Author Archives: Joe Nolan
Tom Waits For No One
I’d heard about Tom Waits’ music for years before I picked up a copy of his Asylum anthology on vinyl. I was about 18 years old in my first year at Michigan State University. I’d read the book Written in My Soul: Conversations with Rock’s Great Songwriters by Bill Flanagan. The interview with Tom is [...]
Beefheart Speaks
Nearly every Sunday evening I like to get my calendar and my to do list for the week together. These chores usually also include getting a blog post together for Monday morning. While I was getting my act together and making sure my ducks were in a row for another productive week I checked-in on [...]
Declassified Bloodlines
The CIA just put a spotlight on a conspiracy theory classic that was found on the bookshelf of Osama bin Laden. Let me explain: After the death of Osama bin Laden was announced the news was followed by revelations including dispatches about the volumes the world’s most wanted man kept on his bookshelf. Here’s the [...]
Watching Harlan Ellison’s Watching
I recently posted about the passing of science fiction pioneer cum pain in the ass, Harlan Ellison. The loss of Ellison has found me going back through lots of written reviews and obits as well as checking out a bunch of videos and recordings on YouTube. One of the things I like best about Harlan [...]
Roi Lézard
On July 3rd we observed the 47th anniversary of the death of Jim Morrison. We still care about Morrison because he lead the greatest American rock band of all time, and because he was also a gifted poet and a lyrical filmmaker. Even folks who’d disagree with all of those points would have to concede [...]
Adieu Ellison
Harlan Ellison was a firebrand author of New Wave speculative fiction who wrote everything from sci-fi to fantasy, short stories, novels, television shows, film criticism and much more. Ellison’s “The City on the Edge of Forever” is widely-recognized as the best episode in the original Star Trek series and his Outer Limits episode, “Soldier,” was [...]
Leary VS Nixon
If you follow me on Twitter you’ve probably come across some of my observations regarding the so-called “culturetain wars” everybody is sure we’re in the middle of here in America. Certainly there is stress and heat in relations between conservative and progressive — not necessarily politically speaking — folk, but does anybody really believe America [...]
Savage Nomads Now
My new single, “Savage Nomads” will be released on Tuesday. There are lots of ways to put music out there these days — I’ve used SoundCloud, BandCamp and Tunecore separately and simultaneously for years. Lately I’ve been releasing a new single every few months on Bandcamp, but I decided to to something different this time. [...]
Calm & Chaos
After leading an art gallery talk last Thursday night I had a realization about how being able to choose to be calm and relaxed is a crucial part of any kind of performance. Whether you’re sparring in an MMA gym or performing music in public or at your day job leading a presentation, the ability [...]
Naked Lynch
David Lynch is a groundbreaking filmmaker, but he’s also maintained a lifelong studio practice as a visual artist producing paintings, prints, sculpture and photography. David Lynch: The Factory Photographs made a selection of Lych’s snaps available in book form in 2014. Lynch also published a book of photos of melting snowmen seven years earlier. The [...]
