Dictaphones became  popular circa 1910, through the Columbia Gramophone Company, as a way of transcribing speech.  Using wax cylinders, which by this point had been replaced by disc technology for most sound recording, these devices, resembling elaborate hookahs, were the last vestiges of Alexander Graham Bell’s revolutionary discoveries in sound fidelity.  Some still claim that cylindrical wax’s actual aural replication is...

I’ve been surprised to learn that (at least until I discovered Grey’s Anatomy is on Netflix) finding time to read while caring for a newborn (especially while breastfeeding) has been super easy. But time for review writing? Well, not so much. Case in point: I finished this Atwood novel more than two weeks ago. Still, better late than never: When I attempted this 100 books project the first time back in January of 2011, I began...

As most of you have surely heard by now, the Pulitzer Prize winner’s list for 2012 was announced mid-April, but no winner was selected from among the three finalists for the fiction category. The finalists included Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (read my review here ), and The Pale King by the late David Foster Wallace. It feels really unfortunate to me (for authors, publishers, and readers) that the...

Okay, I had to take a little time out from reading and writing book reviews to get a few final things in order and then have a baby, but now I’m back with some thoughts on Tom Rachman’s really stellar book and, hopefully in the next day or two (if I can successfully take advantage of nap time), some notes on the amazing and magical Laura van den Berg as well. Rachman’s debut novel, which follows the reporters and employees of...

I am wary of sincerity.  Is it because I am incapable of appearing to possess it even if I feel possessed by it?  I joked with a friend recently that I am capable of competing with almost anything but the hint of sincerity.  Its place in art necessarily troubled given that by definition the creative act is an artificial one, a construct by which feeling is enacted and/or elicited—sincerity remains misunderstood.  And yet it is...

Another finished RPM Challenge and more shameless self-promotion! I’m currently listening to Damien Jurado’s new album Maraqopa and Guy Capecelatro III’s North For The Winter.

Book 4 of 100 Alexandra Fuller, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight            It’s taken me awhile to write this review. I wanted some time to reflect on this memoir before commenting on it. In this book, Alexandra Fuller (“Bobo,” as she’s called throughout her childhood), recounts her experiences of growing up in South Africa with her parents and older sister, Vanessa. Her story is interesting, but I can’t say the...

After having one of my songs featured on the first 2012 RPM podcast (I’m about twenty minutes in, the penultimate piece), They Went On (an odd moniker for a one-man band, I know) is glad...

The RPM Challenge continues.  Into the second week and I’ve got five unnamed rough tracks.  I’m unclear exactly how things are shaping up, as I’m too in the middle of it to get a clear sense of direction.  I do notice a piano-driven impulse on these, and I’m enjoying some experimentation with mini-moog.  I got in my obligatory dub vibe, but I tried to subvert the reggae form by accenting the down strokes, giving...

Each year musicians from around the world challenge one another to compose and record an album’s worth of material (10 songs or 35 minutes of music) in the month of February (this being a leap year, we get an extra day).  This is not a competition, but rather a community effort to push ourselves into new creative endeavors.  The results of my efforts last year, as well my first untitled (suggestions are welcome!) song on my as yet...