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- From the archives (October 18, 2002): the first post on my blog
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- Off Campus, episode 4: Moonlight in a chamber
- From the archives (2011): Wisconsin Idyll in Funny Hats with Rocket Launchers
- From the archives (2004): I Was Told I Would Get Wings
- Off Campus, episode 3: Two truths. Hence, ergo, therefore.
- From the archives (2006): My Situational Crush
- Off Campus, episode 2: Commence the one-sided yearning
- From the archives (2004): Chicago: The Cold Extreme
- From the archives (2006): A Sea-Level Kind of Girl
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Category Archives: Music
On This Day, 1957: Jerry Lee Lewis Kicks the Stool Back
Jerry Lee Lewis made his TV debut on the Steve Allen Show. The performance is terrifying. Who else is this terrifying? I suggested the Sex Pistols on Facebook. They did, indeed, terrify. But they were almost 20 years later. Jerry … Continue reading
R.I.P. Jennifer Finch
Jennifer Finch’s death has really hit me. She has inspired so many but my experience is completely subjective. The sound of L7 was part of the soundtrack of my 20s and 30s. And L7 is never far from me. They’re … Continue reading
Posted in Music, RIP
2 Comments
“Why can’t people take me as a regular singer without making a bogeyman out of me?” — Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Jalacy J Hawkins was born on this day in 1929. If a Martian arrived on earth, and the first thing you showed him was a clip of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins performing “I Put a Spell on You” the Martian might … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
3 Comments
“My voice isn’t an instrument I can just hang up on a hook.” — Audra McDonald
For Audra McDonald’s birthday My good friend Ted and I were once talking about Audra McDonald and her performance of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” in the live televised version of The Sound of Music, and what a powerhouse it was. You … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Music, On This Day, Theatre
Tagged Audra McDonald, Liza Minnelli, Natasha Richardson
13 Comments
“If I don’t feel it, I can’t play it.” — James Cotton
Blues-harmonica legend James Cotton was born on this day in 1935 on a cotton plantation. He was a working musician by the time he was 10 years old. He toured with Howlin’ Wolf. Eventually he hooked up with Muddy Waters … Continue reading
“I don’t have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I’d become. I’m me, and I’m like nobody else.” — Lena Horne
It’s her birthday today. Mitchell and I – in yet another of our series of conversations – discuss Lena Horne. Weirdly, we had an enormous discussion about her one night when I was staying with him in Chicago. We watched … Continue reading
“All I actually wanted was for my work to be useful.”–Claudius Afolabi Siffre
In troubled times, when the heart is weary or scared or tired, a voice like Labi Siffre’s doesn’t just comfort. It heals. Or, at the very least, it creates a space where healing can happen, where healing is possible. To … Continue reading
“People are always asking me if I thought Elvis was a handsome man and my answer is ‘I am not blind you know’!” — Millie Kirkham
Millie Kirkham had an unearthly high soprano voice, and recorded with some of the biggest stars of her era (and other eras and ours). Perhaps most famously, she provided the swoopy woozy soprano part on Elvis’ original recording of “Blue … Continue reading
“There are points in your life, especially if you have creative ambitions, where selfishness is necessary.” — Kris Kristofferson
He lived a long life and was beloved and productive almost up to the very end. His death is yet another snipped thread with the past. I wrote about him when he died for my newsletter. Thank you … Continue reading
Posted in Music, On This Day
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“There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.” — James Weldon Johnson
“Nothing will do more to change that mental attitude and raise his status than a demonstration of intellectual parity by the Negro through the production of literature and art.” – James Weldon Johnson, preface to The Book of American Negro … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Music, On This Day, writers
Tagged Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson, poetry
4 Comments