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”
Category Archives: Music
#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”
Thank You, Neil
Somewhat unusually, I think, because it wasn’t a huge hit, the first album I heard from Rush was the debut, the only Rush record without a Neil Peart on the drums. My brother had it, and during those days, as young as I was, my brothers’ and my sister’s records just seemed to BE there.Continue reading “Thank You, Neil”
New Year Tradition? A New Way to Experience Music? 2020!
Section 1: A New Year Tradition? I hope this does not become a New Year’s Tradition, but two years in a row now, I have been ill going into New Year’s Eve and absolutely down for the count on the first day of the new year. Coupled with that has been a tradition that IContinue reading “New Year Tradition? A New Way to Experience Music? 2020!”
#340: Skylarking
It’s 1986, the winter after our wedding and we’re living in a shack. Seriously, I’m not a tall guy and I can stand in the living room and place my hands flat on the ceiling. It’s the holiday season and I’ve just bought XTC’s “Skylarking,” which I listen to from start to finish over andContinue reading “#340: Skylarking”
Educational Music Shopping: Why Did These Artists Win Grammys?
Okay, I know exactly why the Laurie Anderson/Kronos Quartet record won a Grammy: because it is awesome. But I wondered about the other winners, the ones that, of course, I had heard of (you’d have to be living under a rock not to have heard of them), but had never listened to. So, at MusicContinue reading “Educational Music Shopping: Why Did These Artists Win Grammys?”
Michael Tests the Mic
So, I got a new USB microphone. It’s the Yeti Pro from Blue Designs, and it’s pretty much the inspiration for this, the first blog entry I’ve made since July. Sorry that I’ve been so long away. I hope you missed me just a little. I decided to shoot a video and I talk hereContinue reading “Michael Tests the Mic”
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