Meditation)
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Ronley Teper on Surrealism and Collaboration
If nothing bizarre or funny happened in the course of creating and performing, I’d be bored out of my mind by now and probably would have moved on to other things. ~Ronley Teper Continue reading Ronley Teper on Surrealism and Collaboration
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The Vorhees Interview
I remember my microphone picking up the voice of my friend from the audience, who shouted, “I love you Dana!” This was recorded by my loop pedal and repeated throughout the rest of the song, every four measures. It was possibly the most validating set I’ve ever played. ~Dana Wachs, aka Vorhees Continue reading The Vorhees Interview
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The Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is
We’re not creating a sound—we’re part of that sound. We’re the direct descendants of people who’ve played this music since its inception. We’ve inherited this tradition, and it’s part of who we are.
~ Ben Jaffe Continue reading The Preservation Hall Jazz Band: So It Is
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The unbearable beauty of simplicity
The journey from complex to simple is surely the most beautiful path for designers, artists, and writers. Simplicity is, as we’ll try to show, an expression of love. Continue reading The unbearable beauty of simplicity
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Passive-Aggressive Break-Up Letters
It’s not many men who would care about a bubblehead waitress who clothes her obscenely gargantuan derriere in leopard pattern stretch pants. But you do, Walt— you alone seek to understand her and listen to her problems while keeping your girlfriend waiting.
Smiling approvingly as I head out the door,
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11 Writers Whose Works Inspired World Change
In Luke we find not just the seeds of radical social thought but its blossoming in action; the emancipation of women, social justice and equality, the corruption of power, and caring for outcasts were first given clear and full expression here. Continue reading 11 Writers Whose Works Inspired World Change
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Dysfunctional Love Languages: What to Say When They’re Walking Out (comic)
Never again be at a loss for words when your squeeze decides to hit the road. Continue reading Dysfunctional Love Languages: What to Say When They’re Walking Out (comic)
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The Bluenose Tea Ceremony (and the Search for Fisherman’s Tea)
Fisherman’s tea is a rich, deep amber, to which you add canned evaporated milk and lots of sugar if you want it. Drinking it black would be insupportable, and even whole milk is sometimes too weak to buffer the tea’s kick. Continue reading The Bluenose Tea Ceremony (and the Search for Fisherman’s Tea)
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Roque’s Factory, Brazil
Somewhere in the process of creating their own instruments, this Brazilian rock band got the idea that they might be able to help needy neighborhood kids by teaching them how to play these instruments, as well as how to make and sell them. Continue reading Roque’s Factory, Brazil
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April is the Coolest Month (comic)
The good citizens of Cruiscin Lan continue to help Oober Oickle raise money for a series of compelling charitable concerns. Continue reading April is the Coolest Month (comic)
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10 ways to turn off the “always on” button
“Researchers have found a clear correlation between psychosocial dysfunction and media multitasking.” Continue reading 10 ways to turn off the “always on” button
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Keeping it real: eight effective weapons against fake news
“Regardless of who’s to blame, fake news is clearly a threat to world peace because it incites violence and erodes the knowledge base so essential to the progress of social justice.” Continue reading Keeping it real: eight effective weapons against fake news
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Using your opponent’s strength against them
“Right Against Right (Rechts Gegen Rechts), whose name indicates the battle between democratic values and political extremism, weren’t debutants at staging public rebuttals to far-right shenanigans.” Continue reading Using your opponent’s strength against them
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The Tameca Jones Interview
Artistic Mission Statement: “To deliver sonic honey thunder and stop world ear hunger.” Continue reading The Tameca Jones Interview
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The Death of Vinyl: Portal to an Audio Wonderland
The Mindful Bard recently stumbled on record store par excellence Death of Vinyl (La Fin du Vinyle), a stunning reminder of the perennial cultural value of independent record stores. “Record store people (the nice ones mind you, not the condescending … Continue reading The Death of Vinyl: Portal to an Audio Wonderland
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The Doppelgänger Cure, page 13 (graphic novel series)
“You’ll be pleased to know that Helmi Pekkanen is as active as ever.” Continue reading The Doppelgänger Cure, page 13 (graphic novel series)
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The KyAzMa Interview
KyAzMa uses a vast array of electronic sounds and found sounds along with acoustic instruments (guitar, piano, cello, and flute, to name a few) and stirring musical arrangements to carry Moon’s mind-plumbing lyrics, sung enchantingly by the two perfectly blended voices. Continue reading The KyAzMa Interview
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Son of Saul: Amid the Destruction of Life’s Sanctity . . .
