Music Bloggers Redux
The music industry’s devil and savior bear the same name: the web. Five years later, we reconvene our panel of music blogfathers for a look into the future.
Mike Deri Smith
Tom Piazza
Author Tom Piazza’s latest novel, City of Refuge, was runner-up in this year’s Tournament of Books. As a music writer, he won a Grammy for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey. TMN: During the Tournament of Books, David Rees said City
Breakfast, Lunch, and Winners
Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal has been picked to lead the war in Afghanistan, and on only one meal a day. One week spent in the general's reduced-calorie footsteps.
We Are All Made of Stars
You don't realize how far you've come, how insignificant you are, until you look up and remember--oh yeah! There are things called stars! Two hundred stars are born every second, filling me with the sort of hope too big to be printed across a nation.
Hauntology
Two musicians, elegant and focused modern powers, continue in guise, obscuring their true form, for their respective new releases. Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Bat For Lashes sooth us, flowing through our guts with a folk inspired hauntology and electric flourish. Will Oldham, in character as Bonnie "Prince&
Melting the Mind, Washing the Soul
It was sad to hear Silver Jews call it quits, but heartbreaking to hear founder David Berman reveal, a few hours later, that his father is the high-profile corporate lobbyist Richard Berman. David Berman Such comparisons bring souls crashing to earth. We must remember that music's power
Bottling Miraculous Creativity
Elizabeth Gilbert summons the spirit of the creativity genie, getting a rare standing ovation after her talk at the TED conference. Gilbert tries to bottle the essence of the creative process, being especially smart explaining the moments when we lose that bottle--the British idiom "losing your bottle"
Thoreau in the Towel
Mayan apocalyptic events are scheduled for 2012, giving Democrats another four years on the carousel of fear, just as the hell-ride slowed. Documentarians Joao Amorim and Daniel Pinchbeck don't think 2012 will be the end, preferring to tug at its symbolic potential, aligning their vision with a
Herzog's Ecstatic Antarctic Truth
Werner Herzog continues his quest for ecstatic truth in Encounters at The End of the World. The Academy Award nominated documentary shares the lives of people shaken down to Antarctica, interviews matched with choral-led underwater photography. Herzog's voice and narrative echoes through the film; colorful characters can&
Up Anchor!
If you've misplaced the Knife in all the mist, turn back and find their best half in a new guise as Fever Ray. Karin Elisabeth Dreijer Andersson nurtures her solo beats and breaths with great care, giving cavern ghosts a black-hole heartbeat, a beat and pace that