Myra’s Way
Pianist Myra Melford takes on more projects than the Army Corps of Engineers. Most of them are unusual, ambitious undertakings that involve a variety of cultural inspirations, a mix of artistic...
View ArticleNot One Bit Slimey
Time Berne is one of the more considered new-thing saxophonists, as likely to reveal intellect as emotion. The six-pieces on Snake Oil, the first session under his own name for the European ECM label,...
View ArticleShoving Off
Will those of us who wandered America with a copy of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road in our knapsacks find anything to like about Kerouac’s first novel written when he was 20? Probably. Many of the themes...
View ArticleSons and Brothers
Michael Chabon’s new novel is all about nostalgia and the consequences that come of change, both threatened and realized. It’s also centered on that other favorite Chabon theme: friendship. Archy...
View ArticleGraphic Construction
It’s hard not to separate the draftsmanship from the storytelling in graphic novelist Chris Ware’s work. The pages carry architectural elements, constructions that suggest collages or mandalas. A...
View ArticleMellow Cello
Jazz cellists are a rare lot, often whittling from their own eclectic stick. That’s certainly true of Hank Roberts, a veteran of gigs with outside-thinking musicians including saxophonist Tim Berne,...
View ArticleDrug Lord’s Son
The world seen through the eyes of a child. That’s the best short –phrase description of Juan Pablo Villalobos’ disturbingly charming short novel Down the Rabbit Hole. But Tochtli is no ordinary child...
View ArticleHome and Away
It’s the first Sunday in December and the Betterday Coffee Shop in Santa Fe is packed its entire length. At the far end, a crowd –some sitting on the floor, some standing — faces a small bandstand...
View ArticleOn and Off An Island In the Salish Sea
The wind is storming out of the south east, symptom of a classic “pineapple express,” a line up of low fronts back to Hawaii pulled by a fierce jet stream right over the top of the Olympics to...
View ArticleJim Harrison’s Life Story
We admired Jim Harrison for his appetite as well as his art. Word of his death had us turning turning to his poetry — “Sketch For A Job-Application Blank” from his 1965 collection Plain Song and “The...
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