Sticky post
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)
Advertisements
Sticky post
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
So many words . . .
Should we stop writing? Singing? Painting?
Continue reading So many words . . .
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
Poetry Oughta Be Dumb
Lonesome Doc Doggerel Continue reading Poetry Oughta Be Dumb
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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,
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
The Tameca Jones Interview
Artistic Mission Statement: “To deliver sonic honey thunder and stop world ear hunger.” Continue reading The Tameca Jones Interview
Sticky post
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?
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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 . . .
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
Financial Advice for Artists in Debt
Money is just a construct. You’re already rich. Continue reading Financial Advice for Artists in Debt
Sticky post
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)
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
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
Sticky post
Nature, Wild and Tamed
Never undervalue the gardener of public spaces. Continue reading Nature, Wild and Tamed
Sticky post
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
