My serotonin levels are shot from reading too much of our local and national news, and, even worse, the responses in the comments section. The old adage “history is written by the winners” raises the obvious question, “Well then, what do the losers write?” As far as I can tell, the answer is comments, op-eds, […]
The Setlist
Our picks for the week’s best live music plus interviews and music news.
Posted inMusic
Freedom of Choice
There was some sort of local scuffling happening during press time for this column, so under the comforting thump of a police helicopter in the near-full moon-lit sky over my home, I consulted an official government dictionary for American Media — both social and corporate — to help clarify some terms I’ve been hearing a […]
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The Royal Scam
On this year’s 4/20, let’s all take a moment to celebrate the true message of legalizing marijuana in the American way: Commodifying the struggle for freedom against oppression so that a small handful of rich assholes can get even wealthier without the unpleasantness of restorative justice for the millions of lives destroyed by the long […]
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Big White Cloud
No, we didn’t get a proper eclipse last Monday, but I still found a momentary pulse beat of Satori from a gliding collision of outside sources, and that’s good enough for me. I had been driving around listening to the sublime John Cale song I titled this week’s column after, so perhaps a moment like […]
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Reap the Wild Wind
Well, April is here, “breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain,” according to the poet T.S. Eliot in one of his most famous works. A popular interpretation of his provocation of calling this “the cruellest month” is the notion that new life coming out of […]
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Down with the Sickness
I’m going to be brief here because I’m recovering from some kind of minor crud. Looking through my recent history for possible disease vectors, from out-of-town visitors to a few crowded indoor situations, and I’m coming up with nothing concrete. So I’ll blame my troubles on doing sound last week for an incredibly strange and […]
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He Was a Friend of Mine
The Ides of March came last Friday, some 2060-plus years since mighty Caesar got smoked, and we lost our little king. I am talking about my partner and I putting down our sweet, little, old dog man, when the forces of time and congestive heart failure brought on a fast catastrophe. I had put some […]
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When the Springtime Comes Again
Spring is coming back, which means we’ve pushed through two human-made hurdles in which I have little interest: the Oscars and Daylight Savings time. To the latter I say pick one and stick with it, a sentiment shared by a majority of my fellow Californians, and, like many such things, an issue hopelessly tied up […]
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Hybrid Moments
Belarius, the exiled lord and soldier who stole and raised the sons of the British pagan King Cymbeline in the play of the same name, is certain of a kind of noble “strain” of eugenics, where breeding shows through any humble environment (in this case, a rustic cave in the Welsh countryside). “Cowards father cowards, […]
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Weakness is a Thing Called Man
The early 17th century Christian mystic Jacob Boehme, whom Hegel called “the first German Philosopher,” wrote about the paradox of the human mind trying to hear the voice of God, noting that silence from the self is the key. “Your own hearing, willing, and seeing hinder you, so that you do not see or hear […]
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Honeysuckle Rose
I’ve been watching old movies and listening to even older songs lately — no surprise there —mostly dipping into the early British career of Alfred Hitchcock and the tunes of Fats Waller. Let me tell you, innuendo was a magical thing before the squares and moral morons figured things out and got (only just) wise […]
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Near Wild Heaven
In her 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery tells us of a particularly earnest and yearning moment in her eponymous heroine’s youth: “It wouldn’t matter if I got to a hundred picnics in after years; they wouldn’t make up for missing this one. They’re going to have boats on the Lake of Shining […]