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”
Tag Archives: music
#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”
#564: Starlings
When I read the prompt today on the NaPoWriMo website, to write a poem about listening to or singing a song while driving, incorporating a lyric quote somewhere in the piece, and I read the example poem by Ellen Bass, I knew immediately what song I would write about. And shortly thereafter I also knewContinue reading “#564: Starlings”
#558: Xenia, Ohio in Four Movements
I We’re in Ohio, outside of Daytonin a town called Xenia, stayingat a Hampton Hotel, where theideal of the mythic guest-friendship is somewhat wanting. All the fixturesare installed off-kilter or crooked,the bathroom door came off itsglider, trapped my wife in there,I almost lost myfingers trying to free her,and the toilet seat is broken. No oneContinue reading “#558: Xenia, Ohio in Four Movements”
#557: Hotel Breakfast (a loose villanelle)
“I was poor in love, I was poor in wealth,”But breakfast is complimentary here, and“I was okay in everything else there was.” In my free associations between Young,Bejar, and Dylan, over bad hotel eggs,“I was poor in love, I was poor in wealth,” The refrain from a song on Destroyer’sKaput keeps rattling inside my head,“IContinue reading “#557: Hotel Breakfast (a loose villanelle)”
#556: Dylan
Dylan The night before the trip, visiting with a dear friend, I drink a beer after 60 days without alcohol. I have another beer when I get home. I feel like a million bucks. It’s a question of when to stop, which seems like a revelation. At the newly refurbished and beautified Portland airport lobby, weContinue reading “#556: Dylan”
#554: A Friendship Ghazal
All my best friends are musicians, it seems, which is no surprise, Cool cats who sing, strum, pluck, pound, mix, and write, not a surprise. I married one some 39 years ago and we’re still together, drumming. I did the easy part, but she gave birth to one, a great drummer, surprise. Guitar players, whoContinue reading “#554: A Friendship Ghazal”
#553: A History of Drumming
Today’s poem is very loosely a poem. It’s a little essay broken into lines so as to imitate a poem, a pretty standard technique of mine. I tend to be pretty liberal about what constitutes a poem and what does not. Like most discussions around genre and form, it’s really only interesting if one findsContinue reading “#553: A History of Drumming”
#550: That Guy
Wednesday night at the John Grant concert, my friend and I sat mesmerized by his witty stage banter, his beautiful voice, one man, a grand piano, and a synth. A low volume rock show, in between songs after the enthusiastic applausewe could hear the theater seats creak,and while he played, even in the quietestmoments, IContinue reading “#550: That Guy”
michael jarmer 