#bob frantz

[smashpages]

Out this week: Felix the Cat (Rocketship Entertainment): Rocketship collects the miniseries by Mike Federali, Bob Frantz and Tracy Yardley featuring the return of Felix and his bag of tricks to comics.

See what else is arriving at your local comic shop this week

[chaospochi]

Felix the Cat: The Collected Edition by Bottlerocket on Kickstarter

the felix comic by Mike Federali, Bob Frantz and Tracy Yardley that was in limbo for a little while found a publisher and now has a kickstarter! pledge to get the pdf, a softcover, art prints, pins and more while you still can

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Skeeters

Skeeters preview. Small town hijinks ensue as extraterrestrial mosquitos descend on a sleepy beach town. #comics #comicbooks

[the-hottest-band-tournament]

Round Two

Bob Marley and the Wailers

Defeated opponents: Max Webster

Formed in: 1963

Genres: Reggae, ska, rocksteady

Lineup: Bob Marley – lead vocal, rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar

Aston "Family Man" Barrett – bass, piano, guitar, percussion

Carlton Barrett – drums, percussion

Carlton "Santa" Davis – drums

Tyrone Downie – keyboards, backing vocal

Alvin Patterson – percussion

Junior Marvin – lead guitar, backing vocal

Earl Lindo – keyboards

Al Anderson – lead guitar

I Threes (Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt) – backing vocals

Albums from the 80s:

Uprising (1980)

Confrontation (1983)

Legend (1984)

Rebel Music (1986)

Propaganda: 

Talking Heads 

Defeated opponents: Los Lobos

Formed in: 1975

Genres: New Wave 

Lineup: David Byrne- lead vocals/guitar

Chris Frantz- drums

Tina Weymouth- bass

Jerry Harrison- keyboard/guitar

Albums from the 80s: 

Remain in Light (1980)

Speaking in Tongues (1983)

Little Creatures (1985)

True Stories (1986)

Naked (1988)

Propaganda:

[onemorecupofcoffee]

what if we kissed under the giant bob dylan picture

[mitjalovse]

Sting needed a gimmick – replace him with any of his peers and you get the same issue. Then again, what can the likes of him actually do? They can hope for a viral success of one of their old chestnuts or they can try to cover those they like to show (off) the influence they wield. Scratch My Back by Peter Gabriel feels like such a record, though I must admit the platter remains a great proposition for him, but he turned most of the tunes into the trailer dirges, making the entire enterprise baffling. While one could claim – what I did before – he saw a storm brewing, he could still play more with the songs he chose. For instance, he could've done the negative harmony versions of them, which could surprise us, since him transforming them to be sadder sounds like an easy way out.

[gallierhouse]

List of cameos I would’ve preferred to Sartre and Beckett

Frantz Fanon

Michel Foucault

Jacques Derrida

Tennessee Williams

James Baldwin

Simone Weil (although Louis understandably wouldn’t have run into her….)

Harold Pinter (but I would’ve taken Miller, too.)

Jean Genet (maybe even Dennis Cooper.)

Jean-Luc Godard.

Bob Mizer. Okay, this one is really for me, but perhaps he could’ve gone on vacation to Paris or something.

It’s not that Sartre and Beckett are bad cameos per se, but it’s also obvious that they were chosen for their recognizability. But knowing Louis — and the books he reads, and what he’s interested in — I think these figures would’ve added more value to the story.

Fun fact: Sartre and Beckett lie in the same cemetery, in Montparnasse.

[creativelyryeblogs]

Afro-Surrealism & Afrofuturism: Mood Board

Afro-Surrealism

Behold the invisible! You shall see unknown wonders!

1. We have seen these unknown worlds emerging in the works of Wifredo Lam, whose Afro-Cuban origins inspire works that speak of old gods with new faces, and in the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who gives us new gods with old faces. We have heard this world in the ebo-horn of Roscoe Mitchell and the lyrics of DOOM. We've read it through the words of Henry Dumas, Victor Lavalle, and Darius James. This emerging mosaic of radical influence ranges from Frantz Fanon to Jean Genet. Supernatural undertones of Reed and Zora Neale Hurston mix with the hardscrabble stylings of Chester Himes and William S. Burroughs.

