(NY Times) Michael Stipe Is Writing His Next Act. Slowly.

By Jon Mooallem

When Michael Stipe was little, his parents called him Mr. Mouse. He was a scurrier. As soon as he could stand, he ran, and when he ran, he ran until he face-planted. His mother would deposit him in a baby walker, but if Stipe scrambled as fast as he could and hit the threshold of a doorway with a running start, he could topple the walker and eject himself onto the floor. Then he’d spring to his feet and run away.

When he wasn’t racing in circles, he was daydreaming. All his life, thoughts, feelings and sensory information have coursed through him at gale force. His attention is perpetually whipsawing elsewhere or vaporizing entirely. He will say, over dinner, “I’m sorry, but the clavinet took me completely out of the conversation,” when a clavinet suddenly enters the restaurant’s background music. He will say — laughing at himself, after you ask about his difficulty concentrating — “You’re not going to believe this, but ask me again because my mind wandered in the middle of the question.”

Sometimes, when Stipe’s mind scampers away, it returns, like an outdoor cat, bearing relics from wherever it went. A mention of “Calaveras County” sends him back to 1984, when his former band, R.E.M., played a quintuple bill at a fairground there. (“I was on crutches, and I remember Huey Lewis carried my watermelon for me, and I thought that was really sweet.”) The word “podcast,” enunciated a particular way, reminds him of how Quincy Jones’s teenage daughter repeatedly pronounced the name “Todd” as she waited impatiently for L.L. Cool J., a.k.a. “Todd,” to arrive at their house. Nastassja Kinski was there, too. She was pregnant, radiant. “Like a night light,” Stipe said.

(Spin Magazine) Dead & Company's Last Ride

The crowd in San Francisco, the Dead’s spiritual home (Credit: Josh Hitchens)

By Jeff Weiss (Spin Magazine)

By the end of the tour, I consider them all my friends. The glacially spinning pranayama wizards with their flowing Gandalfian beards and art-teacher ponytails. The middle-aged schlubs with Titleist dad hats and 24-ounce Coors cans, subtly revealing their tribal affiliation via the dancing bear on their striped polos. The writhing moon goddesses in celestial white linen, beholden to neither human nor lease, vagabonds with steal-your-soul smiles, divining off-kilter rhythms from the dark star void. The itinerant vegan grilled cheese entrepreneurs scrounging enough for gas from town-to-town in hopes of a miracle, the human mandalas with velvet loin cloths and wayfarer sandals. The wheelchair-bound Vietnam vets with mangy roaming dogs, bellowing about encroaching fascism and reminding us in a hacksaw voice: “If they’re not a Dead Head don’t trust them!”

We’re gathered for a weird communion: to receive the sacraments from the wry cowboy prophet, Bob Weir, to lay roses and skulls before the shrine of St. Jerome Garcia, to fare Dead & Company well. After all, this is their “last tour,” which drew 840,000 pilgrims to 28 shows and grossed $115 million, almost the average team payroll of the baseball stadiums they’re playing in. The three hottest tickets of the summer of 2023 are Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and the descendants of a band who achieved notoriety electrifying the acid tests alongside The Merry Pranksters, Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson, the Hells Angels, and the hero of 1957’s On the Road (briefly Weir’s roommate). 

Even though they have not ascended to the great drums/space in the sky, original bassist Phil Lesh and drummer Bill Kreutzmann are absent. But The Dead has always been more symbolic than literal. Weir ensures the unbroken chain. Drummer Mickey Hart valiantly kicks up nebulae alongside three of the most talented substitutes recruitable in Oteil Burbridge (bass), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards), and Jay Lane (drums). Of course, there is John Mayer (lead guitar and vocals) whose career metamorphosis over the last eight years has only been exceeded by the Daniels’ going from the directors of the “Turn Down for What” video to cleanly sweeping the Oscars. 

More needs to be explained, but it is inexplicable to the unconverted. What I can tell you is that for a few hours, the traveling carnival promises a temporary asylum from the branded cons and schizoid alienation of modern life. These days, there are always caveats. You will have to ignore the 80-foot green steel Coca-Cola bottle at Oracle Park, the site of the final three shows, a one-time play slide until kids starting breaking their legs and parents started suing. You need to blot out the cruel erosions of time, the Soviet lines, the tickets that cost a car payment or two, the Salesforce vice presidents in greyscale Patagonia, who mistook the Dead’s quest for personal salvation and psychic freedom as justification for late Capitalist manifest destiny. You will have to reconcile the cognitive dissonance of one of Taylor Swift’s exes “crooning “Friend of the Devil” to you. Ok, that sort of makes sense.  

Maybe calling us all friends isn’t entirely accurate. We are something more like co-conspirators, a mutant caste united by our allegiance to these psalms forged from woozy jug band skiffs and ragged Appalachian folk, muddy river country and moonshine string music, hellhound blues and avant-garde jazz, jukebox rock n’roll and Beat poems, after-midnight soul and Monterey purple psychedelia, sleazy insomniac disco and grandiose prog epics. A songbook ripped from the imagination of American pulp lore: tall tales of charismatic bandits and cuckolded bigamists, coked-up train conductors and Hollywood vampires, deceitful hustlers and born deadbeats. 


To Those Convinced ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ Ain't ‘Bout Them*

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By Jules Tuwim

How would I describe Shadow Kingdom to a serious Dylan-head who happens to be incarcerated? A sufferer of imprisonment as severe as those poor suffering souls in secret US military prisons, someone whose civic humanity has been stripped far beyond the elimination of internet privileges – perhaps Julian Assange might like to know, this Shadow Kingdom Show, how was it? Jesus! I sure could use some soulful distraction!  Assange, in his deathly delirium, his all but enforced insanity, might hypothetically say to me, were I allowed to visit him.  Even some of the poor dudes now two decades in Guantanamo might wanna know. Somebody somewhere in some parallel reality is Jack Fate, down in the hole of some nebulous debtor’s prison, perhaps a(n) (Israeli) dungeon.      

     Were such a soul as versed in Bob as those reading this, I’d bring up masked & anonymous, another scripted Dylan project doomed to fly right over most folks’ heads... “It was like an alternative ending to masked.... or a sequel, stripped of all plot, dialogue, et cetera, two decades into the future...” 

     Incarcerated Dylan junkie nods, squinting.  We’ll call him Will.

     “The benefit concert John Goodman – Uncle Sweetheart arranged to be broadcast on The Network, which of course never happens because Jack Fate’s father the president who long ago disowned him for sleeping with his mistress, Angela Bassett – the plot was convoluted, a bit, I’ll  admit – the president dies, Mickey Rourke and his new regime take control and Jack Fate’s performance is cut before he’s able to spit out so much as the first verse of ‘Cold Irons Bound’ – remember?”

     “I do!  I remember it, like time out of mind.  Boy! Did I love Time Out of Mind,” replies the inmate, with a sigh.

     “So, Shadow Kingdom was like the sequel – Jack Fate let out of prison on a plea deal, agreeing to do a different benefit concert, in support of a different cause.  This time, he’s told the proceeds would help the real victims of this plague, these lockdowns, these wholesale quarantines, victims of the virus and victims of the vaccine, a transient amnesty for private & public thought criminals.  ‘The network’s sure it’ll sell real well,’ Jessica Lange, reprising her role as Nina Veronica, explains to Jack Fate, who’s spent the last twenty years in a prison with little to no access to the outside world, not unlike yourself,” I tell him.  

