Orwell, Kafka and Us or, It’s All Part of Der Process
Sean MurphyBack in 2008 Roger Cohen wrote the following in the New York Times – the same newspaper that declined to use the word “torture” as a matter of editorial policy: Of the 770…
Notes From the Underground: Two New Joints From Jamie Saft
Every day, Jamie Saft becomes more like his mentor, the indefatigable—and incomparable—John Zorn. Like Zorn, he is ludicrously productive, aesthetically audacious and churns out albums that are as amazing as…
You Want To See Something Really Scary?* 10 Horrific Scenes for Halloween
First off, a confession of sorts: scary movies don't scare me. Or, to put it less bluntly, as a one-time horror movie aficionado, I quickly outgrew the ways gore supplanted…
Hurricane Music, Sandy Style (One Year Later)
Let's just get right into it. Some of Young's finest blistering guitar fury. Led Zep may have had the hammer of the gods, but there were four of them; Neil…
Rush’s Hemispheres: 35 Years Ago Today
Wow, 1978 was a long time ago, eh? I still vividly recall procuring this one on compact disc (!) on the last day of school, in 1987 (!) back when…
Lou Reed, R.I.P.
This one hurts. I'm working on a proper tribute that will appear within the week. For now, here are five of my personal favorites, all from the Velvet Underground years…
Bill Buckner, Mookie Wilson and Me (Revisited)
(10/2011) I've never been able to appreciate the aesthetic perfection (that is to say, the perfection of baseball's most imperfect play; it's most jarringly incongruous moment) because it was too…
The Fall Classic: 25 Years Ago
I don’t believe what I just saw! No one else in the room could believe it, either. Kirk Gibson had, before our eyes and on television, done something so improbable,…
R.I.P. Kumar Pallana
Anyone with a passing familiarity with, much less love of, Wes Anderson's films (more on him HERE), will join me in mourning the loss of Kumar Pallana. Nice tribute HERE.…
Deep Forbidden Lake
As the weather turns cool and increasingly crisp, there are certain artists that become (even more) right for the occasion. Today, I offer up this gem from Neil Young: the…