2. Afro-Surreal presupposes that beyond this visible world, there is an invisible world striving to manifest, and it is our job to uncover it. Like the African Surrealists, Afro-Surrealists recognize that nature (including human nature) generates more surreal experiences than any other process could hope to produce.

3. Afro-Surrealists restore the cult of the past. We revisit old ways with new eyes. We appropriate 19th century slavery symbols like Kara Walker, and 18th century colonial ones like Yinka Shonibare. We re-introduce "madness" as visitations from the gods, and acknowledge the possibility of magic. We take up the obsessions of the ancients and kindle the dis-ease, clearing the murk of the collective unconsciousness as it manifests in these dreams called culture.

4. Afro-Surrealists use excess as the only legitimate means of subversion, and hybridization as a form of disobedience. The collages of Romare Bearden and Wangechi Mutu, the prose of Reed, and the music of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Antipop Consortium express this overflow.

Afro-Surrealists distort reality for emotional impact. 50 Cent and his cold monotone and Walter Benjamin and his chilly shock tactics can kiss our ass. Enough! We want to feel something! We want to weep on record.

5. Afro-Surrealists strive for rococo: the beautiful, the sensuous, and the whimsical. We turn to Sun Ra, Toni Morrison, and Ghostface Killa. We look to Kehinde Wiley, whose observation about the black male body applies to all art and culture: "There is no objective image. And there is no way to objectively view the image itself."

6. The Afro-Surrealist life is fluid, filled with aliases and census- defying classifications. It has no address or phone number, no single discipline or calling. Afro-Surrealists are highly-paid short-term commodities (as opposed to poorly-paid long term ones, a.k.a. slaves).

Afro-Surrealists are ambiguous. "Am I black or white? Am I straight, or gay? Controversy!"

Afro-Surrealism rejects the quiet servitude that characterizes existing roles for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, women and queer folk. Only through the mixing, melding, and cross-conversion of these supposed classifications can there be hope for liberation. Afro-Surrealism is intersexed, Afro-Asiatic, Afro-Cuban, mystic, silly, and profound.

7. The Afro-Surrealist wears a mask while reading Leopold Senghor.

8. Ambiguous as Prince, black as Fanon, literary as Reed, dandy as André Leon Tally, the Afro-Surrealist seeks definition in the absurdity of a "post-racial" world.

9. In fashion (John Galliano; Yohji Yamamoto) and the theater (Suzan Lori-Parks), Afro-Surreal excavates the remnants of this post-apocalypse with dandified flair, a smooth tongue and a heartless heart.

10. Afro-Surrealists create sensuous gods to hunt down beautiful collapsed icons.

Black is the New Black, a 21st century Manifesto

by D. Scot Miller

This is Afro-Surrealism:

Ted Joans, Bob Kaufman

Krista Franklin

This is Afrofuturism:

Sun Ra, Earth Wind and Fire

[thesinglesjukebox]

ZACH BRYAN - "PINK SKIES"

Returning to songs we don't hate...

[7.07]

Nortey Dowuona: Every funeral is for the living. The things the dead loathed, were irritated by, or never wanted spoken are done at a funeral, often proudly and brazenly, since the dead are beyond our reach and beyond our reproach. Their deeply damning or deeply moving behavior has become a part of legend and contemplation, rather than constantly changing with each day they live. After a while our decaying memories are all we have. Each day you see a picture of the dead you remember how little of the real, breathing person remains. It's worst when it's your mother. Boys, even those who loathe them, are loath to reproach or even damn their mothers, because adhering to the comforting fiction that your mother loves and adores you without reservation provides you with a relief and comfort. But every mother has reservations, frustrations, traditions adopted to keep each child alive and breathing. Most mothers try to love and care for their children, often because they know that no one else in this world will. But it is very difficult to actually love a person, not a picture and a memory. And sometimes a person will lie about being a little bit taller, and you will laugh, then one day look at the notches made in a pine doorway, realizing you should've keep letting her make them, realizing you will forget these notches because the person who remembers how to make them is gone and didn't tell you how. [9]

