The line is three blocks long, people waiting to get into the DMV. I’m in this line half an hour before opening, and even when the doors open and the line begins to move, the wait is interminable. The old woman in front of me, who can barely stand, is cheerful, wants to chat. I amContinue reading “#577: DMV Meditation”
Monthly Archives: April 2025
#576: Ode to Andy
Somewhat of a recluse,stopped touring in the 80son the brink of your heyday,debilitating anxiety tookyou forever off the stagebut not from the studio,thanks be. Skylarking, a masterpiece, found youworking and fighting with Todd Rundgren to make the greatest record of the decade, for me, perhaps, the greatest of all time. I don’t knowa whole lotContinue reading “#576: Ode to Andy”
#575: There Is A Ritual To It
The dance floor is open, she says, and people begin dancing. Sometimes, she doesn’t have to say anything. From the first downbeat people leave their seatsand flock. They don’t even haveto be sure that the music is good. It starts, they begin, as if they could not help it. They are exercising, they areentertaining themselves,Continue reading “#575: There Is A Ritual To It”
#574: Saucers and Blimps and False Starts
Once something goes upside down it can never again be seen as the thing it once was. Or.Just model the opening statement after Auden:About some abstract noun they were never wrong,These young masters. How well they understood . . .Or.Poets sometimes, after 26 straight days of writing a poem every day,are visited by a bigContinue reading “#574: Saucers and Blimps and False Starts”
#573: A Double Loose Love Sonnet for Daily Records
I When I was a teen, 45 years ago now, I’d walk weekly to a neighborhoodrecord store. There were, in fact, three to choose from on the samesuburban strip, otherwise, a culturalwasteland. By the time I was an adult,all three of them were shuttered. My favorite, Everybody’s Records, turned into a pornshop. ALL ADULT VIDEOContinue reading “#573: A Double Loose Love Sonnet for Daily Records”
#572: On Seeing Your Son Perform at the University of Dayton Arena with Pulse Percussion
You try not to cry. Absolutely mind-blownby the ability, the skill,the prowess, the intensity of hisparts, his movement, his seamless integrationwith this group, a groupthat plays and movesas if it were one body. The tug comes from different directions. On the one hand, you miss him. He has been away from home for nearly sixContinue reading “#572: On Seeing Your Son Perform at the University of Dayton Arena with Pulse Percussion”
#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here
After something like 25 yearsliving on different sides of a widecontinent, the two friends decideto start writing music together. He’d arrange a musical idea,play bass guitar to a click track, maybe add some keyboard, and share these tracks with hisfriend via the mighty google drive. His friend, then, would downloadthese tracks into his own homestudio,Continue reading “#571: You’ll Always Be Right Here”
#570: Drum Lessons
Ringo Starr, one of the greatest drummers in the world, has admittedto not being able to do a double-stroke roll. I’ve seen children in YouTubevideos who are better drummers thanI will ever be. I don’t like these drummers. My son is a better rudimental drummer than I will ever be. How come? He worked aContinue reading “#570: Drum Lessons”
#569: Some Birds
I sit in meditationin a room with banksof window on three walls.The windows that openare open. It’s morning, April, and it’s cool in here;a breeze moves throughand I am almost cold. I practice breathing. Some birds are out there,doing their bird thing. We call it singing. This morning there’s a kind of call and responsehappeningContinue reading “#569: Some Birds”
#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go
I have taken my first dose of sodium, potassium, and magnesium sulfate, all thesulfates, sulfate, sulfate, sulfate, and I willsoon be indisposed, but before thenI am listening to the new OK Gowith the recommended follow updose of 32 ounces of water andthe poem that would be impossibleto write from a toilet. This is goodmusic, andContinue reading “#568: A Preemptive Poem For My Colonoscopy With Apologies to OK Go”
michael jarmer 