a literary confidence
(This program aired on Sunday, April 28, from 7-9 PM on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM, also streaming at wriu.org) Listen here: Overture from How the West Was Won, including Bound for the Promised Land, Shenandoah, Endless Prairie and The Ox Driver, underscore composed by Alfred Newman Ride Away from The Searchers, written and performed by... Continue Reading →
by Dai Bando Beginning in the 1950s and peaking in the 1960s, there sprang forth from the hills of Hollywood, a loose collective of session musicians whom industry insiders nicknamed "The Wrecking Crew." In the post-Brit Invasion recording frenzy, L.A.’s star-making machinery wanted their young performers to quickly grow their hair into a pudding bowl... Continue Reading →
---Pictured above is film and television composer Rael Jones (This program aired on Sunday, April 21, from 7-9 PM on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM, also streaming at wriu.org) Twelve Oaks from Gone with the Wind, composed by Max Steiner Johnny Appleseed from A Christmas Story – An Axe, An Apple and a Buckskin Jacket, composed... Continue Reading →
(This program aired on Sunday, April 14, from 7-9 PM on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM, also streaming at wriu.org) Listen here: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf from The Three Little Pigs, composed by Frank Churchill and Ann Ronell, performed by Mary Moder, Dorothy Compton and Billy Bletcher, among others. Hi-Diddle-Dee (an actor’s life... Continue Reading →
This program featured a diverse selection of music, ranging from Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention to compositions by various artists for films and TV shows. The playlist included works such as "Minnie the Moocher" from Jeeves and Wooster, "BBC" from Austin Powers, and "Galaxy Song" from Monty Python's Meaning of Life.
I’ll go inside and seek out the laminated card that tells me I was watering a Double Pink Fuchsia, known for its beautiful, multi-colored, pendant blooms which can grow up to three inches long.
-by Dai Bando (originally published in The Hobbledehoy): https://thehobbledehoy.com/) - The Voice Squad "The Parting Glass" (from Waking Ned Devine 1999) The Hothouse Flowers front man Liam Ó Maonlaí (surname pronounced O’-man-lee) performs this in 1999’s Waking Ned Devine but I prefer the recording sung acapella by The Voice Squad. Said music critic Rick Anderson, "The Voice Squad represent the melding of two related but... Continue Reading →
by Wayne Cresser (Author's note: In the realm of publishing, I am happy to report that a new story called, "The Last Time Norm Took Acid," was included in an anthology called 20, published by Carlow University Press in recognition of the 20th anniversary of their MFA Program. Lots of fine writers in these pages,... Continue Reading →
Wind and rain came up after that and I pulled Rhonda under the boat cover. When we crawled out again, we were adrift at sea and there was nothing in sight.
by Dai Bando There are five new additions to my annual “Greatest Christmas Songs” list, now thirty songs in total! This is disconcerting, since my original raison d'être was the claim that there are only about ten good Christmas songs. Then ten became fifteen, then twenty-five, and now thirty. So, I appear to be wro…wr… challenged, in my... Continue Reading →
The well-dressed man in the film says, “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” Maybe then, it’s a good life if you don’t weaken much and an okay life if you don’t weaken a lot, and a shitty life if all you do is weaken. That’s the thing about film heroes, though, they get... Continue Reading →
by Wayne Cresser (Originally published in the Ocean State Review Volume 8: No. 1, 2018) If you hang around Art's parties long enough, you're bound to run into the guy who resembles Crispin Glover, in anything, a gawky watch-capped scarecrow whose clothes add up to thrift store poetry and ragamuffin rhymes. He's the guy who... Continue Reading →
Oh, if and when you go there, stay for a while. Look into the nooks and crannies, and try to remember, you've got to come back out sometime, if only to go back again later, if you know what I mean.
One of the keys to their success was that early on someone in their circle of producers and artists, had the idea to list their names on the records they supported, unlike during the era of anonymity the Wrecking Crew worked in. And brother, did the hair grow, the word spread, and the work pile up.
As he said this, he began removing what appeared to be crumpled homemade flyers from my hands. They advertised Italian lessons at home and outboard motors for sale, charity 5ks and flower shows. And I held them in tightly clenched fists, like a crabby schoolteacher who snatches paper airplanes out of mid-air.
Here Comes Herodotus, Again! (and other miscrohistories), is a forty-page chapbook comprised of 14 short stories which examine how life can be a series of swift mementos.
Tonight's theme is the Western, that hallowed, long past its heyday but not totally bygone (if I have anything to do with it), genre of Hollywood storytelling.
Surely, they are castaways now and although I cannot see them, I hear them chattering when I put my ear to the sea.
