The hardest part of enjoying old jazz music—or any old music, really—is coming to terms with the fact that the most prominent, beloved artists of the past will never release new music. There will never be another excited wait for a new album, and there are no new interviews to read or… continue
A concert dominated by sacred choral music has the potential to snooze even the most pious listener, but on December ninth, Erica J. Washburn and the New England Conservatory Chamber Singers presented a compelling, pre-recorded selection of works by Black composers… continue
How many of you have said you have a great American novel inside of you if only you could take the time to sit down and write it? Well soon you will have your chance to do just that. National Novel Writing Month (shortened to NaNoWriMo) happens every November, where it challenges folks to write a 50,000 word manuscript in only 30 days. For those… continue
Upon hearing his organ students play some rather daring improvisations before a panel of stuffy adjudicators at the Conservatoire de Paris, the late Romantic French organist and composer Louis Vierne wrote: “Just for appearances I thought I should lecture them a bit on the difference between excess and propriety. But, deep down, I was laughing with them at… continue
For more than a century the Methuen Memorial Music Hall (MMMH) in Methuen, Massachusetts has been making music inside its walls. And inside those walls is something of storied splendor: a world class organ, fondly referred to as “The Great Organ,” that began its trans-Atlantic journey from the Netherlands on New Year’s Day, 1863. It has been… continue
Maybe it has something to do with being from the Isle of Man, an ancient place both of and separate from united empires. Something about those with Manx ancestry, that they possess an ability to light others from within, that they give something innate to others, allowing them to shine in exactly the way they were meant to. Paul McCartney descends from Manx lineage; my… continue
The Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy opened a group of new exhibitions and retrospectives earlier this month. Expanding the Narrative: Recent Acquisitions is comprised of artworks which have never before been displayed for public viewing: rare photo-collages from Beat-generation artist Mary Joan Jay Defeo, oil paintings of Jane Freilicher, and William Wegman’s more recent photographs and panels. In addition, the Addison focuses on self-taught photographer Gordon Parks and a specific set of prints in The New Tide, Early Work (1940-1950). These programs, funded in part by… continue
The dawning of the Fifties birthed the Golden Age of science fiction cinema in America, lasting until…well, has it ever really ended? From the nuclear blast ground zero of giant mutant invasion sci-fi, every subsequent era has had its own impactful wave: the mind-expanding, body-introspective films of the Sixties; the socio-political-environmental Seventies; the Eighties, where the breakneck evolution of special effects sired block bluster-y, world-exploring epics; the… continue