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Review: The Unfortunates by Sophie McManus
The Unfortunatesby Sophie McManus is a stunningly self-assured debut that rewards its readers with a highly polished gem of a book. This contemporary novel, told over the course of one year, assumes the qualities of a novel of epic scope through its author’s skillful telling. The emotional heart of The Unfortunates is the character Iris,… Read more
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Away From The Numbers
I downloaded the first album by The Jam, “In The City,” a couple of weeks ago. I’d never heard it before but it sounded like the kind of thing I’d like, and it is. On my way to work last week “Away From The Numbers” came up on my iPod and stopped me in my… Read more
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Your High-Wire Act
Watching you negotiate your mundane existence is like watchingA performer on a tightrope:FascinatingFrighteningBreathtaking Such otherworldly balance and poiseSuch easy fearlessness How do you do it?It must have come at an early age,The fires that forged your steelThe earthquakes that trained your stepsThe weakness that made you strong I wonder sometimes if you ever regret learning… Read more
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Magdalena
“Automat” by Edward Hopper, 1927 I woke up this morning with this melody and the first couple lines running through my head and figured if I didn’t get it down today it would be lost to the mists of time. In the dream the song accompanied an animated video by a Scandinavian artist. The characters… Read more
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Come Back to Me
My mind keeps drifting back to my Greenwich Village days lately. This is another song from back then that I’ve been fiddling with. At the time I wrote it, I was singing to a woman. Now, it’s more like I’m singing it to myself, or someone who looks just like me. It may be a… Read more
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Fictional Humans of New York – Leslie
Leslie was a pilgrim. She traveled thousands of miles to reach Mecca, which in her case was Brooklyn. She came from a humble home on the other side of the murky mountains, forests, and fields, clad in penitential garb, with tribal insignia printed on her skin. She came with her barest possessions: notebooks, the broken… Read more
Words & Music 