Lost my high powered job, six figures out the door.
MAN, my employer used to love me.
Fired me for taking an unwarranted leave of absence.
Unwarranted or unexpected. Continue reading MTF
The Nation Formerly Known as Belgium?
Chocolate and beer. To have tasted the Belgian variety of these treats is to count yourself among the lucky. Believe it or not, they may be all that’s left of a strained Belgian national identity. Continue reading The Nation Formerly Known as Belgium?
Eleventh Winter: To Sea
by Craig Nagoshi
This season’s tempests blustered you out
To sea, by the flash of fire
That consumed and passed those about
You. Continue reading Eleventh Winter: To Sea
Four Poems about Theater
Oh, so you saw it
I saw a play today
I saw it
Did you think?
I saw a play I saw it Continue reading Four Poems about Theater
Analysis of Autumn of the Seraphs
The likeability of Pinback does not seem to come to one immediately; but after enough listens, it is nearly unavoidable. The same can be said of their newest release, Autumn of the Seraphs.
An Editorial Debate
by Jonathan Hust and Clifton Smith
This exchange took place between our contributor Jonathan Hust and co-editor Clifton Smith. It concerns Jonathan’s addition of a “Current Must-Hear Shortlist” to his Review of Autumn of the Seraphs, also featured in this issue. The list includes five additional albums and a numeric rating; it prompted the following editorial debate. Continue reading An Editorial Debate
“How can one ratio, ration an experience”
by Craig Nagoshi
How can one ratio, ration an experience,
Rationalize its essence Continue reading “How can one ratio, ration an experience”
Song Analysis Correspondence (Part Two)
by Jonathan Hust and Clifton Smith
This is the second part of an ongoing correspondence.
Jonathan,
Why should we bother with all of this song scrutiny? What possible good could all of this extra thinking amount to? Isn’t it enough to like whatever we like as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody?
Continue reading Song Analysis Correspondence (Part Two)
The Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña
Entrada from the Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña
My wife Sally and I are Spanish language students in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and have been here since the first of July, 2007. I do not pretend great wisdom, or extraordinary insight. On the contrary, I am living the wonderfully relaxed life of a full-time student, soon to be thrust back into the “real world.” Continue reading The Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña
The Logic of Mass
Mass (Colder Darker Matter)
Cornelia Parker
(1997)
The word “mass” elicits a host of images. A mass of people just ran into the breezeway to escape the monsoon showers outside the building I type in. Scores of people across the world are certain to be celebrating the Mass at this moment, in churches both tiny and massive in size. Most fundamentally, there is mass in its scientific context, i.e. mass as the sum total of matter present in an object. In all of these senses, Cornelia Parker’s Mass (Colder Darker Matter) acts as a perceptual and conceptual metaphor.