Required Reading
- What’s Your Problem with Joe Biden?
- Dirty Rubles: An Introduction to Trump/Russia (My New Book)
- Youth for the President
- A Summary of the Conspiracy Against the United States
- Trump: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Part 3)
- Postcards from the Resistance, Vol. 8: Mother of All
- From Lance Armstrong to Trump: The Rise & Fall of the Deified Narcissist
- Reading Malcolm X in Texas
- Playing the Donald Trump Game
- President Rapist: Women Under Trump
- An Open Letter to My Fellow Liberals
- The Democrats Can’t Win If They Won’t Fight
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Category Archives: The Arts
Song Beneath the Song: Bob Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue”
Bod Dylan’s “Tangled Up In Blue,” from his 1975 classic Blood On the Tracks, is unfinished. Always has been, always will be. Its incompleteness, however, is part of its power. It is no accident. Dylan engineered “Tangled Up In Blue” to be open-ended, unsealed, and shape-shifting, not unlike a jazz composition. He tinkers with it, sometimes radically reinventing it, both lyrically and melodically, to this day, making it one of the most resilient, resonant unfinished songs ever. Our own Robert Burke Warren gets deep into this distinctive, odd nugget from the Dylan canon. Continue reading
Dead Finks and Warm Jets: Evolved Enough for Eno
Even if you don’t know Brian Eno’s music, you’ve still heard him, in groundbreaking clients Talking Heads, Bowie, U2, and Coldplay, not to mention the 3.5 second chime that heralds the opening of every Microsoft Windows 95 program. (Written by Eno on a Mac.) How did Eno grab the attention of the iconic before they were icons? Guest Weekling Mark Donato answers that question by taking you back to Eno’s fabulous, way-ahead-of-its-time solo work, songs that now sound like blueprints for so much quality late 20th/early 21st century pop. Because they are. Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Popped Culture, Popular Culture, The Arts, Uncategorized
Tagged baby's on fire, brian eno, coldplay, here come the warm jets, mark donato, talking heads, u2
2 Comments
“Mad Men” Endings We Don’t Want to See
Will Matthew Weiner stick the ending? Or stick it where the sun don’t shine? Continue reading
Bigger Than Jesus: The Gospel of U2, Leonard Cohen, and Sufjan Stevens
Robert Burke Warren goes deep into his own story to talk about the persistence of God in pop, and how and why non-believers and doubting Thomases still go for it. Continue reading
Posted in Current Events, Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Philosophy, Popped Culture, Religion, The Arts, The Weeklings, Uncategorized
Tagged Bono, carrie and lowell, fleshtones, God, i'm your man, Jesus, Leonard Cohen, religion, robert burke warren, shalom fellowship, Sufjan Stevens, the edge, u2
4 Comments
Dare To Be Stupid: Comedy Songs, The Best and the Rest
The ability to make people laugh is even rarer than the ability to make beautiful music. The combination of both, executed well, is cause for celebration. Amanda Nazario gives props to parody progenitors Stan Freberg, Allan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, et al, and the 21st century’s own master of making fun, “Weird Al” Yankovic, still riding high after debuting at number one last year. Continue reading
Posted in Appreciations, Humor, Memoir, Music, The Arts, The Weeklings
Tagged dr demento, parodysongs, stan freberg, tom lehrer, Weird Al Yankovic
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A Song Shall Lead (and Annoy) Them: “Let It Go” from Frozen
“Let It Go” crystallizes something intense and very real but otherwise formless, and little kids, who, bless them, do not know from “cool,” love it more than any other song, ever. Even boys. For the first time in history, boys do not categorically run from a Disney princess. They are drawn to Elsa. I am fortunate to bear witness to all of this, and so are you. At the risk of overstating it, it feels historic. Continue reading
Posted in Memoir, Monday Rock City, Music, Popped Culture, Popular Culture, The Arts, The Weeklings
Tagged avenue q, Disney, DreamWorks, frozen, idina menzel, Kristen Bell, let it go, olaf, Pixar, robert lopez, Wicked
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My Night with Nico
What does one do when Fellini movie star, Warhol icon, former bedmate of Jim Morrison, Iggy Pop, and Jackson Browne, and frontwoman of The Velvet Underground leaves the methadone clinic and walks in to your waitressing gig? Holly George-Warren, eminent rock scribe and esteemed guest at The Weeklings, was still slinging hash when she crossed paths with the chanteuse/muse in late seventies Manhattan, but she did not let the opportunity pass her by. Continue reading
