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Oh Boldest Star
Old lovin’ is good lovin.’ But you have to get old to figure that out. Until then, here’s a song. Continue reading Oh Boldest Star
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The Poet and the Deep Blue Sea: In Conversation With Emay Holmes
“By the time I got into the navy I was making real songs. I was in a situation that forced a lot of blues out of me — sorrow, depression, anxiety. You wanted to sing through it, to do something to try to make sense of it.” Continue reading The Poet and the Deep Blue Sea: In Conversation With Emay Holmes
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How Do I Stay Gone?
Toxic relationships present us with a Catch-22: This person is hurting me, but they’re the only one who can heal my hurt.
Continue reading How Do I Stay Gone?
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Has there ever been a pure musical genre?
Another page from my book-in-progress, All the Music Be Happenin’ Now Continue reading Has there ever been a pure musical genre?
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Don’t Try to Talk
Chantal quickly produced a great text, as she so often does, but after reading it a few times I thought, Wait—this theme is rare enough, but what if we were to write a song about a woman who refuses to start an affair in the first place? Has that even been done? Continue reading Don’t Try to Talk
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Mia LJ: Wise Beyond Her Years
“My town is so peaceful, so perfect. Growth is never easy, especially in the early phases. I went through my share of lessons, as we all do. I’m grateful for every single occurrence, especially those of my childhood.” Continue reading Mia LJ: Wise Beyond Her Years
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Happiness (Le Bonheur)
1965
Written and directed by Agnès Varda
“Yes! Got it! This is a happy family! Can we move to the next scene, please?”
Continue reading Happiness (Le Bonheur)
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Love Languages in Toxic Friendships (comic)
“Sally’ll say you look like a chunky mutt in that dress, but don’t you listen!” Continue reading Love Languages in Toxic Friendships (comic)
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Zen and the Art of Guitar Mastery
“There is only one reason that you ever fail at anything . . . and that is because you eventually change your mind. . . . anything and everything you have ever decided to do, you have succeeded, or will succeed, at doing.” ~Victor L. Wooten in “The Music Lesson” Continue reading Zen and the Art of Guitar Mastery
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So many words . . .
Should we stop writing? Singing? Painting?
Continue reading So many words . . .
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More Antics From the Evil Twins
The Evil Twins ostensibly discovered the Expeditious Vindicator on one of our many forays into a passé concocté, in the attic of Benjamin Waterman’s house in Whitefield, New Hampshire . . . Continue reading More Antics From the Evil Twins
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Recent Antics from the Evil Twins: A storybook for grownup children
A new project has emerged! Go here and read all about it! Continue reading Recent Antics from the Evil Twins: A storybook for grownup children
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12 Starving Artist Tips for the Cash-Strapped
“Sure, your mom gave you great penny-pinching advice . . . But the extreme moneysaving tips come from the people whose poverty is rarely a temporary condition.” Continue reading 12 Starving Artist Tips for the Cash-Strapped
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Speedy Johnson
“I feel like the goal of the artist should be to threaten the establishment and question the status quo, all the while projecting love upon the world. Other times I feel like the goal is to derange one’s senses enough to somehow glimpse the unknown . . . ” Continue reading Speedy Johnson
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Chazz Bravado, Male Feminist: A Brief History of Chazz
Chazz Bravado began with Erica Jong’s discovery that many men claimed to be feminists because it helped them get lucky. Continue reading Chazz Bravado, Male Feminist: A Brief History of Chazz
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In Praise of Amateur Writing
“Childlike wonder is the very vibrancy of creative life, and it’s so easily dulled by efforts to prune, correct, smooth, deconstruct, and critique.” Continue reading In Praise of Amateur Writing
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Standing Still—And Changing at the Speed of Light
I’ve been writing about music since the turn of the new millennium . . . Continue reading Standing Still—And Changing at the Speed of Light
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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?
Last year sales of vinyl records were the highest they’ve been since, well, since compact disk sales first surpassed vinyl in 1988. To better understand the complex of causes surrounding vinyl’s death and resurrection, let’s go back and look … Continue reading The Death of Vinyl?
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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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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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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
