What’s going on with hipster music? It’s an interesting question. About ten years ago I wanted to write a piece for my local weekly, Baltimore City Paper, on how the fuzzed-out, overdriven indie rock of my youth, largely springing from the AmRep and Touch & Go labels, had been replaced by another genre with the same …
Author Archives: hnbjr
Goodbye, Jason Noble
I knew Jason Noble was sick about two years ago, and I knew it was a nasty cancer, and I knew he’d beaten it for the moment. I didn’t know he was sick again so I was surprised this morning when a fellow refugee from Louisville told me that he’d passed. Jason, along with his musical …
Face-to-Snout with Our Meat?
If you want to eat meat, do you have to kill it yourself? Some people say yes. I’m less convinced and explore the reasons why in this piece for the American Interest, out today.
On the Last Rock Star
On a hot August evening, the sun was setting over Barricata beach out on the Po Delta. The beach bar was deserted and the lifeguard-cum-barman started up his tractor and began to pick up the sunbeds. To do his work he put on the sound system and turned it up, loud. Sandwiched between the usual …
Fashion Week Begins
The fashion week party, or rather, pre-party drink like one of those early punk shows I went to when I was a boy: you feel you have total freedom to do whatever because everyone is doing anything. A man is a fluorescent toga-like dress with his whole head shaved except for a little random-seeming tuft …
Why — or How — Italy Works, and Why No One Wants to Leave
The motorist tries to run you over and you get into a yelling match on the street. The phone company is billing you for your old and new internet, although neither work. You’re getting laid off, you lose your private office and have to share a cramped space with people who don’t believe in the …
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On the Artistic Theater of the Cenacolo
A trip to Lugano reminds one of what Italy is missing, and what would make it better — courteous drivers, spotlessly clean streets, apartments and offices free of the suspicious layers of security ones finds in Italy. But in contrast, a trip to the Cenacolo, aside from being a moving experience in itself that should …
Amazon.it Brought to Heel by Levi Law
While trying to research publication information on the Italian guidebook that profiled my home state, a visit to Amazon.it, which just opened this year, revealed the following warning: Dear Customer, It now seems certain that by September 1, a law on the price of books in Italian will come into effect. The main article states: …
il Kentucky
We’re often curious as to how others see us. To that end, today’s offering is composed of translations from an Italian guidebook to the USA on my home state and city. Factually, it’s largely accurate, with a couple of exceptions (the Louisville Falls Fountain was scrapped 13 years ago), but the amusement for Louisvillians and …
Evergreen
Note, October 2, 2024: With the news of Tim Ruth’s untimely passing I am re-posting this and posting the Weston and Steve Good demos to a YouTube channel. Previous note still stands. Feel free to check out my other post on Evergreen or leave a comment. Rest in peace, Tim. Note: Those interested in any …