On Seeing Someone

Lens image

On Seeing Someone
by Cole Cohen

 The glasses that were supposed to mimic loss of central vision arrived while you were away; first at a work conference in Baltimore you hadn’t told me about and then another conference after that, I forget where now. I waited for a couple of days to pick the package up from the mailroom, until I felt more like seeing the world from your perspective. My work as a writer feels so abstract compared to being a doctor. We’re both working on the problem of cognition just from different ends, and anyway anyone who has tried to heal knows that it’s also an abstract art, with its own setbacks and triumphs often appearing out of order and without warning.  I thought that I might be well suited to care for the person who cares for all of the other people, or at least it felt nice to think of myself as someone like that. 

Continue Reading

An Essential Musical History Gets a Grand New Edition: On “England’s Hidden Reverse”

"England's Hidden Reverse"

When reading a book about music, it’s generally a good sign when I find myself jotting down notes on artists to check out and albums to buy. In the case of David Keenan’s England’s Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground, recently reissued by Strange Attractor Press, it’s not spoiling much by saying that I was reading it with several tabs open: to AllMusic and Bandcamp and Bull Moose Music and Forced Exposure, eyeing reissue editions and complete discographies and obscure side projects. It’s that kind of a book, told with both rigor and enthusiasm, and making for a compelling read.

Continue Reading

Gold Dime’s Andrya Ambro on the Genesis of “No More Blue Skies”

Andrya Ambro of Gold Dime

I’ve been a fan of Gold Dime‘s music ever since I came across them playing at the 2014 edition of Basilica Soundscape. Do you enjoy your music intense and rhythmic yet pushing towards transcendent moments of bliss? Well then. The group’s third album, No More Blue Skies, arrived on the scene last month, and it pulls off the impressive feat of retaining the group’s core sound while also finding intriguing ways to expand it. I spoke with Gold Dime founder Andrya Ambro to learn more about the album — and the band’s recent tour.

Continue Reading

Sunday Stories: “Everyone’s Getting Old for the First Time”

Crib

Everyone’s Getting Old for the First Time
by Perry Genovesi

While her husband, Stan, relayed to Carson a story about something indelicate their CEO had said, she decided it was time to bring out the baby. Blair set her wine on the coaster and smoothed her skirt.

She left the living room and stepped to Declan’s crib, scooping him up, carefully, so he wouldn’t have one of his outbursts. She snapped on his overalls with the big, goldfinch-yellow buttons Stan’s mother had pushed on her from BINK. She smoothed Declan’s silky hair over his forehead and his warm lips pecked her shoulders. She looked at herself in the mirror with the baby and thought about her husband’s wish, expressed before Carson arrived, of wanting Carson to settle down with Charlotte from work. Carson didn’t even bring Charlotte. What was the point? And why did they settle down? She’d been the right age and Stan expected it. She swaddled up Declan and cha-cha’d into the living room.

Continue Reading