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”
Category Archives: Music
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”
#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better
All day I had Morrissey’s voice in my head after 5 albums worth of The Queen is Dead, the original album and eight sides of bonus and the lyrics to the song “I Know It’s Over” percolating and reverberating everywhere and again; it was almost too much to bear. I walked up and down hallwaysContinue reading “#309: My Morrissey is Getting Better”
Concert Review Confessions: St. Vincent at the Keller Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, January 20.
In part because I have listened to all five St. Vincent albums over recent days in preparation for the live appearance this last weekend here in Portland, I have made no new progress on the H section of my CD collection, on my alphabetical listening and blogging project that seems to go on forever. Instead,Continue reading “Concert Review Confessions: St. Vincent at the Keller Auditorium, Portland, Oregon, January 20.”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XV–Here Comes Everybody Survives the 20th Century
Back again so soon? I’ve got about a day and a half to fulfill my Pre-New Year’s Eve New Year’s Eve resolution of writing about the entire Here Comes Everybody catalogue before 2018. In case you’re just stepping into the fray, in short, it has been my project over the last three years or soContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XV–Here Comes Everybody Survives the 20th Century”
Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIV–31 Years of Here Comes Everybody
Oh my. It’s been almost an entire year since the last time I added an installment to this series. Maybe I will make a New Year’s Resolution not to wait another year before the next one! I did not intend to write about my own music in this series, only tangentially as it related toContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume XIV–31 Years of Here Comes Everybody”
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