Perhaps it comes as no surprise that an artist from New York City cannot be contained within one genre, just like the Big Apple can’t be described in one word. A bit of folk, a bit of pop, a big of rock, a bit of punk, a bit of Americana, and a bit of electropop… Read More Music Review: Nehedar – ‘The Warming House’
It comes as little surprise that someone from Arkansas would write and produce an all-Americana imbibed album. But it might come as a surprise that he started his musical career when he found a string-less guitar in 2010 while dumpster diving. Michael Leonard Witham’s debut album, A Scandal in the Violets, to be officially released… Read More Music Review: Michael Leonard Witham – ‘A Scandal in the Violets’
Post-future rock artist aCr (also known as Alvaro Che Rodriguez) has just released his first solo EP titled Ghost Note Manifest. He is already known for his work as guitarist and vocalist of progressive punk group Liquid Casing. Hailing from Houston, aCr wrote, produced and performed all the instruments on this release, except for the… Read More Music Review: aCr – ‘Ghost Note Manifest’
Nancy G. West’s Fit to be Dead is the first humorous mystery in a series following Aggie Mundeen’s brush with the darker side of society. Single and approaching forty, Mundeen fears nothing – except perhaps middle age. She quits her high paying, high stressful job in Chicago and moves to San Antonio to expand on… Read More Book Review: ‘Fit to be Dead’, by Nancy G. West
Reviewing auto-biographies is a delicate venture, to say the least. A reviewer has to learn to draw the line between reviewing the book and reviewing the person’s life. In some cases it can be easy – when an auto-biography is both well written and the author is someone the reader can easily relate to. The… Read More Book Review: ‘Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)’ by Mindy Kaling
Stella Newman’s Pear Shaped is the story of the journey of a young woman in her early thirties whose self-confidence is shattered by the immature views on life and a woman’s physique of her much older boyfriend. Sophie Klein is out with a friend for a typical Friday girl’s night. They step into a bar… Read More Book Review: ‘Pear Shaped,’ by Stella Newman
This third book of the PSS Chronicles series by Ripley Patton continues the story of Olivia Black and her runaway friends, led by the elusive Marcus, straight after the brutal tragedy in the final pages of Ghost Hold. Some of the valiant band are held hostage, some are dead, some are hurt, and some on… Read More Book Review: ‘Ghost Heart’ by Ripley Patton
The most magical aspect of fiction is its ability to create a safe environment in which we can closely examine important issues, however sensitive they might be. It was with the hope of finding between its covers a story that could create such an environment for a conversation on social media’s role in our relationships… Read More Book Review: ‘Populatti’ by Jackie Nastri Bardenwerper
Beginner Mind is a honey-laced, 11-song album that combines folk, country, gospel, and other intimate forms of acoustic music focusing on topics such as the happiness the artist has found in creating a home with his wife and child. From North Caroline, Jay Brown is a blend of James Taylor, Willie Nelson, and Cat Stevens,… Read More Music Review: Jay Brown – ‘Beginner Mind’
Merriam-Webster defines slang as “words that are not considered part of the standard vocabulary of a language and that are used very informally in speech especially by a particular group of people”, and “an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech”. While this alternative… Read More Music Review: The Slang – ‘The Slang’ EP