Mark Sinker: “The kids are in town for a funeral” is a terrific opening line, and the fragments that follow of undilutedly exact observation are also good. They ground the mood of the the sound, which uses squirts of Dylan-style mouth-harp to say this is us NOW, as it’s been as long as any of us could know: time-bound yet also timeless, just like the sky. The form is gradual surprise reveal — who died? who’s the song’s “you”? — and the reason it doesn’t really work is that it ends up trying for a kind of quasi-mythic forwards-backwards doubleness (you will have been who we all always were), which instead dissipates into a cyclic melancholic vagueness.   [5]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Grief is a hard subject to sing about, but Zach Bryan makes it easy by never raising his voice above a soft whisper, as if he's speaking directly to you. The harmonica does the heavy emotional lifting, an aural release of all of the big emotions that haven't been shared. When Bryan finally does raise his voice once or twice, the effect is deafening.  [8]

Hannah Jocelyn: A Zach Bryan song with interesting production, hallelujah! The slight formant-shifting on the backing vocals (courtesy of Emily Frantz from Watchhouse), the distorted vocal doubles, and the subtle distorted guitar in the right channel show an attention to detail I haven't heard before. Ironically, this song doesn't need all that; this is just a sharp, thoughtful song about going to the funeral of a parent and doesn't need to be much more. You can tell it's by a guy that worships Jason Isbell and sells out arenas, but the modesty makes lines about cleaning the person's house or helping someone without judgement hit harder. [8]

Taylor Alatorre: The balancing act of Zach Bryan's success is that he instinctively avoids tethering himself to the orthodoxies of country music, contemporary or traditional, while also not making a virtue of being "unorthodox" for the sake of it. His persona as the regular guy who snuck his way onto Music Row feels less contrived on record than on paper, and when he describes his songs as "poems," he isn't trying to lord it over anyone -- that's genuinely what they are to him. These tendencies serve Bryan well on "Pink Skies," a not-quite-country not-quite-ballad about a thoroughly unremarkable funeral. He makes no effort to scrub the harmonica part of its Bob Dylan associations, because why should he? It serves the larger goal of bringing the past into a visible, tangible communion with the present, just as the trans-temporal horizon of the title does. At times this between-past-and-present approach comes off as indecisiveness, as if Bryan himself is unsure whether he's meant to be addressing the living or the dead. But maybe that's an inevitable byproduct of the subject, which is not just the funeral itself but the essential messiness and awkwardness of attending one as an uprooted young adult. [7]

TA Inskeep: Musically this wants to be '64 Dylan, but lyrically it's a C+ Creative Writing class poem. Bryan's flat, almost emotionless vocal does it no favors. [3]

Katherine St. Asaph: For all its signifiers of man-hewn realness, "Pink Skies" is not that different from a hypothetical AI shitpost of Bob Dylan singing in a bananies-and-avocadies voice. [4]

Brad Shoup: This is Saddle Creek emo—the gulped vowels, the voice-cracking yelps, the Brechtian backing-player inserts that have the very anti-Brechtian effect of heightening sentimentality. (The "you'd think they's yuppies" bit is funnier as an aside than part of the chorus—say what you will about Music Row, but nine out of ten Nashville writers would have left it to shine in a verse.) Bryan does a tremendous job of seeing the loss while looking past it; he comes across as the pragmatic child, the one who's quick to put everything into perspective, even if it makes the view smaller. The last line of the chorus is an all-timer, and Bryan delivers it like a rallying cry, a comfort for everyone left. And he takes care that its first appearance lands the hardest. I guess what nags at me is that this is a tidy song that in its desire to become something more—to pretend that "no one's ever been here before or at all"—ends up creating clutter. And I don't need that clutter: I'm already dealing with chord changes that remind me of David Nail's "Red Light" (a breakup tune that's somehow more bereaved and existential) and a backporch lurch that recalls M Ward's "Requiem," a eulogy that, in centering its subject, still tells you everything about the speaker. [6]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Every Zach Bryan single creeps closer to greatness and catastrophe. Doing a full "Tangled Up in Blue" pastiche nine months after starting his last album off with a "Born to Run"-alike would be a galling work of ego if he didn't stick the landing. I feel like such a sap to be taken in by him, but the rootsy gestures and artfully plainspoken lyrics work on me truly and completely. "Pink Skies" succeeds because of how the track doesn't quite build but unfurl, how the clipped to-do list of "clean the house/clear the drawers/mop the floors/stand tall" overflows into "like no one's ever been here before or at all" and how the harmonica and endlessly trilling mandolin just grow and grow as the song goes on. This wouldn't work at all if not for Bryan's vocal performance — he mutters and intones and, finally, raises himself into a mournful little yowl, communicating the utter unfurling of grief — the kaleidoscopic feeling his verses get at, the constantly shifting "you" he aims at but never quite embraces. [9]

