Day Seventeen of Sonnetpalooza finds me writing a poem about music, a thing I do from time to time, as music, it turns out, is one of the central concerns of my life–listening, making, recording, performing. Hardly a day goes by when I am not doing one of those four things at some point orContinue reading “#455: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello . . .”
Category Archives: Music
The Book I Read: I Got the Music in Me–Talking Heads 77 and Annie Kim’s Award Winning Eros, Unbroken
Listen to the podcast version of this blog entry! I’m writing ’bout the book I read I have to sing about the book I read I’m embarassed to admit it hit the soft spot in my heart When I found out you wrote the book I read David Byrne, from “The Book I Read,” TalkingContinue reading “The Book I Read: I Got the Music in Me–Talking Heads 77 and Annie Kim’s Award Winning Eros, Unbroken”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XVII–The Impactful Album Challenge
What follows, dear reader, is a revised and slightly expanded version of my participation in the Facebook Album Challenge that’s been making the rounds of late in this merry, merry month of May in the year of our pandemic, 2020. I include it here so that it’s all in one spot for quick reference forContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XVII–The Impactful Album Challenge”
Congratulations: You’ve Written Another 30 Poems. Now What?
May 1st and May 2nd I spent all day both days not writing a poem. I continued not writing poetry on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. It turns out, no poetry was written into the days and the week ahead, so that today, on the 10th of May, I have written not a single poem.Continue reading “Congratulations: You’ve Written Another 30 Poems. Now What?”
#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable
Some very old things are new again, especially this gem, the turntable. Certainly, you’re not going to see a cassette tape renaissance, or, god-forbid, an 8-track tape revival, or a home stereo reel-to-real reprise, or a digital audio tape come-back, but you are going to see turntables, turn, turn, turntables. Some old technology is deadContinue reading “#361: Turn, Turn, Turntable”
#359: Yeah
I love it when the word “yeah” shows up in a song lyric, not in the conventional way, as in “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah,” but in an informal, conversational way, when the word feels almost like filler, but you know that it’s not. Wayne Coyne uses the word “well” as the very firstContinue reading “#359: Yeah”
#350: The Garden of Earthly Deep Purple
Today’s NaPoWriMo suggestion was to write a persona poem in the point of view of a character from Bosch’s famous triptych “Garden of Earthly Delights.” A great prompt idea, I think, one that I would have liked to write from. But even after I watched and listened to the interactive tour of this crazy thingContinue reading “#350: The Garden of Earthly Deep Purple”
The Dear Hunter: My New Prog Rock Obsession
It starts innocently enough, and slow, with the download (I think from emusic) of a six tune extended play called “All Is As All Should Be” by a band called The Dear Hunter. This happens maybe two years ago. Undeniably a great performance by extremely gifted musicians and a singer who is both super melodicContinue reading “The Dear Hunter: My New Prog Rock Obsession”
Thank You, Neil, Part 2: On Becoming a Rush Completist
I pinned down the year I stopped listening to Rush to 1983. Totally immersed in the New Wave and Punk movements of the day, listening to progressive music I found more avant-garde, like Zappa or Adrian Belew-era King Crimson, it was the year I graduated from high school, the year after the Signals record cameContinue reading “Thank You, Neil, Part 2: On Becoming a Rush Completist”
To Be a Life-Long Listener
In education we often bandy about one of our most sincere hopes for our students and aspirations for ourselves, to be life-long learners. I’m a huge fan of this concept. I never want to be complacent about my learning, about expanding the horizons of my brainiac: I want to read new things, write new things,Continue reading “To Be a Life-Long Listener”
michael jarmer 