February 15, 2018
Uncle Jack and the Three Georges
Oscar Elmer had never liked his name. The moment he enlisted in the military to fight fascists as a young man, he told the recruiting officer to call him Jack. […]
June 21, 2016
The Greatest Decade
The Warriors are not greater than the ’95-’96 Bulls, who still have the best win-loss record of all time when you include the postseason. The Warriors have reached heights that […]
May 3, 2016
Palimpsest, Ohio
Out in Lockbourne, there is a house anchored in my memory. It was an old white farmhouse, set back from the road. Behind it sat an unused garage, a chicken […]
April 26, 2016
Prince, The King of France
“Ahhhh, Prince! C’est enorme!” shouted Jean-Baptiste as I handed him a burned copy of the pop god’s most recent release, Musicology. He was a French college student from a small […]
January 30, 2016
Under the Eye of the Name: On Writing and Insomnia
I’ve had chronic insomnia all my life— I’m going through a bout of it as I write this. When the sleepless nights start to add up, a phantasm filters […]
January 12, 2016
No Father to His Style
On the Biz Markie’s smash hit “Just a Friend,” which I remember watching and singing along with on The Box, he sings a pleading, straining chorus over literally perfect music. […]
December 4, 2015
Slang Cinema: On Camp Lo and Ski Beatz
If you were a hip hop head in the late 1990s, then you probably remember the exact spot on earth you were standing when you first heard Camp Lo’s first […]
November 9, 2015
Enough Beauty to Ruin Your Day: From Ella to Dilla
Technically, I don’t understand jazz. Emotionally, I feel the power of Louis Armstrong, Wayne Shorter, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Brian Blade, Miles Davis, and others. I do not […]
November 1, 2015
A Resident Ghost of Spain: On Camarón
Somehow, you can live in a place for months and fail to meet a resident ghost. After five months in Granada, Spain in 2003, I was well-acquainted with Lorca. I’d […]
October 30, 2015
On Flamenco: Ellison, Lorca, and Me
“Cante Flamenco, or cante hondo [sic] (deep song, as the purer, less florid form is called) is a unique blending of Eastern and Western modes and as such it often […]
June 12, 2015
The Low Pass Theory, Part 2
Beyond the dense childhood memories of musical sound sieved through cinder block, another archetypal memory carried by a number of hip hop producers and artists—including KRS-ONE, the RZA, as well […]
June 11, 2015
The Low Pass Theory, Part 1
The scene is always the same. My feet are planted far too close to a tower of speakers, my head nodding with near-injurious enjoyment to some now-obscure track selected by […]