In a world where kids are used to the kill or be killed mentality of video games, it’s a pleasure to find a story that demonstrates how the most obvious solution to a problem is not necessarily the best. So, too, it demonstrates creativity and compassion, and shows readers how that which is evident on the surface is not necessarily what lies beneath.
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Let Us Now Praise Sensitive Men: Bob Baldwin, Never Can Say Goodbye: A Tribute to Michael Jackson
In tribute to a man lost much too soon, the jazz pianist Bob Baldwin has produced an album that executes with delicacy the established and known rhythm patterns of Michael Jackson’s songs, and, sometimes, even adds intensity, but, for the most part, Bob Baldwin does not extend the songs into new territory, new invention.
Freedom and Discipline: Turtle Island Quartet, Have You Ever Been…?
In the interpretation of the Turtle Island Quartet, I hear something fine and sensuous. Just as the native rhythms that might have sounded one way when played on an African landscape with African instruments sounded differently when played on European instruments on American soil as part of the improvisations on composed music that is jazz, the sound of Jimi Hendrix’s songs are different with classical instrumentation and technique.
A Gentleman, a Model: Brian McKnight, Evolution of a Man
Brian McKnight does not sing of ghetto life in run-down tenements, violent hustles and narcotic sales, of whores and pimps, or rats and roaches; nor does he sing of temporary jobs and unemployment checks, of bad bosses and landlords, of sudden evictions and midnights spent deciding whether to beg, borrow, steal—or die. He sings of love as game, luxury, and spiritual fulfillment.
Eastern States, Tunisian Oud: The Astounding Eyes of Rita by Anouar Brahem
By Daniel Garrett Anouar Brahem, The Astounding Eyes of Rita Produced by Manfred Eicher ECM, 2009 The oud is a lute, a traditional instrument in the music of Tunisia, a music featuring significant woodwind instruments and lutes in an ancient…
This is the Time for Change: the album Grand Isle by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
How many people know the music of Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys; or are likely to learn of it? Often people lament that the music industry is in a crisis, and that music criticism is as well: the multiple sources for finding and commenting on music make it hard to identify and push a few artists forward and up, for the industry to self-select its preferred stars, allowing them fame and wealth, leaving others to struggle vainly to achieve the same. More music is available and known by smaller populations, but fewer musicians are loved by all of us.
A review of Hazard River series—books 5-6 Toads’ Revenge & Blood Money
Fison’s writing is fresh, tight and easily absorbed. Action and humour abound, and are the reasons this series works so well. While the message in these books is clear, it isn’t in any way preachy—nor is the humour forced. The child characters are all well-developed, each with a distinct personality, which is something all too often glazed over in such short fiction.
A review of Gamers’ Challenge by George Ivanoff
After reading the above, one might be forgiven for thinking this is nothing more than an entertaining story aimed at an electronic game-mad audience. But don’t be fooled, Gamers’ Challenge is far more than that. What this story does is challenge our notions of reality. It raises all the big existential questions, offers some answers and then turns everything on its head.
A review of Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
This leads to what really made the book work for me: a sense of tremendous conviction and strength in back of everything. Dreiser makes me feel, in no uncertain terms, that this is a tale worth telling — even though the writing of it might not come easily to him.
A review of Land’s Edge by Tim Winton
Throughout the book, and deftly woven into the narrative structure, Winton poses a number of serious questions. Why are we drawn to the sea, and what is its importance to us? How, in Australia, is the psychological importance of the sea shaped by the predominance of desert? What is our responsibility towards the sea as it changes? How is the sea’s danger to humans—its wild untameability, part of the way we relate to it?