Author Archives: Joe Nolan
The Legend of Dylan Thomas
Nowadays, it’s hard to remember a time when poetry really mattered. I still love to read poetry and write poetry, and I occasionally get out to read my words in a bar or a coffeehouse in Nashville where other poets gather to share their words, but it’s almost always a case of singing to the [...]
40 Years of Jaws
I’ve been posting about the 35th anniversary of The Shining over the last several weeks, but I thought it might be better to wait until it was officially summertime to post about the 40th anniversary of Jaws. The summer movie as we know it today didn’t exist until Jaws devoured box offices all summer long [...]
Sex and the Sixties
The new Psychedelic Sex book published by Taschen this spring is currently being sold on eBay for $69. That’s a silly point to make about what amounts to a seriously in-depth look at what happened to the burgeoning culture of “men’s magazines” when they ran smack into the psychedelic revolution in the 1960′s. During a [...]
Forever Young
Neil Young is in the headlines again, saying that Donald Trump’s use of the singer/songwriter’s “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” in Trump’s newly-announced presidential campaign is not authorized. Young has also said that he’s a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders. The song is an odd choice for a Republican as the song’s lyrics [...]
Overlook Twins
Continuing our celebration of 35 years of The Shining here’s another of Rob Ager’s insightful video examinations of the film. As I’ve mentioned, Ager is my favorite alternative critic of The Shining, and in this video he looks at the mystery and meaning of the ghostly twin girls in the Overlook Hotel. Stay Awake! Please [...]
The Pendle Witches
The Pendle Witch trial in England in 1612 is notable for two reasons: the preponderance of documentation covering the trial and the body count it resulted in. It’s also noted for the testimony of a nine-year-old girl and the uncovering of a culture that had more to do with a family feud and capitalist greed [...]
Forever Ornette
My first instrument was the saxophone. That instrument introduced me to performing music and if I hadn’t started playing my horn at the age of 11 I probably would have never started writing my own songs. I still love my saxophone. Even though my singer/songwriter output is balanced on my lyrics, playing the saxophone offers [...]
Baffling Bosch
Contemporary artists are caught between two cruel poles that simultaneously demand startling originality while declaring “It’s all been done before.” The study of art history is rather like playing with a Russian doll: separating artists and movements contained within the influences of other artists and influences ad nauseam. Most artists and creative schools necessarily build [...]
