Yes, I want an audience. Of course I do, I’m a writer. I want to be good to that audience, give them something valuable. I’m their audience in turn – I pay attention to what they share, provide feedback. Once, I would have said that social media isn’t really friendship, but I’ve come to think it might really be the essence of friendship.
A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records is a distillation of Phil Spector’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Wall of Sound, over-the-top but perfect as a Christmas confection.
Serial’s new season will be about Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who abandoned his post in Afghanistan and was held prisoner by the Taliban for five years, before the Obama administration negotiated his release in 2014. The facts are already known – there isn’t a whodunnit to figure out. The whydunnit is much more interesting.
Steven Van Zandt has long complained that Springsteen held back his best material. Considered with The Promise, The Ties That Bind proves the point.
People gather at my house for Thanksgiving. They seem to like the food, although my coffee, beer, and […]
Please, brothers and sisters. Have some self-respect. What message is sent when the stagehands come out to bow? “Oh, there’s the people who couldn’t get into the show. Poor dears. Clap for them, Harold.” It’s embarrassing.
The piece’s themes are interesting – guilt, revenge, submission, and how all are mixed into lust and love. Although Japanese representations of those can seem kinky/bizarre, they are truer to real human emotional lives than most Western depictions, which value bland propriety above all else (think Hallmark).
It turns out that adapting a dud, winking and nudging the audience the whole time, is a more satisfying recipe than adding music to old TV shows or dumb movie comedies. Sure, it’s a jukebox musical, that artistically dubious form, but the players are in on the joke (with dozens more where that came from.)
Say what you want about (or to) Siri, the software has been improving steadily. As a control interface, she’s intuitive, fun, almost always more convenient than clicking through menus.
Adele’s musical gift is her voice, a once-in-a-generation talent that wraps itself around notes with astonishing power and variety; her phrasing is always masterful, often surprising. As a songwriter, she favors a strong melody and elemental sentiments – her compositions are fresh but seem timeless.
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