Words & Music

by Mike Power

latest

  • Stefan Zweig’s Moral Dilemma

    Last night I went to an event at The Center for Fiction for the release of a new biography of Stefan Zweig by George Prochnik. While it was a fascinating discussion in a lot of ways the thing that stuck in my mind was the moral dilemma posed by Zweig’s confrontation with the Nazis. At… Read more

  • Pain

    “Pain is largely a kind of need felt by the organism to acquaint itself with an unfamiliar state that is troubling it, to adjust its responses to that state.” Marcel Proust There are many kinds of pain: physical, emotional, psychological, and moral among them. There is the pain of loneliness as well as the pain… Read more

  • They Can’t Take That Away From Me – Mike’s Musical Monday

    I wrote this song in 2010 while I was with Late Model Humans but I never recorded it with the band. I swiped a little of Ira Gershwin‘s lyrics (in red below) from the song of the same title that he wrote with his brother George. The world is filled with burning towersBroken hearts and… Read more

  • Mother-In-Law

    My mother-in-law died last month and I’m thinking of her on this first Mothers Day without her. The character in this song sounds pretty despicable, unlike my mother-in-law, pictured above, who was never anything but wonderful to me. Still, it’s a great song by Ernie K-Doe. https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/eSIrj9v7S5I&source=uds Mother In LawMother In Law The worst person… Read more

  • Underneath

    She walked underneath my umbrellaNear enough for me to smellAnd I was grateful to the rain for putting her there She stayed close to meNever touchingIgnoring the rain We talked about India, where she was goingAnd about her penchant for overthinking thingsAnd how hard it is to relax We waited for the cabs on Fifth… Read more

  • The End of Racism

    One of the only nice things about Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling is that they’re old. In spite of the fact that our nation’s criminal justice system is still stacked against the descendants of our “peculiar institution” and there is still widespread support for state-sponsored execution, it feels like racism is working its way toward… Read more