michaeljarmer

#738: Hate Is A Pretty Strong Word

From the letters of Charles Darwin: “Oh my God how do I hate species & varieties.” “I am very tired, very stomachy & hate nearly the whole world.” “I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything.” “I hate myself, I hate clover, and I hate bees.” “I amContinue reading “#738: Hate Is A Pretty Strong Word”

#737: I is for It’s A Beautiful Day

The first time I heard this record, it was January in 2024 as I was goingthrough a stack of records bequeathed to me by my brother-in-law, Kevin. This is what I wrote: Embarrassed a little bit to admit it, but even though I have seen this album cover a thousand times, and wondered in stupefactionContinue reading “#737: I is for It’s A Beautiful Day”

#736: I is for Illuminati Hotties

“Pool Hopping” has to be one of the mostcrushing power pop punk rock songs in recentmemory. Followed immediately on the albumLet Me Do One More by the equally sassy andwildly exuberant “MMMOOOAAAAAYAYA.” One would be hard pressed to find two more powerful opening tracks in the wholeof the year of our pandemic, 2020-21.The project ofContinue reading “#736: I is for Illuminati Hotties”

#735: The Teacher, April 3, 2026

The Teacher, April 3, 2026 Tries to stop his studentsfrom thinking. Tries to inspireall manner of bad habits. Encourages errors of every stripe and color. Stop endingyour sentences with a period, he says. Use the passive voicewhenever possible and spellingthese days is overrated. Verb tenseagreement is passé and who everheard of a question mark.There’s no reason for learning toContinue reading “#735: The Teacher, April 3, 2026”

#734: I is for Icehouse

“It’s always cold outside the Icehouse.”And “there’s no love inside the Icehouse.” It’s 1981 and I’m 17, totally immersed in what they call New Wave music, neverto return, or to return only nostalgically,to the hard rock of my pre-teen years.Certainly, I saw the video for the titletrack and theme song for this new bandon MTV,Continue reading “#734: I is for Icehouse”

#733: A Memory Poem on April 2, 2026

Once, as a grade schooler, my father and my uncle took me out on a boat into the oceanfor deep sea fishing. Worriedthat I might get sick, my fathergave me a Dramamine. I remember crawling into theboat’s cabin and sleepingthrough the entire fishing trip. When I woke, long after the boat had come back to dock, I remember feeling peevedthat IContinue reading “#733: A Memory Poem on April 2, 2026”

#732: H is for Hozier

My first Hozier experience, like it was for most people,was “Take Me To Church,” an unlikely pop song that managed to take the Catholicchurch to task while soundinglike a spiritual, or gospel music. There were those smart, literarylyrics and that gigantic voice. It didn’t really matter to me that stylistically it was not musicin myContinue reading “#732: H is for Hozier”

#731: A Tanka on April 1st, 2026

Happy April 1, the first day of National Poetry Month, and for those who participate, National Poetry WRITING Month, or NaPoWriMo for short. I find myself in a little bit of a pickle. If you’ve been reading my almost daily work here on the blog, you will know that I am writing poem-like-things about eachContinue reading “#731: A Tanka on April 1st, 2026”

#730: H is for Howard, Brittany

Brittany Howard first came to my attention as the lead singer and guitar playerfor Alabama Shakes. An unbelievably greatplayer with a tremendous voice, she fronted a band that was doing some hybrid of blues, gospel, jazz,funk, all with the kind of sonic production you’d find on the most alternative of rock records. The two Brittany Howard solo albums pushContinue reading “#730: H is for Howard, Brittany”

#729: H is for Hot Chip

This album by Hot Chip has the distinction of having the absoluteworst graphic design of almost any record ever, certainly of any recordin my collection. The track list, the title,the lyrics, the name of the band, the credits, appear to all be jammed togetherand overlapping each other on the frontcover, black ink on a whiteContinue reading “#729: H is for Hot Chip”