Music & Performing Arts
The Shot Heard Round the World: Meditations on "Son of a Gun"
“If there is no combat in love, then it has ceased.” ~ Søren Kierkegaard A few weeks ago I arrived fashionably late to the folk-rock musical Son of a Gun at The Beckett at T...
Other Post
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Buckley's "Hallelujah"
December 21, 2012 -
Christmas Tunes of Another Sort
December 19, 2012 -
Christmas Unicorn
December 12, 2012 -
Matthew E. White on Craftsmanship, Gospel Music & Andre 3000
November 30, 2012 -
We Need To Talk About Mumford
October 12, 2012 -
"Music is a moral law." --Plato
October 01, 2012
Whither the Music Mag?
Few things get Quincy Jones riled up like death. First, it was Michael Jackson's. Then, it was Vibe's. The monthly magazine covering black pop culture was shuttered suddenly last month 16 years after Jones co-founded it. The private equity firm that owned it failed to find a buyer. That was the only way to keep it solvent. The next day, after the news emerged, Jones vowed to revive it: "They just messed my magazin...
Four Year Hibernation
A four-year absence is a risk for any band, especially in a musical climate as diverse - dare I say saturated - as today's. It's more than enough time to fade into distant memory, a once-fresh album turned into another of nostalgia's trophies, another rising star fallen from the sky and rendered obsolete by those more eager to shine their lights, even if they don't shine as bright. That said, four years can also be...
The Dustbowl Troubadour
For us "Okies" (or, Oklahomans, in case you haven't read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath), our musical stars glow brightly: Carrie Underwood, Garth Brooks, Leon Russell, Hoyt Axton, Reba McIntire, Jimmy Webb, Patti Page - just to mention a few. But one of my favorites is Woody Guthrie. Woody was born July 14, 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma, and died in 1967. Okemah is a Kickapoo Indian word which means "things up high....
Star Trek in the Park
William Shakespeare's Statue in Central Park. Photo: Peter Roan This was going to be a very intelligent article. After using this space previously to gush about summer blockbusters and iPhones, I meant for this month's subject matter to be smarter - or, at least, headier. I fully intended to go for that most of academic of topics, the kind of thing you would have to read in one browser tab with Wikipedia open ...
A Human Revolution
Against the backdrop of a deepening blue, the murmurs of an eclectic crowd rise up and fizzle into the open space above East 7th Street. The sun hasn't quite set as The Human Revolution takes the stage - a cozy corner atop a generous East Village roof - but an early start means anything except an early finish at this makeshift venue. "We'll go all night if we feel like it," says the band's frontman, the charismatic...
Sigur Rós Redeems the Music Video
I haven't watched MTV in years; the last time I tuned in, the programming schedule didn't include many music videos. Inane game shows and morbidly fascinating reality shows were about it. Any actual videos jarred my psyche like a fingernail dragged down a chalkboard. It wasn't the various forms of gratuitous vulgarity that disturbed me - it was bad art. The lyrics were ridiculous. The music wasn't what I would call...
Lost in the Cosmos
Night Sky, a new off-Broadway play, concerns a world renowned astronomer named Anna who suffers an injury to her brain during a car accident and loses her abilities of language and communication - a condition known as aphasia. I was recently invited by the play's producer to see its final rehearsal at Baruch City College in midtown Manhattan. I arrived at the practice space, a small classroom three stories below...
