So I got Chappell Roan in front of me for the very first time when I decided to follow an impulse to check out the fashion getups at Sunday night’s Grammy Awards show. One never knows what might appear there as “clothes,” however scanty, billowing, or seemingly fitted for extraterrestrial giants they might be. Landing on the page, I beheld Ms. Roan’s utterly ridiculous looking “gown” (THIS IS THE GRAMMYS, after all!), which the “New York Times” described thusly: “Ms. Roan arrived in a burgundy, opaque chiffon cape, a custom design by Mugler, that perfectly matched the color of her…
Search Results for: brilliant songs
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The most profound spiritual truths in the world can usually fit on a bumper sticker. That doesn’t mean they’re easy to put into practice, “Simple, not easy” being the profound truth of that matter! But in general, if we manage to faithfully follow a set of core maxims in our daily lives, we will very likely die happy and content in the knowledge we have fulfilled our most basic human obligation: to have lived a decent life. “Be kind,” “Love thy neighbor,” “Practice compassion,” “Show mercy,” “Express gratitude,” “Dare to hope,” “Spread joy,” “Tell the truth,” “Commit to something beyond…
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Sometimes life gives you a two-fer, and you had best jump on it in full appreciation for its gift of grace. The two-fer I’ve been offered and am now sharing with you is the happy accident of looking for a song on You Tube earlier this week, title now lost to the ether, when off to the side, there flickered a surprise blurb for John Gorka., one of my favorite singer-songwriters, singing a cover of another of my favorites—another John with the last name of Stewart, and his treasure of a song, “July, You’re a Woman.” Stewart first recorded “July,…
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What is the purpose of music? The question applies to both listeners and creators. What do you come to music for, what’s the goal of settling in to listen or to make music? No doubt it’s not for one reason alone; there’s almost never only one reason for anything we do or think in life. That’s partly the basis for the tremendous variety of musical genres, instruments, venues and performers we have available to us in the sprawling firmament that music has become since early humans started to explore and appreciate sound for sound’s sake, rather than as simply an…
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“Home” most always represents both a real, particular place and a metaphor with almost unparalleled richness in human life. Home, as the ancient maxim has it, is not only where our hearts are, but also where we lay our heads down on familiar pillows in beloved zones of comfort, where we are (or at least nurture a hope to be) most ourselves and most accepted and understood as the selves we are. It’s where we go to regather ourselves in times of turmoil and crisis, whether of inner identity or outer world upheaval. To “go home” is to “call it…