     Will nods, a bit exasperated with my verbosity, but he’s with me; maybe you are too.  

     I continue: “The miscalled concert’s prerecorded and broadcast on a pay-per-view basis, and this time the show’s allowed to go on, available to one and all with a hundred shekels and a hand machine... Directed by the talented Israelian-American lady, a redhead, Alma Har’el, who directed Honey Boy” –

   “Wonderin’ if she changed at all, if her hair was still red,” whispers Will wistfully, wearily.  I’m losing him, somewhere in the wilderness.  Poor Will has been locked up too long; he don’t know Shia from Shinola. 

     “So this sequel’s more of a prequel, aesthetically.  Dylan’s back in time, black and white, like Casablanca set in Equatorial Guinea, Bob Dylan as Humphrey Bogart or Brando off the waterfront, in Paris Texas, or Brownsville, New Orleans before the flood, a few different sets on this postwar, pre-sixties-feeling fantasy, neither utopian nor dystopian, a cigarette world where everybody smokes constantly.  Bob’s band’s members are all young, thin, masked, angels dressed in black every one.  Bob wore a different Bob Dylan costume for each set, embroidered Western dark blazer, pattern print shirt untucked, probably a bolo with the white blazer, I can’t remember.  He looked great.  Like Muhammad Ali, he always looks the same.  His hair is always Bob Dylan length, width, height.  Bobby D! Five-foot-seven, five-nine with the Ashkenazi-afro.  He’s at his ideal Bo-jangling weight, rail-thin, jail-pale, just singing his skinny ass off!”

     “Which songs did he play?” asks Will, who’s yet to hear Rough & Rowdy Ways, Tempest, Together Through Life – the last album he had the free will to buy was Love & Theft.

     “Old ones, mostly – the show was billed as Bob Dylan Performs His Early Songs, or something like that” –

     “What’d he open with?” bemoans Will, understandably anxious.

     “Masterpiece!” I beam.  “Crooning somewhere between his Bob Dylan Frank Sinatra and the great grandfather of Americana sweetness he evoked on ‘Murder Most Foul’ – blood of the land in his voice... I couldn’t help but be reminded of the nuanced growl of Together Through Life, but maybe it was just the accordion accompaniment.”

     “Who played the accordion?”

     “I have no idea, but there was no drummer.  Bob, more or less unplugged, eighty fucking years old, depending on his vocal acuity as much, if not more, than ever... Brazen!”

     “Like Zazen.”

     “Well, I guess!”

     “How many songs”

     “Thirteen! Lucky thirteen.”

     “Lucky Wilbury.”

     “Indeed! Oh Roy Orbison would have loved it.  It was the first Dylan performance which struck me as Cohen-ish.”

     “Cornish?”

     “No, Leonard Cohen-esque. His latter-day tours, Leonard gave these performances that oozed devotion, Bhakti yogi Cohen – Bob’s aura more boxer than monk, with both fists clenched, summoning Age of Horus sound healing, that special penetrating magic only accessible to those whose reflexes aren’t shot and who are willing and able to accept it.”

     “Accept what?”

     “The whole base premise of Bob Dylan.”

     “That his only orthodoxy is unpredictability?”

     “Exactly.”

     “Give me some highlights, I’m running out of time.”

     “After Masterpiece he reaches base safely with five middle-sixties classics – Queen Jane; Tom Thumb’s Blues; Tombstone Blues! ... this incredible, super passionate, wholly reworked ‘To Be Alone with You’ as desperate dirge – I never thought that tune would move me to tears.  And then out of nowhere, as if his contrarian mirror mind intuited the criticisms he knew he was bound to receive for these first seven stellar renditions, Dylanditions... He hits a stand-up inside-the-park homerun with What Was it You Wanted? with this short but sweet harp solo...”

     “Oh mercy!”

     “Right! Then he smashes this Frank Sinatra slash Rick Rubin - Johnny Cash Forever Young clear out of the stadium...”

     “The cross is in the ballpark.”

     “Why deny the obvious child?!”

     “What came after Forever Young?”

     “Pledging My Time! And boy was he! Pledging his time, to all of us, hoping we’d come thru, too...” 

     “And did we? What was the reaction?”

     “Mixed! Most people stopped short of accusing Bob of being the Wicked Messenger – he played that too – but yeah, hilarious, the palpable disappointment from the Nitpickers’ Quarter.”

     “Ha! The nitwits do love to pick nits, don’t they?!”

     “Don’t I know it!”

     “What’d he close with?”

     “Baby Blue.”

     “Of course.”

     “Selah.”   

                            ***

 

     Bob Dylan can’t be quantified, qualified, classified. The specificities I dealt to fictional Will the Inmate fail to impart familiar, familial feelings of flying and grounding, of autonomy and connectedness, all the paradoxical personal truths Dylan always provokes, reinforces, reveals, to me, sometimes, seemingly for me.  Only a fool here would think he has anything to prove... To live outside the law you must be honest... It ain’t he or she or them or it that you belong to... It applies to me, it applies to you.  It’s true for Bob, too.

     So many Dylan devotees, tangled up in psychospiritual, semantical blues.  It’s like they’re offended by their own meaninglessness, didn’t Cate Blanchett’s Jude Quinn Dylan say something like that?  Nah, I ain’t callin’ y’all Judas or comparing your whininess to those who shouted Judas at Bob in ’66.  But you are Bob’s boo-birds in modern times.  You’ve bombarded the Dylan chatrooms with drivel... and I, for one, thank you.  Thank you for showing up – no Dylan event would be complete without its detractors, overburdened as they be, with twenty pounds of headlines stapled to their chests, those most convinced Ballad of a Thin Man ain’t about them, on time, as always, to fill their role as the uncountable quotient we’ll call the Mister Jones Contingent.  Faction?  What fraction?  No clue.  Those of us tickled down to their cockles probably wouldn’t have said diddly-poo aside from yoo-hoo, had we not been immediately inundated with the live stream of comments, which resumed on our screens after Baby Blue faded to black.

     I was born the year of Blood on the Tracks, in the smoky incense afterglow of Ginsberg, Cassady and Kerouac, and undoubtedly destined to be derided among those who secretly deem themselves members of the B.D.I. (Bob Dylan Intelligentsia) as dilettantish for our ... our dumb luck, some of us batting close to a thousand when served up pitches from Dylan.  We don’t need him to play the hits.  Long as he doesn’t suddenly start playing Neighborhood Bully, I’m happy.  We ain’t the majority, and we don’t stay silent.  We are the few, unproud, just contented.  As one of Bob’s continually satiated fans, one of Columbia-Sony’s eternally satisfied customers, I ain’t no Dylanologist.  I’m just a Berkeley Boy destined to adore Bob Dylan, if for no other reason than that some of my fondest childhood imageries of my overworked, traumatized father are precious memories of him listening to Bob Dylan, singing along with Bob in the car, back when my mother was still alive.  Death has followed me, tracked me down, but at least I heard Bob Dylan sing.  As least I heard him, not my own voice.  

     I’m lucky enough to not take Bob for granted.  People tell me that I’m truly blessed...  I’ve plumb witnessed too much death to take Elderly Dylan for granted – that he’s made it this far and is still with us, together through life, for at least one more show.  That he just shared with the world, his Rough & Rowdy Ways, when, I for one, needed it more than I already knew I did… and would – I had a dark hunch this pandemic wasn’t gonna blow over fast.  