Scuttling on his knees now, he crossed to the other side of the boat and dropped the fish into a bucket of water. He knew what he had to do next.
To my teenage self, dizzy with wonder at the lyrics of “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” Keith Reid looked brainy and hip, which I didn’t know could be a thing, but there he was in band photographs, usually front and center, as if he was Mr. Procol Harum himself.
But tell me, did I not suffer a vision, that is to say, see something dreadful at my door?
The whole business makes me dippy, and honestly, I don’t care about any of it unless there’s some magic in the work itself, a spark in the melody or the lyric that will distinguish the work the way all great art is distinguished, by its timelessness and universal appeal. A song, for the sake of this argument, like the small wonder that is 1968’s, “Till Death Us Do Part.”
I dream that I forget in which direction I am headed. The road splits. I panic and take an exit unknown to me. It doesn’t make any difference.
long suffering spring phrases seek a shot of poetry B-12
Number one, Fred Shaw represents: Pittsburgh, reading everything and writing narrative poetry from his own experience in the argot (lingo) of the Rust Belt restaurant worker. As he has said, “the workaday speech of line cooks and dishwashers is the signature sound."
So, in the spirit of establishing a courteous process going forward and to avoid confusion, I...
Pagan's tiny cottage in the woods became what the Scots refer to as a "howff" – a gathering place for hunters, shepherds and drunken wags.
..."Triad" and "The Lee Shore." I learned them both but had no clue what they were really about. They confused a 7th grade boy. What the hell is a “sister lover” or a “water brother “?
On the track "Rubylove" (Cat's nod to his Greek heritage) he features traditional bouzouki and sings a verse in his Cypress-born father's native language. And thank god for Greeks: lamb souvlaki, dark olives, John Cassavettes' movies, Platonic relationships, Nana Mouskouri and Cat Stevens.
But wait, there's more. And it's the thing I really wanted to talk about from the start: Joe Pug's monthly newsletter called The Enthusiast Digest. There's something kind of vaudevillian about Joe's mix of links to must-read articles, unusual podcasts, literary tidbits and recipes.
So this is how the moon and Mars appeared last night from the Mt. Sopris Observatory!
Once you have trekked up the pedestrian bridge that connects old Civita to the town of Bagnoregio (about 75 miles north of Rome), and walked its quiet streets, at some turns shaded by fulsome persimmon trees and at others, decorated by medieval-era depictions of Madonna and child, the thought of Civita di Bagnoregia sliding into the valleys below is saddening.
The body is a peculiar instrument, the actor thought after weeks of therapy. It can be imploding in the brain and a man can still hold himself upright. Even if only for short periods of time. The heart, of course, is a different proposition.
We're rounding up the Rhodeo Poets this Thursday. If you're on the island of Jamestown, between 6 and 8 pm, we'd love to see you at General's Crossing Brewery, 34 Narragansett Avenue. Shannon Kennelly and I will host.
If you are in the Jamestown, Rhode Island area tonight, please consider dropping into an in-person session of the always entertaining Rhodeo Poets group. The readings go from 6-7:45 pm, and just as they are on the 2nd Thursday of every month, the event will be hosted by Out of the Box Studio and Gallery,11 Clinton... Continue Reading →
Since it's such a pleasure to be associated with the creative folks at Curiosity & Co., I am doubly pleased to announce that they're throwing a party this weekend. Below is a breakdown of the store's programs for the rest of Independent Bookstore Week, starting with a screening of To Kill a Mockingbird at 5:30... Continue Reading →
An Evening of Readings with Three Local Authors
2021 saw Sparks make multiple forays into the world of cinema, first with Edgar Wright's affectionate documentary, The Sparks Brothers, and later, with Annette, director Leo Carax's English-language debut.
And the voice here reads personal and warm, the humor and perspective in this collection refreshing.
Believe me, you are appreciated.
If you are in the vicinity of the Kingston Campus of the University of Rhode Island on Wednesday, November 3...
Unless, of course you find me reading my work in your neighborhood! THE PITCH: Here Comes Herodotus, Again! (and other microhistories) A limited number of my chapbook, Here Comes Herodotus, Again! (and other microhistories), which is part of the Open: Journal of Arts & Letters 2021 Chapbook series, are available here at Just Between You... Continue Reading →
(This show was broadcast on Sunday, January 7 from 7 to 8 PM, on WRIU Kingston, 90.3 FM, also streaming at wriu.org. It will be re-broadcast on Sunday, January 14, same time same place) Listen here: Theme from The Wild One, composed by Leith Stevens, featuring Shorty Rogers Rock Around the Clock from Blackboard Jungle composed by Max C. Freedman and... Continue Reading →
Just Between You and Me 