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"Essays"
“It’s interesting to think that with copyright law, as suggested in Creative License, being less than conducive to artists who use collage technique today, that Andy Warhol would have had as much success now.”
“Evil has become a product of manufacture, it is built into our whole industrial and political system, it is being manufactured every day, it is rolling off the assembly line, it is being sold in the stores, it pollutes the air… Perhaps the way to cope with the adversary is to confront him [...]
On July 19th I visited the local Borders bookstore in York County, Pennsylvania after hearing a wave of rumors about this location closing their doors in the upcoming month. Pulling up to the store I noticed a large red sign hanging above the entryway. My heart plummeted; the rumors must be true I thought as [...]
I smiled at the delight of receiving two extra cherries, which almost made up for the fact that the monkey was blue. Mike had just brought a Shirley Temple to my table, placing it on a paper coaster he had tossed there, a coaster with “Bud” written in faded red letters. I’d been hanging [...]
There are two things new users should note before using the Burntisland Beach Disaster program. First, excessive use will lead to bouts of extreme physical violence and permanent depression. Second, we are not responsible for long-lasting psychological wounds incurred in the use of the program, or the resultant murders, suicides or massacres. Please [...]
The morning after Wisconsin voted Russ Feingold out after eighteen years as one of their two U.S. senators, my friend Alex, whom I attended UW-Madison with, texted: It looks like the best man in the senate, russ feingold, is out! I am so sad… A couple hours later Emily, my former girlfriend of [...]
You can hardly call it nostalgia: I was not yet one. Yet all I listen to these days is the jazz of that bygone time. In ’58 alone: Coleman Hawkins, out of fashion, but still blowing strong.
More nervous than I thought I’d be. How to get past the enormous elephant in the room…but the moment I see him the nervousness melts away. The not-so-happy memories don’t matter. Here sits one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever heard and I’m determined to get more people aboard the Jason Whitton train.
All three songs reflect Davies’ positive concern for the man-next-store and his longing for community and themadays. “Neighbor” muses about the mixed fortunes of Misters Jones, Brown and Smith. Smith’s fate is the most discouraging, since rage gets the best of him. “Workingman’s Café “is nostalgic for the village green, which in Davies-speak is the ideal social arrangement for human beings, and in his imagination, existed once upon a time in England only to be lost to modernity. What is material here are the melodies, the voice and the poetry, which never fail to set my heart aflutter.
And while we’re on the subject of vampires…. while driving this morning, the T. Rex song “Jeepster,” came on the radio. Like most of Marc Bolan’s repertoire, the song is infectious, it’s sexy, or as one YouTube commentator puts it, “ If it’s possible for a song to have testicles (is that word allowed here?), this song has ‘em!”