     I was waiting for a second pelvic ultrasound, a non-emergency scenario in a private hospital in Goa, when I saw the news on my German girlfriend’s hand machine that the National Basketball Association had suspended its season, indefinitely.   I don’t pretend to be an expert on anything other than my own gastronomical preferences and other idiosyncratic intimacies pertaining to my own peeves, penchants, predilections.  I don’t even claim to be an expert w/r/t my own problems.  But sat in that hospital, I knew it might be longer than my internal structures would have liked before seeing Bob Dylan & His Band live & in person ~ if the NBA was done for indefinitely, then for sure, the Neverending Tour, too, would be forced to grind to a halt.  

     “The NBA just cancelled itself, we gotta get outta here, now!” I proclaimed to Fraulein, and like Bonnie & Clyde thieving Time & Space, the two of us hightailed back to our adopted Subcontinental home, one state to the south, where I’ve been permitted refuge from the grand debacle and from where I won’t budge till I’m forced to... Down along this as yet virus-free rice paddy alcove, I type to you now, a little spot I’ll call Key West, Karnataka.

     Like everyone on this doomed planet, whatever you may believe its shape to be, the shape it’s in... is rough, its inhabitants rowdy, ravaged.  I’d add Pinker, with his war’s never been better!, to Bob’s recent listing of mankind’s worst enemies, burning hell dwellers.  Mister Freud with his dreams, Mister Marx with his ax and privileged Mister Pinker with his Pollyanna point of view, shouting from his tower, telling us how great it is, for those with no power, in this Political World, where Everything is Broken.  I wonder how many Shadow Kingdom detractors also took issue with that lyric from ‘My Own Version of You.’ Somebody can make the Venn diagram, the meme.  

     One need not leave the planet to find heaven, hell.  I cannot think of a higher (lower?) rung on the ladder of unnecessary suffering than that occupied by Dylan’s omnipresent nitpickers – somebody needs to hand these people a pipe, tell them it’s too bad they aren’t the silent type, hand ‘em a book of poems by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century... “Only a shadow of transcendence,” was one of the headlines I read. Oh, aww... near-complete-transcendence wasn’t enough for ya!?  I’m afraid it’s tough titty to all those who’ve come to expect transcendence every time Bob takes the stage, for anything. How such words are tossed about!  Bob Dylan at 80, no longer as insanely transcendent as he was at 25 and 33 and 56 and 72! I disagree, wholeheartedly, but who cares?!  Certainly not Bobby.

     Shadow Kingdom, whatever it’d be, was slated to broadcast across my computer screen at 2:30AM, subcontinental time.  Around midnight, I thought I’d never make it – no matter, wasn’t essential to catch it “live” anyhow... Like anyone else who’d watched the 36-second trailer, I knew damn well it wasn’t a live performance and the only reason to stay up late had to do with my own addiction to nocturnality, my desire to satiate my own impatience – Can’t Wait – like most people I reckon, this world crisis, this opaque plague, this unending stream of uncertainty, confinement, restriction, confusion, this accumulation, this traumatic avalanche of collective angst – Every new messenger bringing evil reports of famines and earthquakes and train wrecks and hate words scribbled on walls – has left me starving and thirsting for any joy on any nebulous schedule, western civilization mid-implosion, the old Kali Yuga not going down without a fight, without stealing as many of our minds and souls as she (Kali) can succubus and/or incubus up... Right?  So yeah, whatever Bob would do in these modern times, amid this modern plague, call me silly, but it was gonna be alright with me.  

     I made coffee, dressed in black, and summoned a bit of that Bourbon Street spirit – 2:30 in the morning is the perfect time for a worldwide Bob Dylan event to begin... The preshow stream was as cutely charming as the postscript divisiveness was comedy noir.  Folks tuned into that pirate radio station chiming in from across this sad red earth.  Oslo, Berlin, Tokyo, Wuhan, Saskatchewan, Taiwan, everybody the world over, eager to see what the electric dragon Dylan might have up his sleeve.  Maybe had you stayed up till dawn battling intermittent Indian internet, dodging pterodactyl mosquitoes, ceiling fan broken, heat in the bed, etc.... Well, shit, you’d probably be exponentially more disdainful and disillusioned than you were and are, having visited the Shadow Kingdom at a more reasonable hour of the day, sans tropical monsoon jungle wildlife, but maybe, had you watched the show here with me, we might have filled your cup.

    

                           ***

 

     It’s hard to believe it was less than a full year before the flood of paranormal paranoia, great toilet paper panic, Kafkaesque pandemonium of promised plague that evaporated concertgoing and all other social functions, that I caught “The Inimitable Bob Dylan & His Band, Live & in Person, in Show & Concert,” as it says on the t-shirt I bought at the Singapore show.  It’s a great shirt.  No image of Bob, but in his stead: a buxom burlesque dancer and these ornate phrases from the neverendingly endearing Dylan lexicon.  A couple months later, I caught up with B. Dyl in the desert: Tucson and Phoenix, wherein — whereat...I was fortunate enough to be able to afford seats up near to the teacher, second row, south by southwest of the piano, less than twenty feet from the Tambourine Man of Desolation Row. 

     I wasn’t a kid, but I was still young, when I went to my first Dylan concert.  I didn’t know what to expect.  He was in his fifties, and to a man in his twenties, well, shit, Bob might as well have already turned eighty – his booted footprints appeared ancient in my adolescent eyes.  ... some of the best music in his career, beginning in the late nineties, Columbia recording artist... He played ‘My Back Pages’ that night, blew the harp on it.  The whole show blew my mind, symbolized in this exhibition, this exposition, this undeniable experiential reality, the eternal truth, of music, of language, of time, shattered illusions of linearity.  He was... so much older than that then.... He was so much younger than that now.  Maybe a quarter, maybe a third, maybe only one in ten of my fellow concertgoers left that show in a spellbound state of wow & vow.  Filing out of the venue and spilling into the parking lot, some highly audible quotient of the audience reverberated their depraved disappointment, drunken disapproval, downright dejectedness, decadent doldrums for which they pointed their disdainful fingers directly at Bob D.  He hadn’t played this, he didn’t play that, such and such wasn’t recognizable, they’d expected X and gotten Y, and why oh why hadn’t Bob been the Bob they were banking on him being.  I was dumbfounded, and highly entertained at this unexpected deviance, reactively, reflexively, it somehow rounded out the whole Dylan experience – people are crazy and times are strange...

     A quarter century of Bob Dylan concert experiences later, it tickles my soul to behold the bizarre phenomena which accompanies this singular performer – singular on so many levels artistically, linguistically, charismatically, but more strikingly this singular performer’s absolute disinterest in receiving approval from his audience and the indignant reaction this attitude, what I might reductively deem Bob Dylan’s now-ness, provokes in an unknowable percentage of his devotees, who bring with them antiquated luggage filled with yesteryear expectations of the man who looks like he’s moving when he’s standing still, the musician who stands still like the hummingbird... Time Out of Mind, Love & Theft, Modern Times, Together Through Life, Tempest.  The album titles say it all.  Everyone is so thoroughly convinced the Bob they just saw was somehow fundamentally different from whatever version of him they saw some other time.  Dylan’s never once “reinvented” himself.  Sure, the mid 2010’s weren’t very much like the Rolling Thunder Revue, but Dylan’s always more similar to a slightly more atavistic Dylan than he is to anyone else. 

