Repost from 2015 Hip-hop singer Frank Ocean is well-known to march to the beat of a different drummer, and nowhere is that more apparent than in We All Try, a lovely and plaintive existential humanist[…]
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Author: Chris Sunami
The Dangerously Talented Miriam Makeba
Repost: Parisian audiences famously rioted at the premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Although often cited as evidence that the audience simply didn’t understand what they were hearing, the opposite is arguably true –they recognized[…]
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Is Our World a Computer Game?
I’m glad to announce I’ve expanded the below post into an entire book-length series that will be premiering in January 2019 on Partially Examined Life. In the meantime, please enjoy this repost of the original.[…]
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Top 10 Movies: #1 – Children of Men
Repost: Just rewatched this amazing film recently, and what once felt like a warning from the near future now feels ripped from the headlines… Today, most people know director Alfonso Cuarón as the first Latino[…]
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Alt Classical: The Innovators
Reposted from 2015 This week brings a new installment of my series on alt-classical music –music that combines the instrumentation, elegance and sophistication of classical music with the vitality of newer and more modern approaches[…]
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Alt Classical: The Jazz Connection
Repost from 2014 A month or so ago, I explored the “cover songs” side of alt classical music, a genre that combines the pleasures of classical music with the vitality of more modern forms. This[…]
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Alt Classical: Cover Tunes
Nothing Else Matters – Apocalyptica (Metallica) Repost from 2014 When I was a child, my parents listened almost exclusively to classical music –it was years before I realized their radio could tune in other stations! […]
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Reconstructivist Art: Smooth Criminal
In honor of Michael Jackson’s birthday this week, please enjoy this essay about his song, Smooth Criminal, considered as an exemplar of Reconstructivist Art. Michael Jackson’s hit single Smooth Criminal is an object lesson in[…]
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The Mysterious Disappearance of the Strangely Beautiful Woman
Please enjoy this repost of an affectionate parody of one of my most favorite authors, Haruki Murakami I was in the bathtub, playing with my rubber duck, when the phone rang. It rang exactly five[…]
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Mind the Rap
Repost: Originally from July 17, 2014 The free Amazon music samplers are one of the great hidden treasures of the internet. There, buried deep on their digital downloads page is a link to literally hundreds[…]
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