By Brian Arsenault Islands seem to float above the water in the North Atlantic in Winter. I learned that from a fourth generation islander. I’d seen it myself but didn’t want to mention it for fear of being accused of submitting to the new New England marijuana laws. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: Floating Islands and Spaghetti Eating Ravens
by Brian Arsenault I see they’ll soon be airing a “documentary” on Janis Joplin. Even after all these years, there’s still a twinge of pain whenever I read about her or see that goofy, tragic face. It’s too damn soon for a documentary. Too soon to try to put her in a place about the… Read More Remembering Janis
By Brian Arsenault There is a picture I can’t find online any more. There are so many. Those wretched Syrians fleeing the hell that was their country. Huddled masses on undersized boats, tempest tossed, frequently capsizing. More drowned children. This one particular picture: a father seen from the back embracing his two children.… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes on: The Wretched Refuse
By Brian Arsenault So Lemmy’s dead at 70 and Motorhead is no more. Not really. Can’t be. The band’s drummer confirmed today that Metalhead won’t continue. Not without him. Not really my favorite music, but what a figurehead Ian Fraser “Lemmy” Kilmaster was for heavy metal. Singing into that mic raised above his head. Just… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On: The Death of Lemmy
by Brian Arsenault It’s on one of those Christmas song CDs I can’t find any more in a collection that is more like the bottom of an avalanche. Judy Garland singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Not the version when the song was introduced in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis. Judy… Read More What Judy Garland Gave You for Christmas
By Brian Arsenault So we were getting ready to leave what used to be our summer “camp” on the island but is becoming home for more and more of the year. And the last two things I did was to set mousetraps and fill the bird feeders. Which directly posed the question why do we… Read More Brian Arsenault Takes On : “Of Mice and Birds”
By Brian Arsenault The last time I reviewed an album by this guy in early 2014, I complimented his reclaiming stellar jazz singing for the guys in the face of so many fine current female jazz singers. This time, with Endless Roads, Eric Van Aro has reestablished the stripped down rock/pop sound amidst an avalanche… Read More CD Review: Eric Van Aro’s “Endless Roads”
By Brian Arsenault Freeport, Maine. (With apologies to Dostoyevsky, but you’re long winded anyway. Sorry to everyone else for the gratuitous remark about D.) OK, I’m done. Finito. Kaput. I will not be monitoring my time in the sun this summer. It’s a natural place to be. I may not even… Read More Notes From Otherground
By Brian Arsenault Hey Brent, You asked me to tell you more about the class I’m taking on Franz Kafka’s The Castle. I’ll start with Ed. who’s teaching, or rather leading, the class. I’ve taken literature courses with Ed before: Kerouac’s The Road, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio so I knew the course would be worth… Read More Books: Brian Arsenault Takes on Kafka’s “The Castle” and Writes To Son Brent About It
By Brian Arsenault I started getting happy listening to Van Morrison’s Duets:Re-Working the Catalog” (RCA) about the time George Benson was singing as smooth as he always is on “Higher Than The World” and I was downright grinning through Van and Georgie Fame’s “Get On With The Show.” Pure 50s jukebox. Drifters, Coasters, gratuitous but… Read More CD Review: Van Morrison’s “Duets: Re-Working the Catalogue”
The International Review of Music 