Alfred Soto: Plainspokenness is not itself a virtue: plenty of plainspoken people are simpletons. Zach Bryan ain't a simpleton, but when his thoughts don't match his singsong melodies he's like an old-timer in a diner insisting on discussing the weather with Shakespearean gravity. On the other hand, songs about funerals and thrift stores dressed up with harmonicas don't often enter the Billboard top ten on streaming numbers alone. We dwell in grief, our pop songs la la la la past it. [6]

Andrew Karpan: Instantly one of the great songs of Bryan’s latest era of making these kind of grand statements of melancholy wistfulness, an intimate few minutes that suggests a future of cooking Neil Young covers for sports networks or whatever that looks like in the 2030s.  [8]

Jeffrey Brister: Dusky, Springsteen-style arrangement with bluegrass flourishes? Raspy vocal? Impressionistic lyrics that convey specificity and emotion without being overly wordy? A performance that evokes joy in the midst of pain and mourning? Let me get out my big rubber stamp that says “EXTREMELY MY SHIT.” [9]

Jonathan Bradley: "Pink Skies" is not among Zach Bryan's best songs: its narrative fuzzes around the edges too much, resting excessively on the weight carried by old memories and the literary power of "the kids are in town for a funeral" as a scene setter. It has me expecting a short story, and he delivers gesture and elision: "never said a thing about Jesus or the way he's living" is an aside that longs for a more developed narrative. But goodness me if he can't make anything sound good when he hits his high register and belts out a line like "I bet God heard you coming." It's not even the words; anything would sound transportive transmitted through that howl. I hope he never realizes how effective a weapon he wields there.  [8]

Ian Mathers: This is just too solidly and straightforwardly good in a way that hits me pretty deep and makes me think too much about the last couple of memorials I've been to for me to say anything clever about it. Fuckin' good song, though. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[remembertheplunge]

Busy Bee Journal entries

Monday 3/13 2017   6:46pm Tea Cups 

Bob  took the “ The 9”  movie ticket!. I walked it down to the State Theater, but, the door was locked. On the way back to Brendan, I encountered  Bob—or, the altered Bob (he’s had a lot to drink). He was happy to get it.

There’s a blonde homeless guy next to Tresetie’s— I gave him a TJSK bag—asked if he wanted to see a movie. H had a lot of stuff “maybe after dark”. 

So, I bought him a ticket for the 7:30pm “Logan” movie.

He turned it down again, citing his tendency to revolt as the reason. I smelled alcohol on him

------------------------------------------

Razors

Deodorant

Blister cream (DJ’s feet)

DJ—Last night: Slaveway  (Safeway Store) “I haven’t been in a grocery store in about 4 years.”

----------------------------------------

“You have a body builder’s way of thinking--mind.” Angelo,my personal trainer said  yesterday re: I hit 3 gyms in one day N: 3/15/17 Wed. 9:12am

----------------------------------------------------------

____After a month out on the street—including thru February’s howling storms—

DJ sleeps in his pillow bed in “the spare bed room”

Listening to country music.

3/16/17Thursday

7:40pm

S0…texted DJ that I need the house back to myself.

He texted before “I do love you”.

I texted “I think that you are a great guy.”

_____________

Bone crushing hard—it went so deep in 4 days

_______—

Drove my “new” table home—round—a pattern antique 

He , too, helps the drug—homeless. He said his home is his sanctuary. He lives alone. Few visitors.

He said “don’t cut off the connection…” (from DJ)

He went to Chico State. (As did I) In Breaking Bad fashion, as a pharmacy student, he manufactured 100s of thousands of dollars in Meth. Got 10 years prison. he was the  guy that sold me the table.

------------------------------

DJ doesn’t want to come in—“so depressed. “Not hungry”.

——

Ouch-----

5:25pm I’m sitting out in front of my house.

Greg  sleeps.

He showed me Mother Mary in one  tree and a woman’s face in another. They were on Brigsmore Ave near Starbucks.

I met him at the gas station on 9th across from the Adult Book Store around noon.

