Category Archives: Dimestore Philosphy
Two Japanese, Please
An interesting activity, sometimes, is to alternate reading between two short story collections by different authors who are similar but not the same. A good activity for a holiday afternoon when the weather outside is too dreary for other pursuits, and most places are closed down anyway. A day like today, in other words. Today …
Haruki Murakami’s Got His Hooves in Me Again!
I’ve been on a Japanese kick again, reading-wise, triggered by a new Haruki Murakami novel The City and Its Uncertain Walls. And after finishing that typically enigmatic book, I realized that there is a considerable backlog of Murakami (he’s written some sixty books) as yet unread by me. So in I dive! Serendipitously, the next …
I Don’t Work Cats In Restaurants
As I was leaving the gym this morning, walking to my car right around dawn, I overheard a snatch of conversation. A guy about forty, looked like a firefighter perhaps, was talking with a young woman who was probably his daughter. I didn’t catch what she said that preceded his remarks, but I heard him …
Why Musicians Deserve Decent Royalties
The recent kerfuffle between recording artist Taylor Swift and Spotify has gotten a lot of folks questioning why recording artists need royalties in the first place. I mean, why can’t they just earn money when they’re working, like everyone else? What makes them so special that they deserve to draw payment while they are off …
Performing Without a Net
The Internet is killing live music. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger! And don’t think I’m bitter or angry. I’ve worked plenty and I’m well-compensated, and I’ve been doing it thirty years. No complaints here. But between the dwindling ‘pay’ presented in clubs, the all-but-complete disappearance of royalty income due to online file-sharing, and the general …
Snowpiercer and your Smart Phone
I finally got around to seeing Snowpiercer, a near-future dystopian tale of claustrophobic chaos. I had high hopes, because I really enjoyed the director’s previous feature called The Host. The director is South Korean Bong Joon-Ho, and Snowpiercer is his first English-language film. The Host was essentially a creature feature, but with some nice twists. I …
Thank You, Robert Fripp
Musical paths are meandering. The point is never the arrival, always the journey. And every musician can point to at least one event, and frequently several events, that spurred that journey onward. My first big push came from Robert Fripp. Or more accurately, his band King Crimson–whose first album I bought just because the cover looked interesting. …
2014–A Bad Year for Jazz
And it’s not even September yet. I don’t know why, but this is shaping up to be the year that popular culture decided to take a dump on jazz. Everyone from the normally sympathetic New Yorker to the Washington Post decided it was a slow news month, so time to let ‘er rip. But even …
The Death of the Austin Federation of Musicians
Not this year, perhaps. But whether there is still a Local in Austin TX in 2020–seven short years from now–is completely dependent on new members joining. And particularly new members in their 20’s and 30’s, if the local is to have a future and not merely a reprieve. It’s ironic that the self-proclaimed ‘Live Music …
Duke Ellington didn’t write great melodies. So what?
A recent post from the great Ken Peplowski’s Facebook page: “I just finished the Duke Ellington biography by T.T. – all those pages written and read, only to reach the conclusions that (a) Duke Ellington remains an enigma, and (b) he really had no flair for writing melodies…sigh…if he would have ditched the cod musicology …
saxsalon 