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~shaking riffs
By Elizabeth Navarro, on March 19th, 2010 117 views  I am retired grunge girl who now dabbles in housewifery. The angst coveting girl in flannel and cut-off grey sweats who listened to Nirvana, The Cure and Violent Femmes was left in the mid-nineties. Since then I had been looking for something. Music that excited me the way Smells like Teen Spirit had when I first heard it. The way The Pixies Bone Machine made me crave Japanese fast food. And though my torment had morphed from wild and dramatic teen agony to a quieter rebellion, I still needed a voice for it. I needed angst with
Continue reading Essential Listening: Elizabeth Navarro time travels back to the first post-Grunge years
~Shaking Now
By Donald Levin, on March 15th, 2010 73 views  A long channel of breath, Ginsberg
called him, the old stroked-out poet
with half-shut eyes and stiff lips
limning an image of the lean
smokestack…
Continue reading Not What He Said But How
mixtapes
By Molly Gaudry, on March 12th, 2010 120 views  Song I listened to the summer I turned fifteen: Radiohead’s “High and Dry.” I was studying writing for six weeks at Andover and there was a boy with a guitar singing beneath a tree on the quad. I still remember his name: Jeff Agia. He introduced me that day to Radiohead. What a crush I had. What a silly girl I was. He never knew I
Continue reading SONGS I LISTENED TO DURING EACH OF THE FOREVER-LIFE-CHANGING MOMENTS IN MY LIFE
reviews
By Scott Duhamel, on March 7th, 2010 189 views  Crazy Heart’s well-traveled tale concerns itself with Bad Blake (Bridges), yet another country and western macho poet with a fistful of magical songs, heartsick and stumbling towards oblivion with a lungful of cigarette smoke and gut full of bourbon. Blake bounces from Bowling Alley stage to straight-up saloon gig, often puking mid-song, piloting himself with laid back charm or churlishness, almost broken with regret, yet nursing dreams about reversing his showbiz status. His shaky encounters with a trio of antagonists set the stage for an admirably unforced and neatly ambiguous tale of
Continue reading Crazy Heart, Take II: Falling and Flying
~poems
By Donald Levin, on March 4th, 2010 164 views  He left behind the frozen landscape
and empty mines of his Midwestern home
to head east, for New York
where he heard it was all
Continue reading At the Red Lobster in Duluth, MN
Featured
By the editors, on March 2nd, 2010 93 views  This past Saturday night, fifty-plus hearty spirits crowded the Mediator Fellowship Hall in Providence, RI, braving the churlish end-of-February weather for a night of shiny music, shimmering poetry and shaking prose. It was shaking’s maiden voyage public-wise, a shakingdown cruise so to speak. Everyone survived. Yea, I dare say even flourished__ to the delight of the writers and presenters (Jericho Brown, Marita Andrade, Jo-Ann Reid, R.A. Stovetop Lawson, Liz Carter, Scott Duhamel and shaking editor Mr. Don), and a trio of fine singer/ songwriters (Mark Cutler, Chris Monti and Anthony Loffredio).The next one’s already on the drawing table; check these pages for announcements of more shaking evenings to
Continue reading The First Ever shaking Presents… February 27, 2010
reviews
By Fred Shaw, on March 1st, 2010 161 views  Another writer once proclaimed Patti Smith to be the “Godmother of Punk,” and it would be tricky to dispute that she doesn’t deserve the title. Her 1975 debut album, the seminal Horses, uses an effective blend of well-crafted poetry and three chord guitar rock with beautifully placed feedback to set a standard for a generation of rockers. Bands such as R.E.M. and The Smiths, which fielded influential musicians of their own, have remarked on the impact of Smith’s music on their own
Continue reading Just Kids: Book Review
mixtapes
By Jericho Brown, on February 26th, 2010 186 views  Poet Jericho Brown lays down the perfect mix tape to groove to, break up to, and dance lying down to.
Featuring tracks by Prince, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Tendy Pendergrass, and
Continue reading Jericho Brown’s Down and Dirty Funk and Soul Mix
~poems
By Alison Luterman, on February 24th, 2010 110 views  Rain for weeks, Biblical,
the streets slick
as licked gray sticks of gum.
Merciless sluice
over the
Continue reading On the Bridge
~stories
By Donald Dewey, on February 20th, 2010 205 views  When does it dawn on you that you want to play the piano? When your mother keeps dragging you off to see her best friend, Dame Myra Hess? When the toy piano you got for your fourth birthday is the only thing you managed to save from the earthquake? Or is it when you pass a musical instruments store, suddenly begin trembling, go inside, sit down at the first bench, and, without knowing how, spin off what the astounded salesman identifies as Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and
Continue reading The Jazz Pianist and the Misanthrope
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