     Dylan’s “value,” “relevance,” is eternal.  He’s consistently inconsistent.  Always in a funky, very cozy looking, Western-y costume, ten gallon hat or morass of curls commando, he’s always so Bob Dylan, so dissimilar to all those other performers he essentially birthed.  Even the iconic punk rockers shared a symbiosis with their audiences Dylan has never sought.  It’s the only place Bob can truly be himself, or so I’ve read he’s allegedly said.  And this is the magic, the blessing & curse belonging solely to one Robert Allen Zimmerman.  It’s not our cross to bear.  We are not him, he is not us, he’s nobody’s spokesman and there’s no cause or grand purpose or ideology behind any of it.  Jack Fate. There’s something eternally true – in song, music – the only truth, the only fuel, for certain people. The only thing to believe in.   

     It’s as if the Dylan detractors disdain the multitudinous nature of this singular songwriter, song & dance man, harmonica blower, guitar picker, pianist, this actor, the best actor, best poet, rapping wordsmith, the best singer... singer as in the deliverer of a song, the best spoken word rambler, occasional mumbler, back to the crowd, holder of the crown, in his own mind, the only mind over which he imagines to have any potential control – I don’t believe my thoughts, but were I was pressed to present my Beliefs About Bob Dylan I’d bet: Bob Dylan has faith in his conception of God and in Bobby Zimmerman’s ability play the role of Bob Dylan and that Bob Dylan still can’t believe people insisted he was the Voice of a Generation when he knew damn well he was nothing more than the voice of some kid born to the name Robert Zimmerman and a vessel capable of channeling all the ghosts in America’s tower of song.  Love is theft, art is theft, theft a meaningless word when everybody knows the Golden Rule is that those with the gold, rule.       

     Bob Dylan: genius of not forcing nothing, committed to his craft without dogma or pedantry or delusions of perfection.  Like his hero Rimbaud declared all artists must be, Bob Dylan remains absolutely modern.  Evocative of lost time (not found again), stark reminder of the eternality of human experience, at least in this Age of the Antichrist, still just only begun.     

     Time itself, conceptually and practically, is strange.  Time flies when you’re having fun, so says everyone, but is it true?  Not if you’ve taken some stiff psychotropic stuff, or have otherwise transported oneself outside the mainframe conception of Time, in which case, a lot of fun feels absolutely eternal.  Definitions of fun, to be fair, vary drastically.  Fun for me means simply what feels good, what feels best, according to my personal hierarchy of pleasure, fun is the grand umbrella under which everything good fall.  Funny feels fabulous; feeling funny, being around funny people, is fun, but everything that’s fun isn’t necessarily funny.   I’m lucky, most of my life has been pretty damn fun.  I was lucky to learn early that working hard at something you loved was fun.  The friends fate handed me, the art I was exposed to, the stimuli my body’s anachronistic antennae attuned itself to, taught me that with friends armed with reckless honesty, damn near anything could be fun, or if not fun at the time, at least funny to look back on later.  The most fun experiences for me have been the non-traumas that held enough power – (in my case the Power of the Seven Seas, the 13:20 frequency, tuned often to the Key of C) –  to tattoo themselves to my Akashic soul in ways that transcend the traumas, as there is nothing fun whatever when it comes to true trauma.  Wisdom and creativity may spring from suffering, but the realization of this is merely bittersweet, and bittersweet isn’t fun.  Perhaps for trivialities and frivolities, time flies.  Bob Dylan shows have never once flown by, because he sings Bob Dylan songs and Bob Dylan songs have a lot of verses and last forever.  It takes a while to listen to Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Highlands, Murder Most Foul or Roll on John, requiring an attention span well beyond average nowadays.  Maybe their favorite songs just fly by.  Even Bob’s songs that are shorter in length produce a residual twilight... Endlessness, when it comes to the spiritual material produced by my favorite artist, conjures the phrase: the eternality of fun.  

     Time passes slowly, when you’re looking for love 

     Now that shit is true.  And another thing, To search for love ain’t no more than vanity...  

     For those disappointed with Shadow Kingdom’s running time, we turn to Bruce Dern as Jeff Bridges’ draconian newspaper editor in the aforementioned, under-appreciated masked & anonymous.  Bridges tells Dern that he doesn’t have a lot of time. 

     “Time? Abraham Lincoln gave the famed Gettysburg Address in five minutes!  So don’t talk to me about time!”  

     Time is an illusion, timing is everything.  

     Take what you have gathered from coincidence.

     Shadow Kingdom’s ‘Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine’ and ‘To Be Alone with You’ hit so close to home, having been hoodwinked by cruel & unusual circumstance - the world crisis - into an untenable, undeterminable, divinely ordained long-distance debacle with Bonnie Fraulein. Egad, alas, we did our damndest to create a shadow kingdom, in which our burgeoning love could incubate, cohabitate, despite we being born to different passports.

I dedicate this to her, whose mind is not with me, but the country to where she’s going. Another girl from another north country, who once was a true love of mine, who’s had me singing Huck’s Tune.

* Alternate Outtake Titles:

BUT THE TEARS ON HER CHEEK ARE FROM LAUGHTER... Jeremiah Twain on the Art of Loving Anything (Improved by Sanskrit, Arabic & Vitamin Bobby D)

or

 A Dylan Show inside Existential Gitmo (Infinity Gone up on Trial)



Biz Markie Was More Than “Just a Friend” (GQ)

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What does it mean to be a clown prince? In the hip-hop space, rappers Flavor Flav and the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard (not to mention Humpty Hump) found themselves saddled with the sobriquet. Morris Day’s comical persona in R&B never quite rose to clownish proportions, but came close. The term is defined as “a coarse, clumsy, rude person” and the backhanded compliment of “royalty when it comes to fools.” An idiot, some say.

The diabolical Biz Markie was nobody’s idiot.

Marcel Theo Hall, known worldwide as the rapper Biz Markie, died in a Baltimore hospital on Friday of an undisclosed cause, after a decade-long battle with Type 2 diabetes. He was 57. Known as the jocular beatboxing MC who helped bring success to hip-hop’s Cold Chillin’ Records label of the late 1980s, Biz stood at the center of the Juice Crew: the loosely knit rap supergroup featuring Big Daddy Kane, Roxanne Shanté and MC Shan. Biz was also an accomplished DJ and made memorable cameos on film—including Men in Black II and the children’s series, Yo Gabba Gabba! Though most familiar for wailing off-key while wearing a Mozart wig in the visual for 1989’s “Just a Friend” (a Top 10 hit), Biz deserves accolades for far more than that one moment in the pop culture sunshine.

Life with Bradley Nowell: Sublime Co-Founder Eric Wilson Looks Back (Rolling Stone)

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“The coolest thing we achieved is we took all those different influences and made them ours in one song,” says Sublime co-founder Eric Wilson. “And that’s what no one else really did.” Sublime’s self-titled breakthrough album turns 25 on July 30th, and in an interview on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, Wilson — the only original member of the band to play in Sublime with Rome, the band’s current incarnation — looked back on his early days with the band’s late frontman, Bradley Nowell.

