All this news lately about taped conversations and secret meetings makes me wonder if the walls could talk, what stories would they tell? Well, we may never hear from the Trump Tower walls, but here’s some Talking Walls from slide guitarist Roy Rogers that’ll do just nicely.   [Read more…]

Time for some industrial strength body percussion. Here’s Grupo Pacuprá, the youth ensemble of the Colombian group Cantoalegre.   [Read more…]

The weather has me in full summertime mode lately. Here’s something by Joni Mitchell that’s also in a summertime theme: The Hissing of Summer Lawns. (h/t to AGD)   [Read more…]

‘Pa’lante’ Is an Ode to Puerto Rico’s Future

For eight sobering minutes, a new Hurray for the Riff Raff music video follows a working-class Puerto Rican family as they try to rebuild physically and emotionally in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Filmed on the island and starring The Florida Project’s Mela Murder, the video — a vibrant backdrop to the band’s new song “Pa’lante,” sung by Riff Raff’s Nuyorican lead singer Alynda Segarra — captures in brilliant colors the pain and strength of the Puerto Rican people.   [Read more…]

In France, July 14th is a national day of celebration that commemorates the storming of the Bastille in 1789. That event was also a thematic element in the 1963 Peter Weiss play, “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade” (generally shortened to “Marat/Sade”). This medley, performed by Judy Collins on her 1966 album “In My Life”, is based on the music from the play composed by Richard Peaslee, arranged and conducted by Joshua Rifkin: Homage to Marat; Marat We’re Poor; People’s Reaction; Poor Old Marat.   [Read more…]