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Sitar and Sanskrit: Bill Wolak Interviews Srinivas Reddy

Bill Wolak and Srinivas Reddy

Srinivas Reddy

Srinivas Reddy began his musical training as a guitarist and composer. In 1998 he graduated from Brown University with a BA in South Asian Studies and completed his senior project entitled NaadaSat, a … [Read more...]

White Jesus – A reflection on summer camp and Charlottesville

Todd Clouser

White Jesus -- Todd Clouser

Growing up in Kansas, from about 9 to 12 years old, I went to Christian summer camp down the highway in rural Missouri. I loved it there. We swam in creeks and caught crawfish. I played soccer and … [Read more...]

From Motown to Mowtown

Andrew Lees

photo credit: Digital Third Eye

An obsession with polished aspirational black music finally carried me to Detroit. I had come to rediscover the heartbreak of first love and unearth a few last Okeh "cover ups". Poking my nose against … [Read more...]

Review: The Doors Examined by Jim Cherry

Denise Enck

The Doors Examined

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...]

Chiseled in Rock

George Djuric

Alvin Lee, 1975 (detail) by Jim Summaria, http://www.jimsummariaphoto.com

Literature is a morgue: I go there to identify my friends. One of them evaporated yesterday, March 6, 2013. The last pic he nailed through the ether toward me had his Woodstock cherry red 335 erecting … [Read more...]

Review – Nashville 2.0: The Rise of Americana

Richard Marcus

The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Photo credit: Deborah Feingold

Once upon a time there was pop music. You either liked what you heard or you didn't, and you didn't particularly care about anything else. There were other types of music other people listened to, but … [Read more...]

Review – Les Paul: The Lost Interviews by Jim O’Donnell

Denise Enck

Les Paul: The Lost Interviews by Jim O'Donnell

Les Paul: The Lost Interviews: Five Never-Before-Published Talks With a Guitar Genius by Jim O'Donnell / 978-1492218913 / 152 pages What comes to mind when you hear the name "Les Paul"? Maybe the … [Read more...]

Book Review – Love Him Madly: An Intimate Memoir of Jim Morrison, by Judy Huddleston

Denise Enck

Review: Love Him Madly by Judy Huddleston

Love Him Madly: An Intimate Memoir of Jim Morrison, by Judy Huddleston / Chicago Review Press / June 1, 2013 / 978-1613747506 / 240 pages The story begins just like many young girls' rock star … [Read more...]

Book Review – How Hip Was My Alley by Kenton Crowther

Denise Enck

How Hip Was My Alley by Kenton Crowther

[Editor's note: 5/21/2014: How Hip Was My Alley has been re-titled Dad, the Times We Had: Baby Boomers in Paradise.] Kenton Crowther's previous volume, Alleycats and Beatsters, collected the … [Read more...]

Review – Reaching Out with No Hands: Reconsidering Yoko Ono by Lisa Carver

Denise Enck

Reaching Out with No Hands - Reconsidering Yoko Ono

Reaching Out with No Hands: Reconsidering Yoko Ono / Lisa Carver / Backbeat Books / 2012 / 978-1617130946 The popular perceptions of Yoko Ono are often unflattering: hanger-on, untalented, … [Read more...]

Ray Manzarek

Bruce Hodder

Ray Manzarek

I turned my laptop on just after dawn this morning, as I usually do, and sat down with a cup of strong black coffee to see what was happening in the world. Two stories caught me like punches to the … [Read more...]

The Art of the Statement – Be the Mule

Todd Clouser

mule by Greg Westfall

I found humanity through music. I lose focus and grow cynical at times, but if I am honest as a listener, and remain receptive, the chance of transcending my emotional disturbances and triumphs … [Read more...]

Poems from COUNTRY by Shelby Stephenson

Shelby Stephenson

Country

Nin’s making ham-hock soup, feeding her hypomania: A.M. radio talking-heads rail for holiness on and on for keeping “Christ” in Christmas, the needles, I’m sure screaming eagles in the … [Read more...]

The Time that John Lurie Called Me

Todd Clouser

The Time John Lurie Called Me by Todd Clouser / photo credit: Stephen Keates http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Indie9999

My artistic, maybe even my personal, aesthetic had me identifying with the music of John Lurie the first time I heard his compositions on record. Close to a bunch of things I cannot, or do not care, … [Read more...]

An essay on the Arcana Series, edited by John Zorn

Todd Clouser

The Arcana Series, edited by John Zorn

I sat down to write this as a commentary on the series of books edited by John Zorn, all of which are entitled Arcana. The series comes in six parts, including hundreds of essays written by musicians, … [Read more...]

Music Review — Sentimental Journey by Emmy Rossum – A Musical Calendar

Denise Enck

Emmy Rossum Sentimental Journey

Emmy Rossum is a multi-talented performer. As an actress, she currently stars in Showtime's Shameless, and the forthcoming film, Beautiful Creatures. Her new CD, Sentimental Journey, is her second. … [Read more...]

Nov 14, ’12: The Big Mix at Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, CA

Empty Mirror News

The Big Mix - Michael McClure

What do you get if you take Beat icon Michael McClure (who penned Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz"), add Rock 'n Roll Hall of Famer Ray Manzarek (Doors keyboardist), stir in jazz/Indian fusion … [Read more...]

Bob Dylan’s TEMPEST Out Now!

Empty Mirror News

Bob Dylan - Tempest

Bob Dylan’s new album, Tempest, was released on September 11, 2012. Featuring ten new and original Bob Dylan songs, the release of Tempest coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the artist’s eponymous … [Read more...]

Book Review – Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue by Robert Scotto

Hammond Guthrie

Moondog: Viking of 6th Avenue by Robert Scotto

Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue by Robert Scotto / Process Media / 2007 / 280 pages / ISBN # 978-0-9760822-8-6 Born in Marysville, Kansas in 1916, the son of an Episcopal minister, Louis Hardin … [Read more...]

Diamanda Galas – Love is a Ballad that Eviscerates

Mark Ambrose Harris

Diamanda Galas

When I listen to the music of Diamanda Galás, I am reminded that I have veins. There is something in her voice that punctures the flesh, the ears, the heart, in order to get at something visceral. … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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