The Redemption of Justin Bieber (GQ)

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Justin Bieber and I have just met when I ask him something and he talks and talks—for 10 illuminating and uninterrupted minutes he talks. He talks about God and faith and castles in Ireland, about shame and drugs and marriage. He talks about what it is to feel empty inside, and what it is to feel full. At one point he says, “I’m going to wrap it up here,” but he doesn’t, he just keeps going, and that is what it is like to talk to Justin Bieber now. Like you’re in the confessional booth with him. Like whatever rules about “privacy” or the thick opaque wall of massive celebrity that people like Bieber are supposed to follow don’t apply.

He has lived a well-documented life—maybe among the more well-documented lives in the history of this decaying planet. But to my knowledge, there is not one example of him speaking this way—in a moving but unprompted, unselfconscious torrent of words—in public prior to this moment. I will admit to being disoriented. If I’m being honest, I had been expecting someone else entirely—someone more monosyllabic; someone more distracted, more unhappy; someone more like the guy I’m pretty sure Justin Bieber was not all that long ago—and now I am so thrown that the best I can do is stammer out some tortured version of… How did you become this person? By which I mean: seemingly guileless. Bursting with the desire to connect, to tell his own story, in case it might be of use to anyone else.

It’s a question that’s not even a question, really. But what Bieber gently says in response is: “That’s okay.”

He knows approximately what I’m asking—how he got from wherever he was to here, to becoming the man in front of me, clear-eyed on a computer screen from an undisclosed location in Los Angeles. His hair, under a Vetements hat, is long in the back; he is in no particular hurry. He is married to a woman—Hailey Baldwin Bieber—who cares for him like no one has ever cared for him, he says. He is happy. He is currently renovating the house in which he will live happily with his wife. He’s spent the past several months piecing together a new record, Justice, which is dense with love songs and ’80s-style anthems—interspersed with some well-intentioned, if not totally well-advised, interludes featuring the voice of Martin Luther King Jr.—that are bluntly honest about his bad past and equally optimistic about his future. (“Everybody saw me sick, and it felt like no one gave a shit,” he sings on the cathartic last song on the record, “Lonely.”) He’s still so overflowing with music that he puts out Freedom, a meditative, postscript of an EP about faith, just a few weeks after Justice. He is, if anything, the empathetic professional in this interaction too as he goes about trying to help me understand how he’s arrived at where he’s arrived.

Tech Items To Upgrade This Year

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Technology is constantly evolving and improving. It is such a big market and always changing. People are always looking to upgrade and better what technology they have so they can have the latest, fastest, and best available. 

Audio Equipment

Audio equipment is always improving and evolving, so it is time to upgrade. If you have a home recording studio, there are certain things you will want to have in place. Quality microphones are a must, and if you are using them to record a podcast or even your own band, you want the sound quality to be top-notch. You can also look to upgrade your PS Audio; there are so many different options available, so make sure you do your research and find the best one for you. You can also trade-in your old one and save money on your new purchase. Another essential you will need for your home recording studio is some top-quality headphones. You don’t have to have the most expensive to start with, but you will want to hear clearly what is going on. It will help you pick up on sounds that shouldn’t be in the background of recordings. 

TV Equipment

If you haven’t upgraded your TV in a while, then that should be top of your list for sure. TVs now have so many more functions which make them a lot easier to use. Most of them will come with Freeview and the option to have applications installed straight onto the TV itself. So you don’t need any extra boxes or cable if you don’t want to. You will be able to stream YouTube, Netflix, Disney +, and everything else you want without any extra costs. You just need a wifi signal so it can connect and you are ready to go.

One Of The Most Possessions For People Is Their Phone 

Phones are always changing almost yearly; there are new releases with new functions and improved gadgets within them. If you haven’t upgraded your phone for a while, then it is something you should really look at. The latest iPhones, for example, have the option to unlock the phone with your face, so you know that it is safe and secure. It also has an emergency SOS option. This is great for people who worry or travel alone and feel anxious about it. All you need to do is set it up on your phone, and then if you ever feel like you are in trouble, you can set it off, which calls emergency services and your emergency contact while sharing your location. Phones are used for everything these days, emails, working, photography, and even banking, so having the most up-to-date and secure ones available will be very beneficial for you.

There is so much technology for all different things, so upgrade what is most vital for you, and if you need help, the internet is your best friend as reading reviews off real people who have brought the items you are looking at will be the best way to get a true reflection. 

5 Ways to Explore your Passion for Music

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As Louis Armstrong once said, "music is life itself", and as such, appreciating music for everything it has to offer as an art form can help you to develop a deeper appreciation for musicians in a variety of musical genres and, in turn, can help you should you wish to pursue your passion with music whether creating music or just enjoying it.

There are so many layers in each and every song, no matter your preferred music style and genre, from the country, to pop, classical to hip hop. Each one is unique and can often offer to do much to the listener and reach them in ways words alone can't.

How can you enhance your musical listening pleasure?

Listen more than once

Don't just dismiss a song after hearing it just once. Not all songs are earworms that will grow on you the more you hear them, but you will be doing yourself and the song a disservice if you dismiss the track after just one listen. If nothing else, repeat listening can help you to evaluate what it is about the song you don't like while being objective in your critique by giving it a chance.

Vary your genres

We all have our favourite genres or go-to tunes when it comes to music. However, discounting specific music types as it isn't to your taste can hinder your musical education. Explore genres you are unfamiliar with and see if you can find some common ground in a particular group or artist that is appealing, even if the genre as a whole doesn't excite you.

How you listen

In an increasingly digital age, varying how you enjoy music can help you peel back layers and appreciate different tones and instruments. Oft thought of as the classics; many older songs are designed to be listened to on vinyl. As such, you will need the Best Turntable Cartridge for the Money to enhance your listening. The more you explore the different styles and music playing devices, the better your appreciation for specific music types can develop and boost your pleasure.

Explore the history

So many artists have a rich history and the journey they follow with their music. Each one is unique to them and details their careers and musical influences. Alongside listening to their music, delve deeper into the artist's history and find out more about them and what influences them music they make and what they are trying to say in their songs. It may be that this helps you become more appreciative and open to their lyrics and who they are as a person by giving some background and history to their songs.

Follow your instincts

Your instincts will always steer you well, and if you aren't sure what type of music you want to listen to or gain more of an understanding of, then listen to your instincts. Forcing yourself to listen to music that isn't feeding your soul can have the opposite effect. So if you find you are really not enjoying your foray into different non-familiar genres, then maybe steer yourself back to more familiar ground and look to revisit it later in your musical journey.

Thinking of Starting Your Own Band? Here Are Some Considerations To Keep in Mind

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If you absolutely love music then there’s a good chance that you’ll have considered forming a band at some point. However, it can be daunting to put together a group of people that share the same vision for their music. It’s usually a lot better to form a band with close friends and family members, but that’s not to say that searching for new members is a bad thing or that it can’t work.

So in this post, we’re going to talk about some tips for forming a band and also help you temper your expectations so that you understand the difficulties that come with it.

There are thousands of bands and performers out there, what makes you special?

There is an incredible number of bands and performers out there, all of whom are trying to make it big and have their big break. You have well-known performers that everyone knows about, you have the social media influencers that play in bands and have successful followings, and you also have hard-working musicians such as Joey Armstrong that have opened for incredibly successful bands such as Muse. There is just so much talent out there that it can be hard to set yourself apart and get noticed.

So what makes you special? What is it that brings people to your band instead of another?

This is where you need to consider your unique points as a band. What kind of message are you trying to send to your listeners? What kind of music do you want to make? What instruments do you consider to be staples for your band? These are the sorts of questions that you need to ask yourself.

