Podcast Review: City in Exile

Podcast fiends, here’s your new addiction.

Brendan O’Loughlin recently launched the inaugural episode of his podcast titled, City in Exile. It’s a document of the ever-evolving cultural capital of California, San Francisco, and more specifically, it’s  O’Loughlin’s love letter to the city he grew up with. San Francisco is also my favorite city in the country and watching it evolve, and seemingly devolve, from the place I used to escape to in my youth has been both mystifying and depressing, but those of us who pay close attention recognize that all things change and we find ways to recapture those ephemeral bits that made us fall in love with the city as it continues to change.

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Book Review: Natalie Murray’s Emmie and the Tudor King

“The reign of terror continued for nearly two decades, earning the Tudor king his famous epithet ‘Nicholas the Ironheart’.” Excerpt From Emmie and the Tudor King, Literary Crush Publishing, Copyright 2019 by Natalie Murray.

In a small town in Western Mass resides Emmie, a sensitive and inquisitive 17-year-old with lofty ambitions. The Laura Ingalls-esque young woman lives with her hardworking mother, Carol, who has taken her from London to San Diego to New England to chase after the unrequited love of her now ex-husband. Carol’s heartache and yearning for more is the aura she carries with her, a yearning that also resides in our hero. Emmie has her eyes set on an art school in London, and spends her time curating the piece of jewelry that she believes will be her ticket out of Hatfield. Continue reading “Book Review: Natalie Murray’s Emmie and the Tudor King

Black History Month Series: Delta Blues to Rock and Roll and Beyond

It’s not possible to overstate the influence that the Mississippi Delta Blues has had on contemporary music. Every popular artist you can think of, from Beyonce, to Garth Brooks, and even Skrillex owes their due to the music which has some its origins in the West African music brought over by people kidnapped by the Dutch to become slaves in the American south. Blues forms the basis of rock and roll’s rhythms and instrumentation, and the blue notes as well – the flat 3rd, 5th, or 7th note that gives a more melancholy sound to the melody- is derived from blues. It was Muddy Waters, an early blues musician, who first started bending guitar strings while playing, in a departure from the classical style of guitar. Even jazz has its origins in the twelve-bar blues structure that grew out, at least in part, from southern work songs, chants, call and response, and spirituals sung by slaves, former slaves, or sharecroppers. Some researchers have made the case that blues emerged as a genre after the Emancipation Act, influenced strongly by the teachings of Booker T. Washington, and coinciding with the emergence of a Southern free black secular community.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Andrew Holmgren of Sylvan Productions

Andrew Holmgren

Andrew Holmgren is a local comic that hosts a monthly show at Dirty Trix Saloon called Get Yucked Up. He is also a member local comedy crew Sylvan Productions, who put on high quality comedy shows all throughout the bay area. He will be doing Get Yucked Up as part of SF Sketchfest at Cincecave at Lost Weekend Video on Friday, January 25th and as part of the Comedy Happy Hour at Cafe Royale on Monday, January 28th. On New Year’s Day, we got together at a coffee shop in downtown SF to talk about his career and comedy culture in San Francisco in general.

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