“It falls to artists— poets, composers, filmmakers, etc.— to interpret the unimaginable through the use of the imagination, and at times this is a heavy load to carry.” Continue reading Son of Saul: Amid the Destruction of Life’s Sanctity . . .
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The Doppelgänger Cure, page 12 (graphic novel series)
“It was easy for extremists to talk you into abandoning your values. You became a monstrous version of your former self, in the name of an ideology you didn’t understand.” Continue reading The Doppelgänger Cure, page 12 (graphic novel series)
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Three Videos by Ronley Teper
“The Lipliners is not so much a static entity as an ever-morphing wagon wheel of musicians and artists that revolves around Ronley Teper, a surrealist songstress and performance artist born in South Africa and raised in Toronto.” Continue reading Three Videos by Ronley Teper
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In Light of Offers a Musical Path to Serenity
Little Treasures, In Light Of’s debut album, is an EP of astonishing musical inventiveness coupled with an abiding sense of emotional reassurance. Continue reading In Light of Offers a Musical Path to Serenity
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Weekly Arts Consumption Diary
“It takes a special kind of genius to write so entertainingly while so skillfully ripping class, racial, and gender prejudice to shreds.” Continue reading Weekly Arts Consumption Diary
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The Keys to Studio Success
I’ll be sitting there either by myself or with one or two other people, with an artist, and all of a sudden I’m hearing them sing or play and I can sense the honesty in whatever they’re trying to do in that moment in time, and I go, ‘Wow! That’s real!’ That’s what I’m trying to get. I’m trying to get that realness. ~Christian Cummings Continue reading The Keys to Studio Success
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The Doppelgänger Cure, page 11 (graphic novel series)
“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real . . . and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.” ~ Thomas Merton Continue reading The Doppelgänger Cure, page 11 (graphic novel series)
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All Me All the Time, Baby! (The Jackie Venson Interview)
Blues artist Jackie Venson talks to the Mindful Bard about her sustaining forces and offers some cogent advice to other young women entering the music industry. Continue reading All Me All the Time, Baby! (The Jackie Venson Interview)
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Halting the Creeping Dread
There’s no need to be afraid:
The past is written in stone and can’t return.
The future doesn’t exist, and never will. Continue reading Halting the Creeping Dread
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Manouba, Tunisia: A Palace, an Escape Route, and a Women’s Prison
“Now is the time for the country to shake off the destructive forces within itself and to live in the freedom and security that Tunisians both desire and deserve, a new peace not presided over by autocrats, army, or police, but one managed by the voluntary cooperation of a free people.” Continue reading Manouba, Tunisia: A Palace, an Escape Route, and a Women’s Prison
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I’ve Decided to Plant Explosives in Quebec
We reach a point where we realise that all the dialogue and understanding in the world won’t stanch this deadly tide, so we must as well add our own two cents worth. Continue reading I’ve Decided to Plant Explosives in Quebec
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Financial Advice for Artists in Debt
Money is just a construct. You’re already rich. Continue reading Financial Advice for Artists in Debt
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The Doppelgänger Cure, pages 6-10 (graphic novel series)
“I’m going to be asking you about your dreams. But first tell me about that haunted feeling.” Continue reading The Doppelgänger Cure, pages 6-10 (graphic novel series)
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The Long, Dark Night of the Nato-Bombed Soul
Khadra, with typically compassionate insight, has been brave enough to crawl inside the mind of a monster as if it were a sewer pipe, looking for stars and flowers. Continue reading The Long, Dark Night of the Nato-Bombed Soul
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I’ll Be At Work as Soon as I’m Done Attending to More Urgent Matters
You can also name pressing matters that need my attention, but they’re not so pressing as the ones that demand my presence in this moment. Continue reading I’ll Be At Work as Soon as I’m Done Attending to More Urgent Matters
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Montreal Vigil to Commemorate Victims of the Quebec City Mosque Attack
I heard a small boy, brandishing his own tiny sign, say proudly, “I’m protesting for peace!” Continue reading Montreal Vigil to Commemorate Victims of the Quebec City Mosque Attack
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Holly Golightly of Park Ex
“I know you’d understand, Dante. You too have been to hell and back.” Continue reading Holly Golightly of Park Ex
