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League of Inveterate Poets

the out-of-context contextuality of a foolish sage

The Making of OK Go’s Rube Goldberg Video

Foolish Sage | March 5, 2010

Image by Plutor via Flickr

Are they geeks who are rock stars or rock stars who moonlight as geeks? Whichever is the chicken or the egg, the members of the rock band OK Go got their geek on once again and produced the most talked about music video since…well, since their last homemade music video, the [...]

This Too Shall Pass

Foolish Sage | March 3, 2010

In this Year in Which I Kick My Cancer’s Ass, I’ve finally found my theme song (lyrics below video):
UPDATE: I wouldn’t have thought the wonderfulness of the video above could be surpassed, but OK GO has just issued the “official” video for this song, which may feature the greatest Rube Goldberg machine of all time:

This [...]

The Mountain Goats John Darnielle on Faith Communities, Music and Religion

Foolish Sage | October 9, 2009

I like being around [faith communities, churches]. I like being able to catch some of the energy, whatever I can or can’t believe. I think there’s something to be said for it. Despite the fact that most Christian denominations, politically, are about twenty million miles from where I want to be. ….If you’re into music, [...]

The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come

Foolish Sage | October 8, 2009

An old piece of folk wisdom says that if you don’t want to offend, there are two topics you never mention in polite company: politics and religion. Rock music has never much worried about polite company, and giving offense is often its raison d’etre. However, historically rock has far more often tread on the toes [...]

David Bazan Finds It Hard to Be…Or Not to Be

Foolish Sage | September 12, 2009

Image by bradsearles via Flickr

The first part of my review of David Bazan’s new album Curse Your Branches has been published by Precipice Magazine online (http://www.precipicemagazine.com/).
Read it here.

I Got Soul But Never Served in the Military

Foolish Sage | June 17, 2009

Image via Wikipedia

No other song fragment in recent memory has gotten itself lodged in my head quite like the dramatic ending of the Killer song “All These Things That I’ve Done” (video). The words
“I got soul, but I’m not a soldier”
are chanted so powerfully that most people probably assume that’s the name of the song [...]

At the Scene of the Crime (in which Our Hero Becomes a Rover and Lives to Tell About It)

Foolish Sage | May 17, 2009

Image by bunchofpants via Flickr

Tonight I joined the Scene of the Crime Rovers, Durham’s own honk band.
“Joined” might be putting it a little too formally. Basically, I showed up at a practice and at the end mentioned that I would definitely be coming back. There was much rejoicing. “Most people leave during the break,” one [...]

Honk Your Horn: Taking Music to the Streets

Foolish Sage | May 11, 2009

In a previous post I wrote about my encounter this past weekend with the Scene of the Crime Rovers, a Durham community street band. I had never seen anything quite like this before. I was instantly mesmerized and hooked. What I didn’t realize is that the Rovers are not an isolated case, but part of [...]

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