The amazing adventures (and tragic elements) of being tiny in a human-size world
and
From New Orleans to Kharkiv, with stops in between for the invention of rock & roll, the greatest ballad singer this side of Frank Sinatra, Africa's…
Laughter in review, Afrobeats eartime and Afropop explorations, an audio book recommendation, the artistic gas crisis, and infirmity keeps creeping.
From the UK, a trustworthy superstar. From Canada, shoegazing power-pop. From Brazzaville, rhythms that rock as much as they roll. And from an…
Three pieces, two writers, one novelist

February 2023

This is the music I want in my blue heaven.
Rock & roll's early days, the limits of the megastar pop life, Beyoncé and the road to an A plus, S – Y = ?, "Beth Ann and Macrobioticism," books that…
High IQ catchiness from Ireland, death defying songs from Australia, persuasive and heartbreaking outtakes from New York City, and some truth and uplift…
In the autumn of 1969, a busted romance left me so devastated I couldn’t bear to return to my empty Manhattan apartment, throwing me on the mercy of…

January 2023

From "The Village Voice," June 19, 1978
On the glory of "Marquee Moon," from "Going Into the City."
The 86 (not 84) best albums of the last year (or so)