Last night he slept on the cement. He hadn’t eaten in two days. 

I bought cigarettes for Mike. I drove to Salvation Army to meet him at 11am. He was a no show.

I went to Preservation Coffee where a friend asked “What’s this (TJSK) project about? You could be murdered."

Then I drove to the gas station and met Greg. 

He had blue paint on his fingers . He paints house numbers on curbs for a living.

-------------------------------------------

I just tried to wake him. He’s really softly asleep.

Now what?

We encountered Strawberry Sterling outside Hamburger Habit.

Greg offered to go to re- hab with Sterling. Later, Greg threw his last dollar at Sterling….

Sterling is way down. 

Heroin sick.

Bad skin disorder.

Greg asked if Sterling had seen Greg’s girl friend Brook. No. 

Greg’s hunting for her.

I told him that I hunt for Jim

And, of everyone’s hunt for Frantz in last night’s movie.

(Frantz: 2016 movie)

Greg asked several times why I appeared today. 

Greg “What does it mean?”

“What do you want?”

Me “nothing” 

He’s healing to be with. Warm feel to him

End of this part of the entries from my  Busy Bee journal2017 journal

Notes: 6/22/2024

In mid March 2017 I began an intense involvement with the homeless that lasted until the end of that year. This included passing out bags, usually bags I bought at Trader Joes. I called them Trader Joe Survival Kits (TJSK). The bags included food, socks and toiletries. 

”The 9” movie was a movie about the homeless in Modesto. It was terrible and I walked out of the State Theater in Modesto mid movie .

 I had given my lawyer friend Bob (not his real name) a ticket to see the movie.

The Brendan is a movie theater in Modesto. Tea Cup was a restaurant adjoining the theater. Treseties is a restaurant about a block away. The blonde homeless man that I met there was named Mike. He was a handsome muscular blonde musician. He practiced his music like I practice my law he would later tell me. When he turned the movie ticket, I gave it to DJ who I spotted charging his phone outside of Tea Cup. We saw “Logan “ together. I then offered let him stay at may house that night. He turned me down, but, I did take him to the house, about a mile away, to give him a coat. It was cold that night. The next day, I found DJ asleep on a downtown side walk. I asked him again if he wanted to stay in my house. This time he said yes. He stayed a few nights, but, my “homed” friends feared I would be hurt or killed, so, I asked him to leave.

But, the seed was planted and I would go on to have several other  homeless men spend a few nights or a few weeks with me at my house. Including DJ until the end of October 2017.. 

Greg  was one of them. He came from a good family in New York. He was married and had children. And, he had severe mental illness issues. He was a magic man who would show me images in murals he had painted around town and tell me why they were significant. With one of the murals , I had to view it by holding a mirror and studying the mural in the mirror as he explained it.

]

He was searching for his x girl fried Brook. I was searching for my deceased partner Jim. And the characters in the movie Frantz were searching for him (his memory). He was a German soldier who had been  been killed by a French soldier in WWI. The soldier who killed him was  among those" searching for" Frantz. 

Breaking Bad was a TV show about a an all American family who get heavily involved in Meth production.

I'm giving these entries to you in a raw version. Pretty much as I wrote it. I think it better catches the feel of the experience than a polished version.

[gerogerigaogaigar]

David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

This was the dawning of a new age of glam rock. It's spacey like much of the glam scene, but it brought a rock n roll edge that would go on to be a major influence in the development of punk. Ziggy Stardust is supposedly a concept album about a bisexual alien rock star sent to earth to avert an energy crisis, but let's be real that concept only exists in like four songs on the album and even then only loosely. No this is really just an album about creating a moody and weird rock and roll drama filled with jangly guitars, dissonant chords, and a weird sense of desperation that is hard to put my finger on.

Talking Heads - Remain In Light

Remain In Light is a complex labyrinth of looping polyrhythmic grooves equally inspired by punk and new wave as it was from Fela Kuti. This is the album that truly brings the strengths of every member of the band to the forefront. Chris Frantz's funk/punk hybrid drumming is challenged to incorporate complex rhythmic elements from African drumming. Tina Weymouth's looping bass lines wind up holding the entire album together. Jerry Harrison on keys and guitar wind up filling in all the empty spaces in the soundscape. And singer David Byrne delivers cryptic stream of consciousness lyrics. Remain In Light, like their last couple albums, was produced by Brian Eno, and Eno's touch is definitely felt. The production is tight, but well textured. Odd noises are brought further into the foreground and vocals are allowed to sit further back than most bands would allow. Remain In Light is a must listen album.

Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde

It must be said, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 is a bad and stupid song. Yes I 'get it' haha see he says stoned like weed but he means like biblically 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Oh it's so fucking clever kill me. The second that song is over this instantly becomes one of the best Dylan albums by a huge margin. The stretch of songs from Visions Of Johanna to Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) is an amazing run of 10/10 songs. And the closer, Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands is probably my second favorite Dylan closer after Desolation Row. The tightrope act of balancing the folk and rock sides of his style is performed incredibly.

Dr. Dre - The Chronic

The Chrinic is not a Dre solo album, it's a sampler of all the talent he has collected for his new record label. In fact Snoop probably shares as many verses as Dre does on here. It's an incredibly confident move and all the original Death Row inmates are here. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Lady Of Rage, Warren G, RBX, Kurupt, Nate Dogg, it's an incredible cast. And it's all topped off with new and innovative production that utilizes fewer samples, but deploys then with precision. The gratuitous Parliament-Funkadelic sampling would become standard for hip hop going forward, with The Chronic G-Funk was officially established.

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

This was Michael Jackson's fifth album, but it really was his debut as an adult musician. The cutesy baby faced member of the Jackson Five was now a certified pop star who could compete on his own merits. The disco hits Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough and Rock With Me as well as the ballad She's Out Of My Life lay the groundwork for Jackson's most fertile creative period. Other than that the album is quite good but does pale in comparison to his 80s output.

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

This was the first Beatles album where it felt like they actually wanted to be taken seriously as artists. Rubber Soul leans into a more folk rock sound that strongly distinguishes this album from its rock and roll predecessors. The expanded instrumentation, including their first use of sitar on Norwegian Wood, is a welcome inclusion. The fab four have fully embraced fuzzy guitars. Also of note is the very surreal attitude towards women on here. Like what the fuck is going on in Norwegian Wood and Run For Your Life? Rock music isn't kind to women, but this is just some psycho shit. I love it.

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Innervisions is the real start to a more introspective, witty, and socially conscious Stevie Wonder. There are no more sappy love songs and instead politically minded songs like Living For The City or spiritually hopeful songs like Higher Ground are the bread and butter of this record. What Innervisions does do is take the synth bass that was used on Talking Book and ramp it's usage up. The Moog bass gets more usage as the the clarinet and electric piano. Wonder's energy is extremely infectious, it's no surprise that Innervisions spawned four massive hits that all still see play on classic rock radio.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

It is very clear that Amy Winehouse could have gone all the way for period accurate recreation of early 60s Doo wop and girl groups had she wanted to. Thankfully she was better than that. The way she blends those classic styles with their modern equivalents beautifully illuminates the evolutionary path of soul and R&B music. Winehouse is backed up by the legendary Dap-Kings which adds to the authentic retro feel, but the lyricism absolutely trends more towards a modern style (I don't think Rehab would have flown in the early 60s). All in all Back To Black is a shockingly unique yet recognizable album that can only be the result of a unique musical vision.

Beyoncé - Lemonade

This album made a huge splash when it came out. It was dropped without any warning and overnight white girls were writing think pieces about the state of black America. The album's main topic is how her husband Jay-Z had been cheating on her, but she takes the simple theme os heartbreak and betrayal and evaluates it through the lens of how the legacy of American slavery has had ripple effects on black masculinity, femininity and relationships. I'll stop there lest this becomes another white girl think piece about Lemonade. Underneath the themes and stuff is one of Beyoncé's most dynamic albums. It is not at all contained to just R&B and delves into rock frequently and Daddy Lessons is straight up a country rock song. I'm not even close to the first person to sing the praises of this album but you're gonna have to hear it again because Lemonade is perfect.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue

In many ways Kind Of Blue resembles other post bop albums. But under the surface something incredibly innovative is happening. You see rather than a chord progression to set the key and then a bunch of solos there is... Wait do you guys know about musical modes? Oh. Uh. This is gonna be hard to explain then. Just trust me that the underlying structure of these songs provides the performers with much more tonal freedom than in other forms of jazz without losing the sense of harmonic center. If you are intrigued Google modal jazz at your own risk. Now the performers themselves are some of the best of the best. Miles himself on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane on alto and tenor sax respectively, Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Each one of these performers is a legend, each one likely to be the biggest name in any other band. And they explore the freedom that the moral form allows them to craft some of the finest solos in the history of jazz. And it's kinda catchy too. I already have the refrain from So What stuck in my head. Somehow one of the most experimental albums also became one of the best selling jazz albums of all time.

