The Past Was Close Behind Joe Fruscione We’d turned 30 just a few months apart, but I’d never given the album much thought until we were the same age. Blood on the Tracks found me in an eventful, moody, and transitional year, and Bob Dylan now mattered to me. A lot happened in 2005, […]
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Something Good Monique Kluczykowski These days when I listen to the radio, I mostly leave my dial on NPR—I like in-depth news, interviews with authors, some light jazz, or Chopin. But every once in awhile, I tune in to a classic rock station and almost without fail, I hear those magical beginning chords of
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Perfect Day Matthew Cheney That moment: album — book — car ride. How long ago now? Twenty-five years? Something like that. It was (roughly) sometime between 1988 and 1991, which means sometime between when I was (roughly) 12 years old and 16 years old. Most likely 1989 or 1990. Most likely 14 or 15
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The Only Time Sufjan Stevens Pissed Me Off and How I Learned to Enjoy My Rabbit S. Amanda Clevinger I have a 12-year-old bunny named Persey, short for Persephone, queen of the underworld and harbinger of Springtime. I have been listening to a musician for 12 years named Sufjan, which means “comes with a
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Where does America begin? M.C. Mallet “Where are you from?” “I was born in Germany.” “Wow. What’s it like there? Do you speak German?” “I don’t remember it; we left when I was about two.” “Where are you from?” “Kansas.” “They have Black people in Kansas?” I am a Black man, a U.S.
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Tuesday is Gone Douglas Thompson When I was twelve, my father took me to an electronic blowout sale in an abandoned department store less than five minutes from our house. The Panasonic single component system held everything a young boy could want: turntable with precision needle technology, radio with AM and FM, equalizer, and
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