I first encountered actress Patricia Arquette in the early 2000s when, as a young teenager, I saw David Lynch’s Lost Highway (1997) for the first time. Growing up surrounded by photos of Marlene … [Read more...]
Ringo Starr: The Father of Modern Rock Drumming
![By Eva Rinaldi from Sydney, Australia (Ringo Starr and all his band Uploaded by tm) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ringo-detail-360x200.jpg)
Things are looking good for Ringo Starr at the moment. In the last 18 months he's released the album Postcards From Paradise, been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, … [Read more...]
Found and Restored: Search and Destroy Reevaluated
I've been watching Dennis Hopper's more obscure and straight-to-DVD movies now for a number of few years; all in the name of 'research' you understand. I've seen some real clunkers (Space Truckers, … [Read more...]
For Independence Day: Jimi plays the Star-Spangled Banner!
Here's Jimi Hendrix playing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock, 1969. And if that's not enough for you, check him performing it on the 4th of July in Atlanta! Jimi Hendrix - Star-Spangled … [Read more...]
The Unforgivable Sin of Joss Whedon
Avengers: Age of Ultron is upon us, and that means the odds have gone up considerably of me having to confront The Whedon Problem with my more sophisticated, artsy friends. First you have to … [Read more...]
The Great Consciousness of Life
Reaching in, pulling out. The great divide is conquered; and there lies an ever-evolving mission to extract meaning from chaos. This, then, is where it resides, the theater of the soul and the … [Read more...]
Book Review — Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles’ 1964 Tour That Changed the World
Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles 1964 Tour That Changed the World by Larry Kane Backbeat Books / October 28, 2014 / 978-1480393042 / 272 pages In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the … [Read more...]
Dennis Hopper as Daniel Morgan in Mad Dog Morgan
The film Easy Rider (1969) made its director and star Dennis Hopper, and the film's producer and co-star Peter Fonda, counter-cultural icons of the late 1960s. The film's minuscule budget, roaring box … [Read more...]
(Music Review) IR 29.1: New Generation Dub
One of the biggest crimes committed by the music industry has been their ability to co-opt, dilute and turn even the most radical of genres into something safe for mass consumption. Disco, punk and … [Read more...]
Movie Review – Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
As a kid in the 1960s, I remember asking my mom why we didn't ever have Granny Smith apples in the house. She replied that she refused to buy anything from South Africa because of what the government … [Read more...]
Music of the Sahara: Tinariwen’s new album Emmaar
In the early 1960s the creation of artificial borders in the trackless wastes of the Sahara desert might have been cause for celebration among the inhabitants of the newly created countries. However, … [Read more...]
Book Review – IR 30: Indigenous Visions In Dub
I guess it's appropriate that blockades have gone up again on the Tyndengia Mohawk reservation in South Eastern Ontario Canada as I begin to write this review. Here in Canada the First Nations people … [Read more...]
Review: The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry
The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry / Bennion Kearny Limited / paperback / 978-1909125124 / 240 pages Journalist and author Jim Cherry has a long history with rock 'n' roll journalism, and currently … [Read more...]
(Movie Review) Come Back Africa: The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume ll
Documentary movies always seem to get short shrift. For too many people there the things people tell them to watch at school so they will learn something. Growing up on a diet of talking heads sitting … [Read more...]
(Music Review) Soutak by Aziza Brahim
At first glance the Sahara Desert of North West Africa seems like one of the most inhospitable places on the face of the earth. Movies, and other Western media, usually show us images of trackless … [Read more...]
(Music Review) Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia – Devil’s Tale
When the Ottoman Empire invaded Eastern Europe they brought more than just their armies with them. Even today evidence of their occupation can still be found. Muslim communities in Serbia are only the … [Read more...]
Movie Review – Kill Your Darlings
Long before Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William S. Burroughs would be celebrated as the poetical and political figureheads of a 'beat generation,' there was a murder. In the new film, Kill … [Read more...]
(Music Review) Acá: Viggo and Friends
Some people say, "Politics make strange bedfellows" (Don't say it to Putin - he might take it the wrong way and have you thrown in jail) but the first time I heard Viggo Mortensen had collaborated on … [Read more...]
The Beat Spirit Within Llewyn Davis: A Film Rumination
A film about a struggling artist could be many things: arty, pretentious, too ambitious and above all unfocused. For all its many cinematographic achievements and clever performances, the absurdity of … [Read more...]
Review – How Music Works by David Byrne
We all listen to music. Maybe we only have it playing in the background, use it to help us sleep or meditate, or perhaps you sit and listen to it carefully. However, no matter how or why you listen, … [Read more...]