[smashpages]

‘Felix the Cat’ moves to Bottlerocket + is now up on Kickstarter

Rocketship Entertainment’s new imprint will crowdfund a softcover of the comic by Mike Federali, Bob Frantz and Tracy Yardley.

[graphicpolicy]

Preview: Skeeters #4

Skeeters #4 preview. Carla and friends must fight their way through a literal hive of activity if they even hope to squash the alien queen and save their hometown #comics #comicbooks

[the-hottest-band-tournament]

Round Four of The Hottest 80s Band Tournament

Sparks

Defeated opponents: My Bloody Valentine, Grateful Dead, Rush

Formed in: 1968

Genres: New wave, art pop, disco rock

Lineup: Russell Mael – vocals

Ron Mael – keyboards

Albums from the 80s:

Terminal Jive (1980)

Whomp That Sucker (1981)

Angst in My Pants (1982)

In Outer Space (1983)

Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat (1984)

Music That You Can Dance To (1986)

Interior Design (1988)

Propaganda: 80s Sparks Ted Talk

Talking Heads 

Defeated opponents: Los Lobos, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Yellow Magic Orchestra

Formed in: 1975

Genres: New Wave 

Lineup: David Byrne- lead vocals/guitar

Chris Frantz- drums

Tina Weymouth- bass

Jerry Harrison- keyboard/guitar

Albums from the 80s: 

Remain in Light (1980)

Speaking in Tongues (1983)

Little Creatures (1985)

True Stories (1986)

Naked (1988)

Propaganda:

Visual propaganda for Sparks:

[finishinglinepress]

NEW FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS: Dormant by Harriet Ribot

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Harriet Ribot was born in Brooklyn, became a Registered Nurse at twenty, married at twenty-two, raised four successful sons through the seventies and eighties, and then earned her long-desired BA, with a concentration in Journalism, at Rutgers-Newark in the1980s. She also collated the works and biography of composer Frantz Casseus into a book of sheet music for solo guitar: The Complete Works of Frantz Casseus (Tuscany Publications, 2003). Her chapbook, Willow Tree, was published by Finishing Line Press, and her collection of poems, Ember, by Kelsay Books. #life #poetry #selfdiscovery

PRAISE FOR Dormant by Harriet Ribot

In Dormant, Harriet Ribot’s deeply honest first book of poetry, the reader is invited to share a writer’s late life self-discovery. With children long ago raised and husband gone, Ribot doesn’t over-romanticize her lived experience. “When your brain/has lain/dormant/what torment/to waken this thing” she tells us in the title poem. In another she writes, “Patience is time spread thin over peaks of frustration/and mounds of buried dreams, still visible/as one looks back over many years.” A deep and playful affection for language lace together love, loss and painful awakening throughout this lovely book.

–Roy Nathanson is author of Subway Moon, and teaches music at the NYU Gallatin School.

“I write to share” writes Harriet Ribot in her new book of poems, Dormant.Words tumble gently down the page. An occasional rhyme gives a boost. But the poems always land, gently, in the heart. Maybe, as “The Little Imp” says, “The whole world has a common bond of loneliness.” Maybe, as in “The Net,” There are “structures/holding us together in delicate balance.” In this “keep-moving world” where we “drink from the fountain of kiss,” Harriet reminds us that when you are on “the corner of somewhere to someplace else” that “life’s what you choose—not what you’ve found.” “Loosen up…” she urges, “live it up…show love to someone else!” Reader, follow the advice in these poems, and join with our Poet, saying “Having loved, I can face the future.”

–Bob Holman, activist, poet and filmmaker, is author of 17 volumes of poetry, most recently (Un)spoken and Life Poem, is founder of the Bowery Poetry Club and host of Language Matters

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