I listen to a lot of music that isn’t in a language I speak. That’s okay, because music is expressive enough to transcend language. Where I stumble is when encountering songs that have been “translated” into English. We are left with either a soulless transcription, or a retelling of the song in English, wherein the…
Four years after I first picked up a paint brush, I still don’t consider myself to be a real artist. Part of that is that I live with an actual fine artist, but the larger part is because I am a novelist and a photographer. Though I enjoy painting, it is a distant third for…
The short answer is it depends. If, by valid, we mean always and universally true, then no. By this standard, all design rules are nonsense. The Rule of Thirds is an arbitrary line for amateurs to gaze upon while secretly learning to shift your brain’s natural tendency to center things and create symmetry. A rule…
Let’s listen to a song, watch it expand, and then understand what the artist is doing. Here’s George Benson’s version of Donny Hathaway’s “The Ghetto,” with Joe Sample on piano. Now, here is musician and teacher Rick Beato breaking down George’s work, because if we don’t know how artistry works, we devolve into believing it’s…
The Simpsons predicted this in 1996, yo. Insane in the membrane. Sometimes, reality exceeds even our fondest expectations. “Insane in the Brain.”
Music fans from the 1960s are familiar with The Kingsmen’s ballad, “Louie, Louie,” which became a surprise hit upon its release in 1963. But how many know that it was a remake? The original, performed by its composer, Richard Berry, was recorded in 1956 and released in 1957. Poor sound engineering by The Kingsmen’s studio…
I have been a novelist for sixteen-and-a-half years, and I’ve only been painting for four to five years, so I’ve decided that is enough time to declare myself an expert in art curation and categorization. Seriously though, I think any art lover is an expert at that, provided ell (s/he) understands that ell’s view of…
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“Like a Ship,” by Pastor T. L. Barrett and the Youth for Christ Choir and “Joy and Pain,” by Frankie Beverly and Maze
Raye and Coltrane.
I fell in love with the song “My Favorite Things” in 1993, the year my daughter was born, after buying Al Jarreau’s live-in-studio recording. He performed the song with operatic soloist, Kathleen Battle, and the combination, made in one take, felt flawless. I could immediately conceive of any number of interpretations of the song, it…
I am going to do something I rarely allow myself to do. I am going to write without first thinking about what I will say. You see, I have learned over the years to write masterfully. That is not to say all of my writing is masterful, merely that I know how to do it,…
“Alon Basela,” a song by Avishai Cohen, means “an oak tree planted in stone.” It symbolizes knowing one’s strength by knowing the strength of one’s roots. Musically, it is a kick-ass live performance from a brilliant bassist, his pianist, Omri Mor, and his amazing percussionist, Itamar Doari. The time signature is mad.
Maria and I have considered the question, “What is Street Photography?” for years. We’ve settled on this definition: Street photography documents humans and their behavior, in situations wherein they act spontaneously, generally but not always in urban settings. Street photography is a visual history of contemporary human life, not just of human cities and environs.…
The Artists' Sanctum 