Archive for March, 2009
Portrait of the artist
OK, exhale! The literary world, as well as the less literate crowd drawn to these semi-literate ramblings, all of you, you’ve all been waiting with bated breath to hear who had the best comments to make about the psychedelic photo I added to my ABOUT THE AUTHOR page. Go ahead. Click on it. It’s still [...]
Filed under: Book talk, Nature, Travels, Vermont, writing | 2 Comments
Tags: author photos, Vermont
“Unconvincing authority”
I recently applied for — and didn’t get — an artists’ fellowship through the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. As part of the application, I had to submit a sample from one of my novels. I submitted a small chunk of “Gloryville,” which is a sort of tongue-in-cheek homage to certain type of [...]
Filed under: books, death, Fiction, New Jersey, writing | Leave a Comment
He turned on City Lights
Some of my favorite and most cherished books are part of the Pocket Poets series published by the legendary San-Francisco-based City Lights Books — founded by Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who turns 90 years old today — March 24, 2009 — and just happens to be a native of Yonkers, N.Y., my old hometown! Visit [...]
Filed under: Book talk, books, Poetry, Yonkers | 1 Comment
A party for Pete
Yes, I’m talkin’ Pete Seeger. No, I’m not talkin’ about the Communist Party or the Wobblies or any of those sorts of parties and movements. I’m talking about how there will be a movement of about 19,000 people into Madison Square Garden on Sunday, May 3, when dozens of great musicians will gather to celebrate [...]
Filed under: Delaware Valley Poetry Festival, Music, Nature, Pete Seeger, Pete Seeger, Three chords and the truth, Yonkers | 1 Comment
Tags: Ani DiFranco, Arlo Guthrie, Bela Fleck, Ben Harper, Billy Bragg, Bruce Cockburn, Bruce Springsteen, Clearwater, Dar Williams, Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Emmylou Harris, Hudson River, Joan Baez, John Mellencamp, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Kris Kristofferson, Pete Seeger, Pete's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Ramblin' Jack, Richie Havens, Seeger's 90th, Steve Earle, Taj Mahal, Tom Paxton, Toshi Reagon, Wobblies
“Together” again
A friend declares: This…is the one piece of good news so needed in these bleak times… He refers to the surprising news that Bob Dylan’s about to release a new album — titled “Together Through Life” and due to be released April 27 — less than three years after releasing “Modern Times” in 2006. The [...]
Filed under: Bob Dylan, Music, Three chords and the truth | Leave a Comment
Tags: "Love and Theft", "Modern Times", "Time Out of Mind", "Together Through Life", Dylan
The big, bad Wolf
The equinox has turned, winter’s turned to spring, and that bright evening star visible for several weeks in the western sky now graces the darkness before the break of dawn. That evening star was Venus, named for the goddess of Love, but tonight feels more like the realm of Erebos, god of the primeval darkness, [...]
Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment
Tags: blues, Chicago blues, Greek gods, nighttime songs
Forewarned is forearmed?
You decide after you read friend Bathsheba Monk’s essay “My New Gun” in the March 1, 2009 edition of the New York Times Magazine – yes, indeed, Bathsheba makes her second appearance on the back page with an essay in the “Lives” series in which she talks about deciding to buy a Smith & Wesson [...]
Filed under: Book talk, Economy, writing | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bathsheba Monk, Economy, guns, writing
Dylan goes honky tonkin’
Word has reached us (I always wanted to write something with that phrase, “Word has reached us…) that Bob Dylan has recorded an album of never-before-heard songs by one his first musical heroes, the one, the only, the late great Hank Williams. More specifically, according to Jack White of the White Stripes, Dylan learned about [...]
Filed under: Bob Dylan, Music | Leave a Comment
Tags: "Nashville Skyline, "The Basement Tapes", Alan Jackson, country music, Dylan, Hank Williams, Jack White, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, The Band, The White Stripes
