Last night my wife and I rented the Buster Keaton classic Steamboat Bill, Jr. She’d never seen anything by Keaton, but has heard me (and fellow Scrogue Jim Booth) talk about his particular genius. One of the most remarkable talents America has ever produced, Keaton was an insanely gifted physical comedian who was able to communicate tremendous nuance even within
Read moreI’ve long been convinced of two truths regarding poetry: 1: The easiest thing in the world to write is a love poem. 2: The hardest thing in the world to write is a good love poem. Accordingly, I admire the hell out of a writer who can produce a tribute to his/her eternal love without making me a little sick
Read moreIn the mid-1970s Graham Parker was portrayed as a quintessentially Angry Young Man®, a pub rocker with an attitude who helped shape the British New Wave (a movement that remains perhaps the most creatively vital five years in recent rock history). 15 years later he had matured into a Responsible Adult®, with 1991’s Struck By Lightning offering us songs about
Read moreToday is Imbolc, the midpoint of Winter. That’s Groundhog Day to you secular/non-pagan types (and yeah, P-Phil peeped his shadow, so throw another blanket on the bed). It’s also my birthday, and my good friend Dr. Mike Pecaut has offered up a fine present – lots of concert footage from one of my all-time favorite bands, the unparalleled Queen! I
Read moreAccording to the BBC, “Thomas Edison sent his agents round to the Poet Laureate’s home to record his voice on wax cylinders in 1890.” That poet laureate turns out to be none other than Alfred, Lord Tennyson. No, the voice quality isn’t great (as you’d expect), but what a marvelous revelation – to be able to hear one of the
Read moreIt was a pretty good year in music. A handful of artists produced absolutely fabulous CDs and a lot more managed releases ranging from “worth the money” to “are you sure that shouldn’t be rated a little higher”? Here’s the format. Instead of the tedious task of actually ranking CDs – a torture I used to inflict on myself every
Read moreFinding and buying music used to be a lot simpler process. You could sample new stuff by turning on this thing called a “radio,” and when you heard something you liked you could go purchase it at this other thing called a “record store.” It wasn’t a perfect system, of course. Sometimes the great song on the radio was the
Read moreGood morning, and welcome to this week’s edition of Saturday Video Roundup. I’m your host, Katie Couric. You might remember last week, when we presented some talented teens laying the smack down on the Electone. Well, JS O’Brien one of my colleagues who shall remain nameless wasn’t all that impressed. He comes from a pretty serious music background, I think,
Read moreNot long ago I was bitching about how utterly banal I think a lot of contemporary poetry is. Shortly thereafter I got a note from scrogue JS O’Brien saying he thought I might appreciate a poet he knew a little about, Brigit Pegeen Kelly. So I hit my Internets and tracked her down. The first poem of hers that I
Read morePut simply, education is the single most critical issue we face. Every dollar (wisely) spent today on teaching and learning is an investment in our future. While there’s no magic remedy for all our ills, education comes closest to being a panacea, because when you educate, you’re crafting the minds that will solve all other challenges. For example: a dollar
Read moreWe live in an unfortunate age artistically. There is more freedom than ever, more tools for creation, more outlets to publish and display, but we have largely used this freedom to fetishize banality. The great leveling, as it were – everybody is an artist, everything is poetry. When I entered my Master’s program at Iowa State the prof who would
Read moreI’m not a political poet. Not for the most part, anyway. I certainly never wanted to be one, and I had been writing for a number of years before this finally happened: I don’t want to say too much for fear of being misconstrued or maybe for fear of being understood all too clearly so here’s your warning – flowers
Read moreI’m a poet. Whether I’m a good one or a bad one is, I suppose, open to debate. But the fundamental fact of my life and career is that the business activities that define my professional existence these days are Plan C, at best. If the world worked the way I wish it did, I’d make my living writing, publishing
Read moreWe went to see Once yesterday, and I came to an annoying realization. First off, let’s get this out of the way: go see this movie right now. I guess it’s a musical, in that a huge portion of the film is conducted in song and that the music is essentially integrated into the narrative. The story is at once
Read moreOne of the reasons our mission here at S&R is as broad as it is – our writers address cultural forms like literature and popular music as well as the hardball political issues that directly shape our public lives – emerges in part from my own feeling that too much politics is tough on the soul. It’s necessary, of course,
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lullaby pit 