“DAVID BOWIE: ‘5 YEARS’ AND 5 YEARS…”
MARCH 12, 2021 FIVE YEARS AGO YESTERDAY DAVID BOWIE DIED, A YEAR SHY OF 7O. BOWIE WAS SO protean a talent, so iconoclastic, so mercurial, visionary and profound that his absence remains felt. His shadow…
SPRINGSTEEN’S LETTER TO US…AND HIMSELF
I RESISTED LISTENING TO LETTER TO YOU(2020) FOR THE LONGEST TIME. WHY TAKE THE CHANCE? I had liked Bruce Springsteen’s last album, Western Stars(2019) well enough, more than his latest releases. Why take the chance…
R.I.P. TONY RICE(1951-2020)
OBITS SEEM TO DOMINATE THESE WEEKLY POSTS. PLANNED CONTENT IS OFTEN scrapped to accomodate a salutation to some passing dignitary of the arts. Maybe this is as it should be but it doesn’t make it…
THE TREACLY, TERRIFIC ANTHEM OF BAND AID’S “DO THEY KNOW IT’S CHRISTMAS?” X YEARS LATER
PURCHASE HERE CHRISTMAS EVE, 2020, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE ROAD TO HELL MAY OR MAY NOT BE PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS. IF TRUE THERE is no more persistent 20th/21st Century cement…
“THE CHILD AND OTHER CONCLUSIONS…” SPOILER-FREE NOTES ON THE ENDING OF THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2
HOW A BELOVED TELEVISION SERIES ENDS–NOT HOW IT BEGINS–OCCUPIES SO MUCH social media bandwidth that this instantaneous democratic Greek chorus improbably affects how many people come to view the series itself. Beginning with The Sopranos;…
TAYLOR-LORE: TWO SETS OF TAKEAWAYS FROM TAYLOR SWIFT’S “FOLKLORE” AND “EVERMORE”
PURCHASE: FOLKLORE PURCHASE: EVERMORE TWO TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUMS IN ONE YEAR MIGHT BE A DREAM COME TRUE FOR THE “Swifties,” but a mixed and/or curious development for the rest of us. Taylor Swift is now…
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BOB DYLAN HAS MADE OFF LIKE A ROUNDER–AGAIN(GOOD FOR HIM)
A 79-YEAR OLD BOB DYLAN TRENDING THESE DAYS, AS HE DID ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020 throws up an immediate red flag. Fortunately the news wasn’t macabre. It was head scratchin,’ perfectly Dylan-esque: it was…
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MEXICO CITY: PARIS OR MARS? Roberto Bolaño’s “The Spirit of Science Fiction”
=>To order your copy now ONLY FOR ROBERTO BOLAÑO WOULD I CONSIDER PICKING UP WHAT I RIGHTFULLY PRESUMED WOULD be a science fiction title. I have been reading books for almost half a century…
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“KYLIE NIGHT FEVER”: THE NOSTALGIC APPEAL OF KYLIE MINOGUE’S “DISCO”
4 TAKEAWAYS FROM KYLIE MINOGUE’S 15TH STUDIO ALBUM DISCO: IT’S A WELCOME RELIEF Ignore the “woke” crowd, it’s perfectly acceptable even during the most trying times for entertainment to serve as a diversion. The…
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“CLOSE-HARMONY FOR ALL TIMES, NOT JUST COVID”: THE RETURN OF GILLIAN WELCH & DAVID RAWLINGS
GILLIAN WELCH AND DAVID RAWLINGS DON’T NEED NO COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS TO MAKE “isolation” music. It’s encoded in their DNA. Whether a Gillian Welch “solo” album or a David Rawlings Machine group release, this unique duo…