I dreamt that I was dreaming ( Read more... )

On Friday, after our last full day of workshops, we planned a late night, knowing we'd be able to sleep in the next morning. We'd heard of a live outdoor concert by the Burmese all-star band Iron Cross, and we didn't want to miss it.

Getting into the stadium for the concert was like passing through a cattle gate. We were squeezed into three ( Read more... )

Looking for something to do this holiday season? (New York City can be so dull.) Then come check out Chip Kidd's band artbreak - and indy cartoonists Dash Shaw, David Heatley, and yours truly - at a benefit for Dixon Place: “Chip Kidd presents an evening of music, comics, and cartoons - New York indie style. Kidd’s band artbreak (with Mars Trillion ( Read more... )

I'm way late in writing about this, but you should check out cartoonist/rocker David Heatley's "Suburban White Girls" video. Written by David when he was 19, it was remixed and re-recorded last year as part of his My Brain is Hanging Upside Down EP - which of course coincided with the release of his My Brain is Hanging Upside Down graphic novel ( ( Read more... )

I was at a huge outdoor arena - possibly the Rose Bowl - for Michael Jackson's public funeral. The stands were packed, and Phoebe and I were way down at the bottom of the stage. They wheeled in the body on a hospital gurney, covered by a thin sheet, and it ended up parked right next to our location. Looking at the corpse laying there under the ( Read more... )

That was the text message I got informing me Michael Jackson passed away. How bizarre that on the very day I wrote a tribute to Prince's Purple Rain that the extremely troubled former King of Pop should die. The similarities between the two stars are many, the most obvious being their ability to transcend musical (e.g. racial) boundaries and draw ( Read more... )

The summer of 1984 was the summer of Springsteen, Ghostbusters, and Madonna, but more than anything that summer's soundtrack was Purple Rain. You couldn't escape Prince, the songs, or the movie, and I was one of the millions who fell under its spell. I was a teenager working as a camp counselor that summer, and it was the beginning of a lifelong ( Read more... )

Decade% of Total Songs in iTunes Library1940s-1950s2%1960s19%1970s24%1980s24%1990s18%2000s12%

My buddy wjcohen  speaks to MusicFilmWeb.com about his dual life as a supervising producer for VH1 and as a blogger about music documentaries. Check it out.

Like comics? Enjoy cutting-edge music? Interested in what's going on with New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina? Then come to:

NEW ORLEANS: Culture, Crisis, and Community - a panel discussion
How can music help heal New Orleans? What role should the arts play in rebuilding communities? Why does this city's storied culture find itself embattled? Why are ( Read more... )