A well-selected soundtrack can elevate a meager narrative, ho-hum acting, or clunky dialogue. Listen closely.
I have many dreams of many paths. Yet I, stupid little dreamer that I am, had wandered from one of those paths.
Instead of the Jon Secada & Lady Gaga Christmas Duets from La-La-Land, we get Pirates of the Caribbean: Mists of the Black Coal Stocking.
Few joys found in music are greater than when you delve into the mystery of what makes it move you; when you seek those songs in which you find an endless forest of leaves.
Pitchfork has released their list of the top 500 tracks of the last decade – and they provide streaming links so you can listen to most of them. The top ten: 1. OutKast – “B.O.B.” 2. LCD Soundsystem – “All My Friends” 3. M.I.A. [ft. Bun B and Rich Boy] – “Paper Planes (Diplo Remix)” [...]
From Psychology Today: What your music says about your personality. The question “What kind of music do you like?” is so revealing, it is the number one topic of conversation among young adults who are getting to know each other, according to psychologists Jason Rentfrow of the University of Cambridge in the U.K., and Sam [...]
I sort of loathe reading most accounts of history and politics. History and politics are two great humanity-shaping forces, and I recognize the importance of absorbing such information. But all too often, these accounts are poorly written: arid deserts of facts and dates, with no mention of stories of the actual people who lived out [...]
From The Believer: Dancing About Architecture. I just published a novel about music. Early in the process of writing it, I was warned by a similarly music-obsessive friend that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Since that first somewhat menacing reminder, I’ve heard the line frequently. At first blush, the claim is a [...]
Karl Paulnack’s welcome address to parents of students at Boston Conservatory. I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or [...]