February 2012
1 post
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January 2012
5 posts
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“I’m in awe of McCartney. He’s about the only one that I’m in...”
– Bob Dylan
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“Newt Gingrich is a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person sounds...”
– Paul Krugman
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“Only boring people are bored.”
– Betty Draper
December 2011
2 posts
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"The Stranger"
Tell me, enigmatical man, whom do you love the best, your father, your mother, your sister, or your brother? I have neither father, nor mother, nor sister, nor brother. Your friends? Now you use a word whose meaning I have never known. Your country? I do not know under what latitude it lies. Beauty? I could indeed love her, Goddess and Immortal. Gold? I hate it as as you hate God. ...
November 2011
1 post
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August 2011
1 post
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Musical Auteurism: Recognizing Genius
Several weeks ago, my PopMatters article entitled “Paul McCartney: An Auteur” caused quite a stir. In that piece, I attempt to position Paul McCartney as an artist of the highest standard, one whose entire body of work must be taken seriously. Many of the comments I received criticized my lack of reasoning and found fault in positioning McCartney as a man who can do no wrong. I also...
June 2011
1 post
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Paul McCartney: An Auteur
In the year 2300, alien inhabitants will revere Paul McCartney in the same way Mozart and Beethoven are today. Paul McCartney is an artist of the first rank. The notion that he is talented yet slight (particularly regarding his solo years) simply doesn’t exist except through the lens of Rolling Stone’s post-breakup Lennon worship. McCartney’s effortless mastery, with no...
March 2011
1 post
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Against the Consensus: Chungking Express
In this series, I intend to revisit certain acclaimed films with inflated reputations. The films I chose will not neccesarily be without merit (I feel Chungking Express is a fine film for example), merely ones which are not as masterful as the critical community would claim. I do not intend to review these films, but rather refute the critical consensus of select “untouchable” ...
January 2011
1 post
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Watch
“All The Time” (Live at the White Mule)
Original Song. January 8, 2011. Columbia, SC
November 2010
3 posts
2 tags
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October 2010
4 posts
“Since when have men like you grown cold?”
“The first philosopher.”
– Jean Toomer, Cane
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Each to Each (Original Short Story)
In the middle of life’s way, he found himself within the city—dissonance enclosing his opened door. He locked the slab behind him, and, so full of slumber, crept into a sullen procession. He walked at a warm pace. His lungs entrapped the sharp cool of cold weather exercise. City streets drove a muddled roar he did not hear. Adrift in song, he ignored a decaying motel; a flashing burst of neon...
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September 2010
2 posts
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“The people she liked, rebels mostly, disturbed her and were bad for her — she...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is The Night
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August 2010
5 posts
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Lulling a limp relaxing roar The white-tipped chords cleanse the feet Of lovers, escaping hand-in-hand Onto unpaved streets of softened sand
-poem I wrote on the beach Sunday night
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The Lost Art of the Non-Album Single
In the glory age of rock music (mid 1960’s-early 1970’s), the single was conceptualized as its own entity, separate from long playing records. Particularly in Britain (where arguably the best music was being made), the album was a unified unit, not to be disjointed by an out of place single. Bands such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones crafted their most commercially appealing...
July 2010
3 posts
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"Cruelty" by Lucille Clifton
cruelty. don’t talk to me about cruelty or what i am capable of. when i wanted the roaches dead i wanted them dead and i killed them. i took a broom to their country and smashed and sliced without warning without stopping and i smiled all the time i was doing it. it was a holocaust of roaches, bodies, parts of bodies, red all over the ground. i didn’t ask their names. they had no names worth...
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“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip...”
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“Tolerance Break” - An original song...
June 2010
1 post
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-The Two Greatest American Bands
May 2010
6 posts
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“I Am Your Singer” - McCartney Cover....
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“Despite dozens of hits, putting together a cohesive album often seemed to be beyond the Stones, tripped up by either manager Allen Klein’s publishing-rights parasitism or the band’s goofy 1970s hubris.”
—A completely inaccurate excerpt from Pitchfork’s brain dead review of the Exile On Main Street Reissue.
I’m not even sure they know what the hell they’re talking about ...
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Rumours Ranked
It’s unfathomable that Christine McVie has the most songs of any of the 3 songwriters. The fact that the legendary classic “Silver Springs” got axed in favor of soft rock filler like “Songbird” and “Oh Daddy” is reprehensible.
1. Go Your Own Way 2. Second Hand News 3. Gold Dust Woman 4. Never Going Back Again 5. Dreams 6. I Don’t Wanna Know 7....
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April 2010
3 posts
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“Oceanic Drift”
Always shifting The...
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March 2010
6 posts
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The Worst Music Review Ever Written
There you have it folks: the single worst piece of music criticism ever written. But hey, what do you expect from the most irrelevant publication around?
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Album in Heavy Rotation
Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (1969)
This belongs up there with the best works of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. A landmark in soul. You don’t just listen to these tunes - you luxuriate in them. When you crank “Walk On By” up for the first time, and every note is as crisp as a cut diamond beaming straight into your brain, and 5 minutes roll by, then 7, then 9, and Isaac...
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The Beatles were the first punk rock band
Punk rock bands “created fast, hard-edged music, typically with short songs, stripped-down instrumentation, embracing a DIY (do it yourself) ethic”
This sounds familiar to me. It sounds like the greatest band of all time circa 1963 knocking out their first masterpiece in a marathon single day session. The Beatles had more edge than the Sex Pistols, rocked harder than the Clash, and...
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"Hey Girl" - An Original Song
Hey Girl when you walk away from me Hey Girl i’m as lonely as can be when you walk away from me I’m lonely….. Hey Girl
February 2010
10 posts
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“Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I...
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“Friend of the Devil” - Grateful Dead...
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