Looking Closer
Ready for another Christmas playlist? This one's full of surprises. Read more
Ready for another Christmas playlist? This one's full of surprises. Read more
Dear Ridley Scott, My name is Aaron. I’m the brother of Moses. In the Holy Scriptures, when Moses balks at God’s call for him to go and free the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, claiming a lack of eloquence, God gets aggravated and assigns me to travel with him, to face Pharaoh, and to act as Moses’ translator. “Moses and Aaron.” To anyone of any religion who has grown up valuing this story, my name has belonged beside my brother’s like... Read more
Robert Zemeckis took us back in time with Marty McFly and again with Forrest Gump. This time around, he might as well recycle a famous Back to the Future quote: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” (more…) Read more
Here now, is what Over the Rhine would play for you if you asked to hear something besides their own extraordinary Christmas recordings... Read more
In this, my fourth Looking Closer conversation with Linford Detweiler of Over the Rhine, we talked about the stories behind the songs on the band's third "Reality Christmas" album, Blood Oranges in the Snow. Read more
When inquiring of my favorite writers and artists about the Christmas music that means the most to them, I turned habitually to someone I tend to ask for recommendations in almost everything. Read more
2014 marked the tenth anniversary of my friendship with YA novelist Sara Zarr. In the decade since we happened to sit down at the same table for a fiction workshop led by author Erin McGraw, Sara has written five of the best-reviewed new YA novels. (She became a National Book Award finalist for her first. Not too shabby.) She’s also collaborated on, or contributed to, a variety of multi-author books (Jesus Girls, edited by poet and writer Hannah Faith Notess) and... Read more
Here are a few recent distractions and discoveries from elsewhere on the web that gave me fleeting moments of relief from the storms of a Bad News Week. Read more
Our Christmas Playlist Party continues! Here's one of the most soulful musicians I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live: Grammy award-winning gospel singer Ashley Cleveland. Read more
Our first Christmas Playlist Party host? Please welcome Grammy award-winning producer, poet, and musician Joe Henry, whose new album "Invisible Hour" is, at this writing, my favorite record of 2014 and the one I have played most often. Read more
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