I feel like there’s something you need me to say. As if you’ve been waiting years to hear the words only I can speak. Or, maybe this specific combination of…
Introspection
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image: Radiation by Rhonda Fishman * Freddy had wired a radio in the bathroom so that whenever Freddy turned on the light, he had music. He stood in front of…
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IntrospectionMusicUncategorized
Variations on a Theme: Daddy Rocked the Baby, Mother Said Amen
by Guest Contributor February 20, 2021In 1990, when Halley’s comet was 1.2 billion miles from the sun, an eight-year-old boy heard a song called “Halley Came to Jackson” on a new CD on his parents’…
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Creative Nonfiction / EssayIntrospectionLetterMusic
Variations on a Theme: The End of the World
by Guest Contributor February 9, 2021Why does the sun go on shining? Why does the sea rush to shore? Don’t they know it’s the end of the world? Cause you don’t love me anymore. (Skeeter…
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Creative Nonfiction / EssayIntrospectionMusic
Variations on a Theme: I almost lost my calloused skin
by Guest Contributor February 2, 2021editor’s note: After a long hiatus, Variations on a Theme is returning with quite a fitting story. We almost lost our calloused skin on our proverbial musician’s fingertips but are…
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Creative Nonfiction / EssayIntrospection
The Birds: A Special Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow
by Guest Contributor January 2, 2020When I was a fifteen, my family had a large unshaded backyard, a self-propelled gas lawnmower, and no men. The mower was an old LawnBoy: greasy and green, with a…
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Hunched over shouldering my duffle, just home from college, my dad stops me on the sidewalk. “You look like someone I … could have a deep conversation with,” he stutters,…
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Creative Nonfiction / EssayIntrospection
The Birds: In Our Piety
by Guest Contributor November 14, 2019The sun reveals the mountains one by one in shades of smoke and slate and coffee grounds. Then it gets to work on their ancient contours, lighting up the spaces…
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photo by Unsplash user Jesse Borovnica I hate flying. I hate the window seat, the middle one, and prefer the aisle if given a choice. I was particularly anxious for…
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In July, 2012, I turned the corner to the back area of Crush Bar after paying my tab. Burnt, Tongue, the reading series dedicated to Tom Spanbauer and his infamous…
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IntrospectionMusic
Variations on a Theme: In Memoriam, Amy Winehouse: Years Later, My Tears Are Still Drying on Their Own
by Guest Contributor June 3, 2019When Amy Winehouse died in 2011, I was not a particularly big fan of the singer. I knew her big hits like “Rehab,” and “Back to Black” because who didn’t?…
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IntrospectionMusic
Variations on a Theme: Sometimes You’re at a Pedro the Lion Concert, Mourning the Very Concept of Existence, and Other Times You are in a Hospital, Celebrating It
by Guest Contributor May 31, 2019There’s something special about following a band for over a decade—especially if you started listening to that band in your youth—as the discography of the band starts to layer itself…
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IntrospectionMusic
Variations: Pomp and Circumstance/Pompa e circunstáncia
by Guest Contributor May 1, 2019Every summer, our placid village by the Bay of Biscay was invaded by what dad called the Oxford tribe: dons donning white socks under sandals; fresh-faced dissertators in linen shirts;…
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Summer was nascent, and I longed for it nonetheless. I had vowed to myself — it was going to be the best season of my life. I was freshly seventeen…