Casual Friday: "Hamilton," "Rip Van Winkle," and the Two Georges
What really changed for the average American after the Revolution? An historical perspective from two great American artists.
Ruminating on Kansas's "Leftoverture": Prog Review #32
Familiar, satisfying, and brilliant: the lead track from Kansas's Leftoverture sets up high expectations for the rest of the album. Does the rest of the album deliver?
Al In A Day's Work: Weird Al Albums Ranked
Enjoy my ramblings on one of the greatest musical artists of our lifetime.
Casual Friday: Lemony Snicket's "Austere Academy" Schooling on Trans Rights and BLM
What can Lemony Snicket tell us about appropriate responses to BLM and how to empathize with trans persons?
Casual Friday: "The Metamorphosis" and Self-Isolation
How do the events of Kafka's classic story give us comfort in the time of Covid-19?
Casual Friday: Outbreak in "The Secret Garden"
A self-isolation themed video this week. The Secret Garden begins with a terrifying account of a pandemic allowed to spread in close quarters.
Casual Friday: Winning Reader interest with "Percy Jackson: the Lightning Thief"
The Lightning Thief brings readers in by pushing them away.
The Past is an Alien Shore: Star Trek S1E15, "Shore Leave"
Not a good start: Kirk has a kink in his back, so the female yeoman, Barrows, immediately starts massaging it. Barrows's job is first to nag Kirk about getting some shore leave, and then to be an object of Bones's desire. Along the way, she gets assaulted by Don Juan—twice.
"Ashes Are Burning" is a Renaissance Affair to Remember: Prog Review #31
The opening two-and-a-half-minutes of Ashes Are Burning (1973) are glorious.
Casual Friday: "Peter Pan" and the Riddle of Childhood
It’s only in the 19th century, really, that childhood gets established as a period in life meant for fun, play, curiosity, fantasy and all the other things we associate with childhood.
Time Travel and Bananas: A NOCKAT Review
What do bananas, Reno, The Jerky Boys, and alternate universe weather reports have in common?
Monetizing Play: Balloons!
As a a semi-employed sorta stay-at-home dad, I get a lot of time to think about toys and games: what will keep my boys (4 and 1) busy in a way that keeps both entertained, and I won't have to grow extra arms?
OK with U.K.'s "U.K.": Prog Review #30
With this incredible pedigree of musicians, U.K. should be something special…
Raising the Curtain on Dream Theater's "Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory": Prog Review #29
Histrionic, emotional, deeply serious, optimistically spiritual, Metropolis Pt. 2 is so much of what I'm not, and therefore so much of what I love in the music I listen to.
An Exhausting Stroll Through Opeth's "Blackwater Park": Prog Review #28
After a few days with Blackwater Park, I turned off the album while driving, and Metric's "Now or Never Now" was just starting. I immediately wanted to move and sing, and I felt joy from the music I was listening to. That feeling cemented my thinking that I should just give up on Opeth.
In a Different Reality, I Might Have Called This Great: Star Trek S1E14, “Balance of Terror”
Just in case you thought the episode was running out of poignancy, there's more!
Reinvestigating Supertramp's "Crime of the Century": Prog Review #27
Progressive ideas may not be the point of Supertramp, but the band uses those available options to turn half-finished song ideas into amazing compositions…. It's damn near perfect.
A recipe for Van Der Graaf Generator's "Pawn Hearts": Prog Review #26
Van Der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts is a peculiar dish - at once overly familiar and an acquired taste. Full of familiar and tired prog ingredients thrown together in a stew, Pawn Hearts retains a distinct, if somewhat confused, character.
Bugging Out to The Mars Volta's "Deloused in the Comatorium": Prog Review #25
"Now I'm Lost" keens Marcel Rodríguez-López on the chorus of Inertiatic ESP. I share his sentiment
The Harmonic Tremors of Magma's "Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh": Prog Review #24
There's a musical statement here: a garbled, manic, exuberant statement.