AM: How long have you been writing poems? JR: I always thought that I could write, but until I got started playing the guitar, I didn’t feel like I had a focus in writing. I didn’t feel especially attached to anything. Writing songs is more like doing a crossword than anything – you’re giving yourself […]
Prose 72
Poet Maudit: Conversation with Chris Whitley at Caffé Vivaldi, NYC: July 20, 2004
Texas-born, Dresden-based singer-songwriter Chris Whitley is oddly hot. A doe-eyed late Chet Baker in a wife beater, Whitley’s music is a seductive amalgam of atmospheric alternative rock, funk, and blues. With a devoted fan base and the occasional deal with Columbia, or Messenger records, or Dave Matthews’ imprint, ATO Records, Whitley works the border, the […]
Russell Carmony: William Hung and Theater of the Absurd in America
In her essay collection Sea World Tales, Debra DiPaolo tells the story of an elderly communist man who travels to the U.S. to visit his son. Soon after his arrival, his son takes him to Sea World to watch the “Shamu the Killer Whale Show.” The show is a reenactment of George Washington crossing the […]