music
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A Midsummer’s Day and Night Playlist
When does summer truly begin? The astronomical among us define the summer season in the northern hemisphere as beginning with the June solstice, the day with the longest span of daylight each year. However, the solstice is historically referred to in English as Midsummer’s Day, suggesting that by June 20th or so, historical people considered… Continue reading
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Opera Report: May 2026
Contextual note: Every three months my wife Ariele and I host an opera night for our friends at our house and via Discord, and while she does all the hard work of streaming and of updating the website where people vote for the shows, I contribute with an informal newsletter, sharing some history and other… Continue reading
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Real Music
So far as I am aware, I have not yet been tricked into admiring a song that was composed and performed by a computer program. I can scarcely believe that we have already reached a time in history when we actually have to be on our guard against that sort of thing, but apparently we… Continue reading
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We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years
The soundtrack to the 1995 documentary I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times consists mostly of new performances by Brian Wilson of songs recorded years earlier by himself and the Beach Boys. The sole exception is a demo of an obscure song from 1977, titled “Still I Dream Of It,” an uncommon ballad of loneliness… Continue reading
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American Music
If you caught the halftime show on this year’s Super Bowl broadcast, I’d be curious to hear what you thought about it. In these days of cultural division, when people are increasingly unable to agree about the meaning of all the things that play out in front of our faces, I don’t want to take… Continue reading
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Workin’ on a post
It’s winter here in the Pacific Northwest, and yesterday’s temperature peaked at 60 degrees Fahrenheit because the concept of “winter” is being drastically redefined in the Twenty First Century by climate change. All this unseasonable warmth has stirred something in me, and on an impulse I began working on a new musical project: assembling the… Continue reading
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Let’s Make A List
I’d like to have a blog post up on Saturday morning, but it’s Friday evening and I’m simply not prepared for that. Mentally, I am just not there; my hamster wheels are slowing to a standstill, the hamsters themselves having reached their limits of exercise. You can see it in my metaphors, I’m simply out… Continue reading
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The Horn
Jazz music is a misunderstood music, one of the load-bearing pillars of a culture that makes a habit of misunderstanding itself. Of all the kinds of music one commonly hears in America, it stands apart as the most human kind of expression—its cardinal virtue is improvisation, and it delights in the recreation of what was… Continue reading
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Al Jardine and the Pet Sounds Band
My wife and I got tickets to see the core of the late Brian Wilson’s band perform in Lincoln City on October 4th, a decision I made pretty much as soon as I was made aware that such a performance was taking place. Although I have been a fan of Brian and the Beach Boys… Continue reading
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How to Listen to the Beach Boys, Part 2
In Part 1, I discussed the art of listening to the Beach Boys, some of the historical context I find important to appreciating them, and some possible entry points in approaching their rather substantial discography. In this post, I will present two routes for getting into their music on a deeper level: listening to the… Continue reading
Ink Tea Stone Leaf 