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We Talk About You When You Leave
A guy walks into a hotel restaurant bar in Boston’s Back Bay on an October night in 2003. The staff politely inform him that it is closing time, but that he may order from the full menu and have room service bring his order to his suite. The expensively dressed “gentleman” insists that he be…
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Top 40 Over 40.9: Jandek….live?!?!
I didn’t pay much attention to what was going on in the undie music scene during the aughts. I listened to some things that were current, but mostly I was just writing lyrics on my own and listening to a lot of modern classical music. When I started lending an ear indie-ward over the last…
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The Interpretation of Dreams
I don’t usually watch the Olympics much. Not because I don’t enjoy the events, but because NBC usually feels compelled to shovel forklifts of “human interest” stories down your throat with brief breaks taken for cursory athletic performances. So I wasn’t surprised when I checked in on the Olympics briefly this summer and didn’t see…
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R.I.P., MCA.1
I’d like to express my respect for the late MCA’s work by sharing some thoughts his passing brought to mind about an aspect of his life that many of referred to but few focus on at length, which is his interest in and practice of Buddhist teachings. I didn’t learn about Buddhism from MCA, and…
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“You should know from the kindness of a dog how a man should be” – Captain Beefheart
From Faces and Masks: Trilogy of Fire volume 2 by Eduardo Galeano 1833: Arequipa “Happy creatures,” says Flora Tristan. Flora is travelling through Peru, her father’s country, and in the mountains discovers the only animal man has not been able to debase. The gentle llamas are more agile than mules and climb higher. They…
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Wanna read Wainaina? You should!
I’ve decided many of my posts are too long, so I’m gonna keep this short: I just started reading One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina this morning and it’s awesome. Check it out!
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Top 40 Over 40.8: Scott Walker’s hat trick
Sometimes pop artists you associate with youth surprise you with a new vocal persona that suits them as they get older. (Think Robert Plant on Raising Sand.) But in the case of Scott Walker, he never really sounded like a young man to begin with. Sure, he was a teen idol back in the late…
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Top 40 Over 40.7: Egypt by Youssou N’Dour
This album was one of a few that made me want to try putting strings on my next record. I don’t like how strings are often used in western pop as a soft bed of sound in the background. I do like how they carry the lead parts on much of this album. The Egyptian…
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Other John Davises.2: Practice Space Music
In a parallel lifetime, I moonlight as the lead singer of Korn. If you haven’t seen me recently, the ‘locks may seem like a bit of a stylistic departure from the shorter look you can see below at left: Chris from Refrigerator wrestled me to the ground until I promised to grow my hair out…