If you’re like me, you appreciate it when musicians work to innovate, to come up with cool new sounds and things that we haven’t heard before. But there’s that old saying: “there is nothing new under the sun,” and that goes double for music. Even the best and most creative artists are really just synthesizing old influences in novel ways,
Read moreFirst in a series. A few moments ago, at 11:30am EDT, Atlantis lifted off, marking the 135th and final mission in NASA’s historic Space Shuttle program, which began in 1981. The Shuttle era was defined by glory and tragedy and perhaps even a bit of banality. After all, the first time you do something it’s exciting, but at some point
Read moreAs I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I now live in a development on the site of Denver’s old Elitch Gardens amusement part, which operated from 1890-1993. In addition to the really cool new urban community, there’s also some historic preservation going on, as they renovate the old theater. I’m being told that at this stage they’re doing basic
Read moreToday we offer a nod to the music of America by paying tribute to our past and to our future. First, Woody Guthrie reminds us: this land is your land, too.
Read moreDay 2 of our celebration of America, its art and literature. This is Jeunesse, by the Harlem Renaissance painter Palmer Hayden. More on the Harlem Renaissance can be found at Artlex.
Read moreS&R salutes the United States, warts and all. Today we launch a little 4th of July Art & Poetry Jam with Claude McKay’s famous sonnet, “America.” More great poetry, and more on McKay, can be found at The Poetry Foundation’s site. America Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath
Read moreA few weeks ago SVR featured some of the top CDs of the year to date, and I suggested that maybe I’d be back with some more of the best so far. And what do you know, here I am, just in time to help you put together your holiday weekend cookout playlist. So without further ado… I’ve mentioned Baron
Read moreHeading down to the First Friday event in the Highlands Gallery District here in a bit, and am very much looking forward to seeing mentalswitch’s eyePhone show at Sports Optical. You’ve seen some of his iPhone art here before, in fact, and tonight – lots more. Head this way, Denver folks. Meanwhile, I’m ramping up for the evening with some
Read moreIn case you missed it, America’s newest official candidate for the presidency, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, kicked off her campaign in her hometown of Waterloo, IA yesterday by confusing John Wayne with John Wayne Gacy. Honest mistake. Anybody could have made it. I mean, it’s still odd. I know first-hand how attuned Iowans can be to their own local histories.
Read moreI don’t often do confessional. Yeah, a lot of what I’m going through finds its way into my posts in symbolic fashion, perhaps, but I haven’t done much in the way of personal narrative about my life, even though I have encouraged other writers here to do just that. But maybe this little bit is worthy of a slow news
Read moreEleven days ago Panama beat the US men’s soccer team in the group stage of the Gold Cup, and I was critical of coach Bob Bradley for a sort of lingering inability to get the club – perhaps the most talented group the US has ever seen – performing up to its ability. At that point I did something I
Read moreI’ve been ecstatic to have some of my poetry accepted in recent months (after the usual stream of rejections that typify the life of the not-yet-famous poet). In this case, the publication in question is Pemmican, an outstanding online journal that’s been around since the early 1990s. They pride themselves on publishing work that is “outside the mainstream of its
Read more
It’s around 9 a.m. May 1, 1994. My stepmother, Kathie, has spent the night at Forsyth Memorial Hospital with my father, Larry, who will die late this afternoon. Their next-door neighbor, Wayne, is driving her home so she can shower and maybe get an hour or two of sleep. She hasn’t slept much in the six weeks since Daddy was
Read moreE Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons is dead at 69. You will be missed, Big Man.
Read more