Every band needs a leader that can envision a future for the group

Every successful band or group has a visionary that can see into the future and motivate the others. You need to have someone that is confident because it helps you realize what you can achieve, but it also sets the stage for what you want to become in the future. Developing your signature sound isn’t easy, and a band’s message and style of music can change over time. However, with a visionary on your side, you’ll find that it’s much easier to stay consistent when needed, but also break out of the ordinary and do something unique or interesting when it comes to it.

Band leadership is difficult to teach. It’s something that develops over time and requires your members to be cooperative and understanding. The key here is communication; as long as you’re blunt with each other, you’ll find that it can be easy to grow your band and develop a strong bond together. However, if you try to run your band like a committee and have everyone give input, then there’s nobody to lead the group. This can be a massive problem and is something that you’ll need to figure out as soon as possible. Every group needs a leader and someone will always rise to the challenge.

Six Essential Items for Your Home Recording Studio

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Whether you want to be a full-time musician, you have a killer hobby, or you want to get into music as a side hustle, one of the most important things to have at your disposal is a way to record music. 

Nowadays, anyone with an iPhone and GarageBand thinks they’re automatically a musician, but the reality is, you won’t be taken seriously when you record using rudimentary tools. If you really want people to hear your music (especially if you want to make money), you need to invest in the equipment that will give you high-quality recordings. 

Plus, when you own a recording studio, you can rent it out for other musicians to use, too. 

Thankfully, it’s not impossible to build a recording studio in your own home. Doing so can save you money, and it’s easier than you might think!

With that in mind, let’s look at five essential items you’ll need to start putting your studio together the right way.

1. A Fast Computer

If you’re going to splurge on one piece of equipment for your recording studio, make it a quality computer. If you already have a computer for personal use, you might be able to get away with using it for a while. But, make a commitment to invest in a fast computer as soon as possible, and use it just for the studio. That way, it won’t get bogged down with personal files and it will stay faster, longer. 

2. An Interface Combo and DAW

Having a computer is important for recording and mixing, but you’ll need the right interface and DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to get the job done. The DAW is what you’ll actually be using to mix and edit the music you’ve recorded on your computer. The audio interface helps to connect the two. 

If these particular pieces of equipment sound confusing, they’re not. In fact, you can purchase them as a combo in many cases, making them easy for beginners to use. Sometimes, you can even find “plug and play” versions that really just hook up to your computer and allow you to record, edit, and mix almost instantly. 

3. Quality Microphones

Don’t skimp on quality microphones for your studio. The right microphone will pick up every nuance and subtlety of instruments or vocals. If you’re a rapper using a DJ Service Pack to rhyme over, you want your audience to hear every word. If you’re in an indie band, you don’t want the guitars to overpower other instruments, etc. Good microphones will always sound clear and make it easier for you to find the perfect balance when you’re mixing your songs. 

4. Headphones

Having speakers that will let you hear clearly in your studios is important, especially if you have multiple people listening to the playback. But, it’s even more important to have high-quality headphones. Even if it’s just you doing the recording by yourself, being able to listen back with headphones will allow you to hear things clearly that speakers simply won’t be able to provide. 

Headphones will help you to pick up on the smallest details of a recording. Maybe you turned a page of lyrics and that needs to be removed. Maybe you were just slightly flat or sharp. Listening back to your recordings with headphones will allow you to create perfection, every single time. 

If you can’t afford a pair of expensive headphones right now, at the very least use a pair you already have, or even a pair of earbuds. They aren’t the same as studio-quality headphones. But, they will help to hear things more closely than speakers or monitors, so you can pick up on subtle mistakes. When you’re finally able, invest in a good pair of studio headphones, and you’ll be blown away by the difference they can make. 

5. Pop Filters

When you take the time to research microphones and finally invest in one (or more!), don’t forget to buy pop filters, too. They are a simple, inexpensive addition that will make a big difference in how you, or anyone who records with you, sounds. 

Chances are, you’ve seen a pop filter before. If you’ve ever seen videos of someone in a recording studio, have you noticed a small mesh screen in front of the microphone? That’s exactly what you need. 

Pop filters live up to their name. They help to reduce the ‘pop’ sounds that can come from singing certain words, especially those that start with “P” or “B”. It’s a normal thing that people do when they speak or sing, but it can be very obvious in a recording and distract from the song. A pop filter helps to eliminate that problem, leaving the recording clean and consistent the whole way through. 

6. Creativity

You might be hesitant to invest in a home recording studio because of the cost. But, you really have full control over the cost. You might end up spending a few hundred dollars, or a few thousand. If you’re just getting started, you can actually put together a decent studio without breaking the bank. 

What you do need, though, is something money can’t buy. You need to be willing to be flexible, adaptable, and to showcase your creativity everywhere. If you’re really trying to create a studio that sounds professional, whether it’s for yourself or to rent out to others, you’re going to need to think outside of the box in order to do that. 

Keep these items in mind as you work toward building your own home recording studio. The good news? You don’t need a lot of space to do it. Pick a simple room and start off by soundproofing it and stripping it of everything that isn’t needed. From there, you can start to build your studio from the ground up. You might not end up getting all of the equipment you need overnight. It will come with time, and you can start to collect more and more high-end gear. Be patient, be creative, and never be afraid to follow your passions.

How To Motivate Yourself to Learn a Musical Instrument

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Learning a musical instrument is a popular option for people looking to pick up a new skill. As an adult, many of us regret the choices we made as kids to either not learn, or quit the instrument our parents encouraged us to learn. 

However, as an adult, having some musical skill will open up a range of unique experiences and opportunities that you may not have had otherwise. 

So whether you’re looking to play an instrument for personal pleasure or you want to use it as an opportunity to make friends in a music group, learning an instrument and sticking to the dedication required to be a success can be quite challenging- particularly when you have adult responsibilities that can tend to get in the way of practices 

If you want to learn a musical instrument as an adult, here are some top tips to help you to stay motivated. 

Why do you want to learn a musical instrument now? 

Maybe you had a few lessons when you were a kid, or you always wanted to play but never had the opportunity. Perhaps you’ve just always thought it would be cool to play a particular instrument, or your favourite song has a great melody on piano, guitar, flute, saxophone, tuba, ukulele, whatever it is. 

Maybe 2020 taught you that life was too short to spend all of your time either working or sleeping and you want a more fulfilling hobby to impact your life.

There are so many reasons why people may choose to pick up an instrument as an adult.

Don’t spend too money much on an instrument when you start out 

Musical instruments are expensive. Many people looking to motivate themselves to play will spend a few extra $$ on their instruments to force themselves to play. However, if learning the instrument doesn’t fit in with their lifestyle then that is a lot of money wasted that could have been spent elsewhere. 

This is a bad way to motivate yourself. If you’re not 100% certain you will stick the playing the instrument, there are also options to hire one until you’re ready to make the investment. 

Pick a method of learning that suits you 

Thanks to technology, there are a number of apps available that encourage you with learning an instrument. Most importantly, you start learning with what you have. If, for example, you want to play the piano or keyboard, you can easily learn digitally via app. 

There are a number of online courses that take you though the basics of how to play an instrument and how to read sheet music, which will give you a solid foundation when it comes to playing any song you like later on down the road. 

Of course, traditional teaching works well, too. Even during the pandemic many teachers are able to offer their students one to one lessons via video call. Teachers are able to give you live feedback so you know just how well you’re getting on and the areas you can improve on.

