Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock Identity is a flummox. Sometimes it feels like you spend a lifetime — or the lifetime thus far — pursuing an identity, but your identity may not be you. I’ve heard of two senior or retired professors who said they chose their doctoral fields rather arbitrarily and lost interest as […]
Tag: music
Valiance
Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock Over the decade (since February 1998) that we’ve lived in Northwest Arkansas, Ginny and Nick Masullo have thrown the most fantastic and memorable, surreal and comforting parties. Some involved costumes, a number had modest bonfires, and all had warmth, lots of food and a truly wide assortment of guests. The […]
Concerto in Improvidoodle
Review: An Evening with Bobby McFerrin, Chick Corea and Jack DeJohnette, Sunday 13 April 2008, Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville As admirable as jazz critics like Gary Giddins and Nat Hentoff are, even they couldn’t describe last night’s evening of “free jazz” adequately. It’d be like explaining a joke, ruins it. I won’t try, but surely […]
Turnips to Squeeze
Things are tough all over so what am I doing, about to criticize non-profits I favor? The endeavors — literature, fine art, serious music — are the sorts of things that keep me rooted here, but some of their staff members could use some free advice, for what it’s worth. 1. The literary bimonthly Oxford […]
Cotton Candy Club
Driving home from work early Sunday morning, the radio was playing “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The tenor’s voice was to-the-back-of-the-hall soaring, precise in enunciation and emoted with the sass the song demands but rarely gets. This was public radio’s Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson, who said it was Cab Calloway. […]
Rumble the Roads
This could have been a wicked Brick, ripping up Fayetteville’s eighth annual (but it feels like the 240th) Bikes Blues & BBQ that’s going on this weekend. A couple of years ago I had some criticisms about it, and until Thursday night I had nothing new to add so I wasn’t going to. I have […]