Positive G: Being the change

Looking at positive contributions in music, literature, art, and design.

[mag2nyc]

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Fall in Indiana photo by MAG

Two weeks ago, J. and I went down to Indiana to help my 81-year-old aunt (who is in better shape than most people half her age) get her lawn/garden ready for winter. We arrived on Saturday and spent the weekend raking, mowing, eating great food, drinking wine, and solving the world’s problems (as we usually do). It was a wonderfully relaxing fall weekend at my…

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[mag2nyc]

Let it All Go

Let it All Go

Street Knowledge photo by Lisa Kolanowski

  I didn’t know David Foster Wallace. Aside from his insightful commencement speech, This is Water, I didn’t know much about his career, his writing, or his lifelong struggle with depression. Yet, on the seventh anniversary of his death, I found myself mourning him in a way that seemed inexplicably personal given the fact that we were complete strangers.

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[mag2nyc]

Rebel Beat

The Office – photo by Lisa Kolanowski

“Please don’t treat me like I’m stupid when I ask you questions about things I don’t understand,” I said quietly as I shifted around in the uncomfortably hard chair trying to find a comfortable way to sit that didn’t trigger the pain.

“I’m not treating you like you’re stupid,” she responded with a slightly exasperated sigh while clicking through screen after…

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[mag2nyc]

Dream Again

Guts Over Fear – Photo by Lisa Kolanowski

A few days ago, my mother confirmed my status as a life-long optimist when she told me that, as a toddler, my standard response to the question “How are you, Mary Alice?” was always an enthusiastic, “I’m too too happy!”

For those who know me, this probably does not come as any big surprise.  I firmly believe that joy comes out of sorrow and that this…

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[mag2nyc]

We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

[mag2nyc]

Break Free

Reflection/Perception – Photo by Lisa Kolanowski

I had to laugh a little when, this past week, my friend Rachel and I were discussing an exchange I’d had with a guy in St. Louis who was angry with the protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, and how I’d approached the situation from the standpoint of asking questions and listening to the response rather than jumping to conclusions – and down the guy’s…

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[mag2nyc]

S/O to Jeff Blanks! Great job on the new station Format! http://awe.sm/aK7WT

[mag2nyc]

Check out the Baltimore band who is intent on being the change!

[mag2nyc]

Sword in the Stone

Sword in the Stone

“Be the change” has been my mantra for years.  In fact, when I was teaching in Michigan, I said it so often that students would sometimes attribute the quote to me (as an English instructor I used it as a “teachable moment” to discourage plagiarism by properly attributing it – to Gandhi).

Attribution issues aside, I was gratified to realize that the message was getting through because my…

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[mag2nyc]

Barbara Kiss - Catch Me! Check out the single "Catch Me" from Hungarian pop singer! It's the perfect summer sing-a-long song!

[mag2nyc]

My review of Dragan Matijevic's Book: Know Yourself: The Concise Enneagram Guide.

[mag2nyc]

Carvings - EP

Dream pop for/by lovers & friends.

Dream pop group, Warehouse Eyes, has put out an EP that is guaranteed to have you set it on replay. The whole EP has a slow lush sound that utilizes the clear, light beauty of lead singer Jennie Lahlum’s voice as an instrument of dreamy lyrical expression.  Give the mesmerizing “Tokyo” a listen.

[mag2nyc]

A great review of Silvery Ghosts' new videos!

[mag2nyc]

Vivid in the Valley Official Music Video

Vivid in the Valley official music video from Silvery Ghosts(www.silveryghosts.com) full-length album "Love & Other Ephemera" set for release June 9, 2014. D...

I can't get enough of this SMOKIN' HOT video!!

[mag2nyc]

Director Janeen Lund has turned this smouldering song into a video that is so hot it requires a fire extinguisher for viewing.

[worldcafe]

Had a great conversation with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! about the new Transgender Dysphoria Blues. A positively amped-up session to boot. 

[nprmusic]

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[thejoyofviolentmovement]

The Chicago-based duo of Greta Rochelle and Jack Armando formed My Gold Mask around their mutual love of Italian Giallo cinema, mystery movies, and the dimly-lit warehouse district of their hometown where their rehearsal space is located. Their 2009 self-titled, full-length debut was fairly well received. across the blogosphere but in 2010, the band released two EPs – A Thousand Voices and A Million Miles (From Where We Were Last) which. revealed a remarkable bit of growth in the band’s sound. With the assistance of their engineer and and long-time collaborator Balthazar del Ley, the sound the band crafted carried and carried on to their sophomore effort was heavily influenced by Phil Spector’s famous “tower of sound” production of the 60s – layers upon layers of instrumentation but with cascading, swirling reverb that creates the impression of a band playing behind a stack of amplifiers that would make Led Zeppelin envious, in an abandoned (and possibly dilapidated) church, a gigantic warehouse or in the middle of Grand Central Terminal. And although the band has drawn some fair comparisons to Siouxsie and the Banshees, the band’s sound which emphasizes moody atmospherics and tribal percussiveness reminds me a little bit of Caveman’s Coco Beware – but more muscular, larger, hazier, more anthemic, and just as gorgeous. 

Produced by Sanford Parker, “Dissipate,” is the first single from the band, and it actually revels a change of sonic direction — the track employs the use of explosive bursts of drum machine, buzzing guitar and Gretta Rochelle’s expressive and earnest croon before quickly fading out. If there’s one thing that remains, it’s the fact that the band continues their reputation for a possessing a cinematic, larger-than-life sound.