Finn achieves what seems a personal voice—not the voice one speaks in but the voice one thinks with, the voice that is changed when one feels, the voice others usually do not hear: a voice of sensitivity and serenity, a voice of imagination and investigation. What “once was fun will later be boring,” he sings, with a cello-like throbbing nearby.
Energy, Honesty, Intelligence, Tradition and Possibility: The Clash, London Calling
It was an effect both real and illusionary: expectations were challenged, a new model constituted, but traditions—though modified—continued. London Calling, then two albums of shiny vinyl, nineteen songs of changing moods and distinct musical movements, was their breakthrough recording, produced by Guy Stevens.
Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, featuring B.B. King, Robbie Robertson, Robert Plant, Olu Dara, Corinne Bailey Rae, Norah Jones, and Ben Harper
Harper’s singing is exuberant and pleading nearly at the same time; and the Skatalites, a Jamaican band that often perform reggae and ska, give the song a subtle Caribbean rhythm. Yet, it is Toots and the Maytals in the Domino-Bartholomew seduction song “Let the Four Winds Blow,” produced by Toots Hibbert, that is quite full of soul. With Dean Frasier’s hot saxophone playing and the doo-woppish background singing, and a very clean uptempo production, the song “Four Winds” really lives.
An Unusual Voice: Lizz Wright, The Orchard
I do not think that I like the compositions on Lizz Wright’s The Orchard as much as I do those on Wright’s Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake: while being interesting, even nourishing, fruits of labor, they do not have as pleasing a shape or taste; but Wright sounds more free and Wright’s voice is as distinct as that of Anita Baker or Tracy Chapman, and is as likely to be, as theirs have been, among the defining voices of a generation.
A review of His Illegal Self by Peter Carey
This last sentence so changes the story, that this reader at least, went back and re-read it in its entirety, seeing everything in a different light. I enjoyed it the first time, but found much to reflect on the second – the hallmark of a good novel. Che is believable, both as the eight-year old boy struggling to find himself, and as the older, wiser narrator he becomes by the end of the book.
A Review of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book by Patricia L Fry
The new version is still comprehensive, and still contains a superbly structured, compendium of knowledge about the world of “authorship”. The book is still infused with Fry’s 30+ years of experience in writing, publishing and teaching writing and publishing, and is still a well written, easy-to-read book that will help authors at all stages of their careers. But the new edition has been significantly updated.
A review of Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon: 1947
As an artist, Caniff uses square or rectangular panels, nothing fancy, about three or four to a row. The panels show a continuous change of perspective, to involve the viewer in Canyon’s world and create the impression that you inhabit the same space. There are wordless fight sequences and car chases; gorgeous, high-kicking, high-cheek-boned femme fatales; the use of montage and other cinematic effects.
A review of Sixty Poems by Charles Simic
Charles Simic is a snug fit for the poet who uses the obvious to explore the mysterious and like any competent practitioner of the poet’s craft, he selects words exactly. To read these sixty poems, almost all of them short and ranging in date from 1986 to 2005, is to respond to the insights that govern a strange world disclosed by the familiar.
A review of George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen and Lucy Hawking
Reviewed by Magdalena Ball George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen and Lucy Hawking Random House ISBN 9780385612708, $27.95aud, ages 9-12 http://www.georgessecretkey.com/ Some of my earliest defining experiences involved the planetarium. I will never forget sitting in that big…
Unexpected Beauty: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand
Robert Plant, a legendary rock musician, and Alison Krauss, an established folk performer, would seem an odd match but on Raising Sand they are unbeatable; and with their collaborators—producer T Bone Burnett, drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Dennis Crouch, and others—they have made very satisfying music.