For me, Michael Brecker was the epitome of every musical value I embrace and have spent my life as a musician working to cultivate. He played with an amazing and unique sound that was consistent throughout the entire range of the saxophone. His technique was flawless. He constantly evolved and pushed the limits of his […]
When Jonathan Franzen wrote a letter to Don DeLillo lamenting the death of the social novel and his (Franzen’s) place in the world as a fiction writer, this is part of the reply that he (DeLillo) sent:
“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making […]
“All right, I’ll do it. But only as long as I don’t have to become a better person. I am not prepared to be reformed. I want to go on being myself.”
J.M. Coetzee, Disgrace
N.B. If you’re wondering, I’ve been practicing for a few things.
David Simon and Ed Burns are two angry men. Angry about how the “war on drugs”—a war they liken to Vietnam—is being waged, or rather, isn’t being waged. For Simon and Burns, the war on drugs is just one misguided attempt to reassure the American public that the government is doing something to remedy the […]
Yes, yes, yes. We now know through much startling and indisputable evidence that the internet has indeed revolutionized the classical music scene. Blogs, websites, myspaces, and all that. Who can contain all the classical/new music e-energy anymore? However, one subset of the classical music enterprise that has stayed more or less away from the internet […]
SLN is happy to oblige Helen and her latest scheme meme:
Find the nearest book.
Turn to page 123.
Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
Name the book and the author, and tag three more folks.
“They all turn to Tae, who puts his head down and stares […]