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Nature, Wild and Tamed
Never undervalue the gardener of public spaces. Continue reading Nature, Wild and Tamed
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The Doppelgänger Cure, pages 2-5 (graphic novel series)
Mid-century, most people had grown stupefied . . . They’d trusted the screens. Continue reading The Doppelgänger Cure, pages 2-5 (graphic novel series)
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Interview with Rishi Dhir of Elephant Stone
“When you’re first starting to discover music, it’s all so new and so mysterious that you don’t really know what pieces make the whole. I started taking piano lessons, and then I started playing the guitar when I was around 14. My parents knew The Beatles’ music, and would get excited when I’d play it for them. I’d also play Indian music for them.” ~Rishi Dhir Continue reading Interview with Rishi Dhir of Elephant Stone
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Yeats: To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing
“. . . And like a laughing string
Whereon mad fingers play
Amid a place of stone,
Be secret and exult . . . ”
~WilliamButler Yeats Continue reading Yeats: To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing
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Speculating on the Dystopian Aftermath of an Overly Sexualised Culture
The Lobster Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos Written by: Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou Reviewed by Wanda Waterman “Humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul.” ~Saul Bellow Have … Continue reading Speculating on the Dystopian Aftermath of an Overly Sexualised Culture
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The Doppelgänger Cure, page 1, (graphic novel series)
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The Lakes of Canada Interview
Just before the release of their album, Transgressions Acoustic, Jake Smith of Lakes of Canada was kind enough to talk to the Mindful Bard about the album, Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, and the creative process. You can find the gist … Continue reading The Lakes of Canada Interview
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An Open Letter to Russell Brand: It’s Like They’ve Locked the School Librarian in a Closet and Are Burning All the Books While Laughing Like Demons in the Firelight
“We thank you, we really do, for trying to help us find meaning in our latest calamity. You may be right, but here on the ground it doesn’t feel like liberalism has failed us. It feels more like the bullies have taken over the school.” Continue reading An Open Letter to Russell Brand: It’s Like They’ve Locked the School Librarian in a Closet and Are Burning All the Books While Laughing Like Demons in the Firelight
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The Goldwyn Thandrayen Interview
“I get this coffee called ‘Death Wish.’ No joke— it keeps you awake! I only drink that specific coffee when I write. That coffee is something.” ~ Goldwyn Thandrayen Continue reading The Goldwyn Thandrayen Interview
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The Mouths of Babes Interview
“Songwriting has a magical quality about it sometimes that still surprises me. There’s a way that words can flow out before I think of them and before I know what they mean, and then I write them down and all by themselves they make something beautiful, and they make sense, and they rhyme.” ~Ty Greenstein of Mouths of Babes Continue reading The Mouths of Babes Interview
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Marco Benevento
“There is so much you can learn as a kid, and then when you actually hear someone do what you are learning something clicks, and you think, Oh, it’s that easy, or, it’s more conceptual than technical. I had a great conducting teacher in school say that it’s all concept. He said that you can have all the technique you want, but without concept, you’re screwed.”
~Marco Benevento Continue reading Marco Benevento
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Song as Radiograph: The Rachid Taha Interview
“Since I started making music I’ve worked with some very interesting people, some in the field of techno-progressive music listening, and at the same time I’ve been listening to Arab singers like Oum Kalthoum. I’ve also listened to a lot of intellectuals, writers, and painters, who’ve enriched me by helping me evolve. This is my wealth.” ~Rachid Taha Continue reading Song as Radiograph: The Rachid Taha Interview
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Sabotaging Stupidity in the Age of Disposable Writing
“The tyrants of waste are vanquished through small heroic cultural actions capable of recreating an amicable order of things.” ~Kedrick James Continue reading Sabotaging Stupidity in the Age of Disposable Writing
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Sometimes Creative Self-Indulgence Really Does Pay Off
“Glasper’s social conscience makes him lean toward some expression of historical pain, and yet Covered seems to do so in such a sensitive and dignified way that the listener feels centred, balanced, and ready to be restored after all the insanity.” Continue reading Sometimes Creative Self-Indulgence Really Does Pay Off