How to make money with a musical side hustle

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If you are a musician looking to make additional income at home, you may wonder what you can do, especially during the times when it’s more challenging to find that all important paid work as a musician. 

You’ll want to find ways to advertise your services, so take the example from musician, rapper and music producer, Scotty Li who made money from his love of music from an early age. 

Thanks to online platforms, you can build a successful music career as either a composer or musician for your side hustle, or even eventually your main source of income. There are endless opportunities to build your business when you meet people while gigging, on social media, and through specialist websites for musicians that are open to work. 

For some ideas where you can get started, follow some of these tips below. 

  1. Sell your music online 

Whatever your style of music- contemporary pop, indie, jazz, country, or R&B, with a huge demand for new music all the time, there will be a market for your music.

Recording your music to a high enough quality to sell will require having access to professional quality recording equipment and/or renting studio time. Once you have your recordings, you may be able to sell your music online through services such as bandcamp, itunes, and spotify. 

  1. Write and record music for other people

If you have access to your own studio and want to make some additional income, you can technically ‘rent’ your space out to other artists. If you are an instrumentalist you can offer to pay accompaniment for an additional fee. This alone could end up being a full-time job if you get enough interest. 

You could also team up with fellow musicians who don’t have writing skills to put out tracks to sell. It will be up to you and the other musician(s) to decide how you will split the fees. 

  1. Make videos of your music 

Many of today’s music artists had previously been discovered by record agencies after they gained popularity on video sharing sites such as YouTube. Examples of these musicians are; The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheehan, whose lives have been drastically changed as a result of posting their music online. 

 As your following grows and your videos begin to rack up more views you can then take advantage of the monetization offered through YouTube advertising.

  1. Become a record producer at home

Even the most talented musicians or sometimes need help making sure their music is of the highest quality. If you have the skills to produce music and get other artists' recordings in shape to release, or even produce remixes, then you may be able to offer your services as a professional music producer. 

Gone are the days of spending hours and hours at professional recording studios when most things can be done at home and even collaboratively across the globe with the help of the Internet. By producing music you will get to use your skills as a musician to generate an income, support other artists and develop connections and ties that will help you to develop your career further.

How Music Impacts Our Lives

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For at least forty thousand years, music has embraced the earth and its inhabitants, changing the way we feel in an instant. These days, millions of songs are being produced each day, and our playlists are constantly updating with the latest and greatest songs in the charts. But how much does music really impact our lives? Could you live without music? What would the world be like without music? Let’s look at how much music really does impact our lives.

It helps with different emotions

We’ve all seen the movies where something dramatic has happened and the camera cuts to each character with a music overlay to portray their emotions. You can see it now, the head leaning against a car window as they drive away from their lover feeling upset about their fight. This translates in real life too. When you’re feeling a little low, you’re likely to listen to either slower and touching music, or you may even opt for something uplifting to brighten up your mood. The same goes for those looking for motivation, whether it be a workout or a late assignment, music can completely change your emotion!

It’s a form of communication

Nobody truly knows the origin of music, but did you know that as humans, we played music before we could interact with each other? Psychology today said “Music did not emerge as a result of the emergence and development of language. Music came FIRST. The language part came later.” Today, we still use music as a form of communication! Think about pretty much any film or TV show you’ve ever seen, there will have been background music to help portray the emotion of the character, even though you can clearly see their emotion. The idea is to hit viewers harder and in turn, makes TV and films more engaging. Even Royalty-free Music helps film and TV communicate much easier with the audience.

It brings unification

Music brings people together in a way that not many other things on this earth can. Think about power ballads, product jingles, and really well made music that you simply can’t help but sing. There’s something very magical about belting out your favourite song surrounded by those that love it as much as you do.

Again, musicians use music as a way of communicating with the fans by singing about the things they care about. It’s truly incredible how something that’s always around us makes such a big difference in our lives without us even realising it!

Music helps heal

Finally, music is incredible at helping us heal. Earlier we talked about playing the right music depending on your mood, but it can help heal physically too. A cognitive and emotional response that includes the affective component of pain, which helps to positively affect mood and results in improved healing, is stimulated by the different musical elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and tempo.

As you can see, music has a tremendous effect on our lives! How much does music mean to you, and do you think you could live without it?

"Well It Was All Right" - Well, baby, you know it was all right

Lou Reed performs Shooting Up onstage in San Francisco, 1974 (Photo by Michael Zagaris)

Lou Reed performs Shooting Up onstage in San Francisco, 1974 (Photo by Michael Zagaris)

By Drew Lyons

Look, Lou’s death hit me hard. I loved that guy. As far as I am concerned, he was New York City, and a giant impetus for my adult choice to wanna be there. He still is NYC, even post-mortem. That is the depth of his representation of that funky, crazy, cool town for me. I am still unable to think of New York City without simultaneously thinking of Lou Reed. It’s true.

I’ve read everything on the topic of my rock hero, trust me. One could even consider me obsessed on this subject. Andy’s Factory? Please. Lou was ten times the artist that Andy was (or could ever hope to be; and Andy knew that!). And that fucked Andy up, knowing that his protégée was far more clever and brilliant than he could ever be. Ah, the balancing of the universe.

Lou knew it too. That’s why he created the body of work that I still find to be far more fascinating than any of Andy’s work, ever. I defy anyone to put the Campbell’s Soup Cans up against the Velvet Underground, objectively.

Tut-tut-tut…don’t even try to give me that lame argument that, oh, well, they’re totally different art forms. Painting and Music are completely different, right? Bullshit.

I dare you to tell me that the soup cans win.

But let’s be fair here. Andy was a Fagan, everyone knows this. But without the Fagan, we wouldn’t have Lou. I get it. Same with Edie Sedgwick. And we all know what happened to her. So sad.

But Lou. Sweet, sweet Lou. He had nothin’ at all. Until Andy “discovered” him. On the gritty streets of the Lower East Side, poor, hungry, with a thousand ideas in his head. Barely able to shower and comfortably write his music, so very poor.

So Andy “created” this new crazy band, The Plastic Underground. To play gigs in the East Village. And Lou was his Justin Beiber. Okay, Andy. You “discovered” Lou? Again, please.

He manipulated Lou, for his own ends. And Lou rose above, and proved how seminal he was to be. For me to listen to, when I was 13, and couldn’t even keep my feet solid under me.

What did he just say?! Amazing. Amazing!

The night I met Lou was one of the greatest nights of my mortal life.

I was circa 35 years old, Lou was circa 58 years old (but it was so hard to tell with his giant black sunglasses on; it’s a best guess). We were both at the afterparty for the TriBeCa Film Festival, which I scored some pass from my friend to get into.

I lasered in on The Louness pretty much the minute I walked in. Holy shit. That’s Lou Reed.

He was everything I would have hoped, wanted, needed Lou Reed to be in real life. Standing 20 feet away from me.

Lou was standing off to the side of the bar, in a black leather jacket, black t-shirt underneath, with black skinny pants on, and the most badass motorcycle boots on. And those giant black sunglasses on. It was Lou, there could be no question about that.

Wow. And who is that six-foot, gorgeous, black female model (I guess) gently stroking his hair? Is Lou married? To her? I realized that I didn’t know. I knew he hung out with Bowie and Jagger back in the day, but it occurred to me that I didn’t really know which way he swung. No matter, there was Lou. And I was determined to buy him a drink.

