Celebrating Community
Sunn O))) – Pyroclasts (Southern Lord) LIke Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere – Sacred Quietus (Zazen Sounds) Every so often, a band comes along the greatness of which is beyond its own measure, a band that stands as a gateway to discovery. Miles Davis’s groups, the Yardbirds, the various incarnations of Acid Mothers Temple, all lead to multiple – and […]
Scott Sharrard has told me that he’s like the Yo-Yo Ma of Americana music. In other words, he’s playing music which is sadly slipping into history. He said that as many younger people drift away from roots music, music with traditions, they are often looking for music with a beat, music made on a laptop, music that sounds like a […]
The t-shirt Blake Sandberg wears under his leather jacket speaks volumes. The iconic image — a line drawing of a mutant frog-thing with the caption bubble “HI, HOW ARE YOU” — is at least as famous as its creator, the troubled and sometimes revered singer/songwriter Daniel Johnston, who died in September at the age of 58, and the frog-thing’s question […]
What is jazz? The question isn’t philosophical, it’s practical—jazz is a practice. Jazz is just about 100 years old, with a give-or-take that depends on when your ears tell you musicians started playing it. The Original Dixieland Jass Band was the first group to record the music, in 1917, but they, and others, had been playing it for a considerable […]
Let’s say you get hired as a librarian. You go to your first day eager to please; suddenly they line up a bunch of Jameson shots to begin the shift. Things might just go off the rails. I have a job where that happens. Musicians that play in clubs have an interesting relationship with alcohol; there is not a lot […]
There’s always a specific feeling as you enter a space built for performance theater. It’s not as casual as a movie theater, yet not quite as dynamic as an arena. History seems to cling to architectural details, washing over the slick, shiny tiled floor. An established sense of pride lingers in air. As I entered The Public Theater on a […]
It’s never “just a movie.” No matter the pedigree, quality, or budget, filmmakers use their medium not just to tell stories and entertain but to engage viewers in some kind of sociopolitical-economic commentary, regardless if it’s Steven Spielberg or Jane Campion or Roger Corman or Ed Wood behind the camera. And when some director deflects with “it’s just a movie,” […]
Everyone knows the Mona Lisa. Some have seen the Mona Lisa from behind a rope after queuing up at the Louvre. Only few have gazed upon it up close. Now, due to technological advances, all can linger on extraordinary digital presentations of the Mona Lisa along with Leonard’s other paintings, drawings and sketches. We can see the cracks on the […]
In September, Naire McCormick, who grew up in the Red Hook housing projects, was killed by her spouse, who subsequently turned the gun on himself. For the people of Red Hook, this marked the second tragedy within the last year stemming from domestic abuse, where a man has taken it upon himself to claim the life of a woman as […]
I dream of you often nowadays. I must admit that when the Beatles broke up, I was mad at you. We had spent far too much time together. Like brothers, we slept in the same bed sometimes. We were boxed into hotel rooms, having to take refuge from a world that wanted to steal a piece of us. We wrote […]