I summoned everything I had in me, no joke. And I casually walked over to Lou and the giant black model:

“Excuse me, Mr. Reed, I understand that this is annoying, so I will keep it short…”

“Okay, kid.”

“May I buy you a drink? And your companion too, of course.”

Huuurrrrmmmppphhh. From Lou. True.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Reed, I didn’t meant to bother yo……”

“No, it’s okay, kid. I was just laughing at your nervousness. Relax, alright? I’ll take a Maker’s neat, and she’ll have…Sweetness, what are you gonna have, huh?”

She shook her head back and forth, very laconically. As if to suggest something narcotic, but one of the happy ones.

I seized the opportunity then.

“So Mr. Reed, that’s one Maker’s neat for you? I will go get it, and be back in less than 5 minutes. Should I bring some water too?”

“Nah, kid. We don’t need no water. We’re leavin’.”

“Now?”

“Haha! Not now, but hurry up with that Maker’s, alright?

“Yes sir! I mean, yes, of course, Mr. Reed.”

“Call me Lou, kid. And go get my goddamn whiskey. Now.”

I did fly fly away to the bar, faster than I am sure I have ever made a bar run in my life. I ordered two Maker’s Mark, neat, please.

Walking back with the drink that I knew I was about to have with Lou Reed, I think, was one of the most exciting moments of my entire life. This is true, and is also probably the reason why I am writing this little story down.

“Here’s your Maker’s, Mr. Ree… Lou. Sorry.”

“Thanks.”

He chinked my glass. We looked each other into the eyes/giant black sunglasses, we raised the whiskey to our lips, and we sipped. Deliberately. Our glasses slowly descended.

I smiled big at Lou.

Lou smiled big right back.

I’m cool with this, between Lou and I.

(NY Times) Bruce Springsteen Is Living in the Moment

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Every music fan with blood burning in their veins has felt the sting of missing live shows since March, but the pain has been particularly acute for Bruce Springsteen, an artist who’s spent the past six decades onstage, yet says he’s just now hitting his stride.

“I’m at a point in my playing life and artistic life where I’ve never felt as vital,” he said on a Zoom call from his New Jersey home. “My band is at its best, and we have so much accumulated knowledge and craft about what we do that this was a time in my life where I said, ‘I want to use that as much as I can.’”

Springsteen, 71, was stationed in a small, utilitarian home office with primary-color file folders hanging on the wall in place of flashier décor, to discuss “Letter to You,” his first record with the E Street Band in six years, and an Apple Plus film of the same name that captures the kinetic experience of recording it last November.


Sylvan Esso's new album "Free Love" will be released on 9/25 Day (Sept. 25th)

Concrete, concrete shining everywhere
Moonlight’s bright, and the kids don't care
Meet me at the streetlight, gonna take you there
Take you rooftop dancing

Slow-mo throwing my body in the air
Making the jump from ledge to ledge
Long hair flying, we’re out of breath
We’re rooftop dancing

Look at, look at, look at
I can see everything
Babies double-dutching, singing their names
Counting off time, doing their thing
Look at, look at, look at
I can see everything
Babies double-dutching, singing their names
Counting off time, doing their thing

Sunlight's beaming out over the bridge
We’re all running, outrunning death
Summertime breaking, but we’re chasing it
Forever rooftop dancing

Things You Need To Know Before Playing The Violin

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Beginner violin lessons are ideal for those that are new to the instrument. This is one of the most effective ways of learning, as you are able to tailor your practice sessions to suit you. But, before you begin learning there are a few things you should know. 

The first thing you need to realise is that your violin is going to need to be looked after. This may sound like a lot of effort in the beginning, but over time it will become a habit. Whenever you see a violinist getting ready to play, you will notice that they tighten the bow and then they will put a small object over the bow hair. The reason they do this is that whenever the bow is not in use it has to be loosened so that the curve shape is maintained. The object placed over the bow hair, as mentioned, is a rosin. This is designed to trigger friction because the bow hair is naturally slippery and it will not make a sound on its own. 

The second thing you need to bear in mind is that your violin is always going to be noisy at points throughout your online music lessons. Even professionals find that their violin sounds noisy and scratchy in some cases. But, remember, you are close to the violin, and thus this is something you may only hear. 

Finally, you won’t sound like the movie soundtracks for a long time. You will need a lot of violin lessons online to master the craft.

Secrets To Making Your Violin Last

During this COVID era, the best online violin lessons are what you will be looking for to get the most out of your violin and sound as good as you possibly can. Nevertheless, there is something else you will need to do to make sure this is the case, and this is to look after your violin effectively. Of course, you need a good violin to begin with. Learn Violin Lessons have a good reputation for this, so check their website to see their selection. With that being said, read on to discover some top tips to making your violin last. 

Firstly, you should aim to change your violin strings once a year. This is something you can do yourself. However, if possible, you should get someone with experience to help you the first time around. In addition to this, make sure you always set down your violin string-side up after your violin lessons online, no matter if it is inside your case or not. You also need to ensure that you never place anything on top of the case. This is because any unnecessary pressure can cause damage, as the strings already exert a considerable amount of pressure on the instrument through the bridge. You also need to clean your violin regularly; otherwise, you will find that it becomes more difficult to play the strings over time. All you need is a fine instrument cloth, which should be used whenever you notice that your violin is getting a bit dusty after online music lessons. Finally, make sure you re-hair your bow every six to 18 months. This will depend on how regularly you use the violin.

So You Want To Be A Session Musician?

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Whether you are a virtuoso who can sight-read piano sheet music or you are a guitarist who can rock out by ear, there is a career out there for you if you want to be a session musician 

In this article, we’ll look at what you need to do to get a career as a session musician. 

Network, network, network

It cannot be said enough but networking is critical when it comes to gaining a career as a session musician. The internet makes things more challenging for hired musicians, with more players out there it can be somewhat of a crowded marketplace. It is often more about who you know. Get meeting other musicians and producers. 

Get a portfolio

Having a portfolio available online will be a great way for potential employers to find you. Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Vimeo, and Youtube are all useful tools to create great demos or to use for showreels that will showcase all of your musical talents. Having a portfolio is essential when it comes to marketing yourself to potential clients. .

Advertise yourself

Get out there and shout about yourself! Opportunities might not often land at your door, so it’s important to market yourself wherever possible. Use every opportunity to promote yourself and your talents. 

Be good at almost everything, or be amazing at one thing.

To increase the chances of you finding any work, it is a good idea to make sure that you are able to play a range of different styles at a reasonable level. Having the ability to play in a number of different genres and to be able to play more than one instrument will put you in a greater chance of finding opportunities to perform and record as a session musician. Alternatively, you may want to become a specialist in one particular musical niche as this might improve your reputation as the go-to performer for one style. This is especially useful for more obscure instruments or styles. 

Improve your performance skills

When it comes to recording sessions, you’ll need to be able to nail your performance in just one take. Technical ability is a big part of session recording so you;ll need to practice lots. 

Be professional

In addition to musical ability, you need to have professionalism. This means being a reliable communicator, a good time keeper, and the ability to get along with others. 

Contact local studios

Get in touch with local studios and see if you can get in on any upcoming projects that they have going on. Studios can often let bands and musicians know where they can hire a good session player so it’s always in your interests to be someone that they can recommend to others.  

Have Patience

Just like with everything else in the music industry, getting into working as a session musician takes time. You may get small gigs here are there at the start, but once you have experience these will grow, you just need patience.