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1972: War was waging in Vietnam and kids were coming home in boxes. Hippes and yippies went clean for Gene McCarthy, but George McGovern won the democratic nomination. Tricky Dick Nixon was the one for the Republicans and the so-called Silent Majority. I was a sixteen-year-old runaway revolutionary of peace and love, living in a commune, […]
...moreThe President and First Lady hosted BET’s Love And Happiness: A Musical Experience on the White House’s South Lawn this weekend, adding to the long list of musical moments rounding out Obama’s final term. At one point the President spotted in the audience and joked, “Dave, you have your own block party! This is my block party.” Watch a […]
...moreThe White House has really been stepping up its music game these days, organizing festivals and now inviting Chance the Rapper to perform at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. Because if you’re on your way out and can’t do much, you might as well use holidays you’re forced to celebrate as opportunities to invite your favorite artists to […]
...moreHe might not be ending US intervention in the Middle East, but he’s organizing a music festival at the White House: President Obama is impressing many with his decision to work with the organizers of SXSW to put together a similar event on the White House grounds, which will be called South by South Lawn. Hopefully, the one-day […]
...moreThe President of the United States appeared on The Tonight Show to join The Roots and Jimmy Fallon in slow jamming the news. The “Commander in Preach,” as Fallon called President Obama, is entering the last eight months of his second term, and the segment called attention to the many achievements of his administration. The call and response between Fallon, The […]
...moreThe fifth International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert took place on the White House’s South Lawn on Friday, featuring performances from giants Herbie Hancock and Aretha Franklin alongside an all-star band made up of musicians from around the world. President Obama gave a speech welcoming the UNESCO concert back to the US. He celebrated the “all around […]
...moreThis has been a difficult year for our musical heroes. The loss of Prince has the world mourning, once again, an artist whose work gave listeners the strength and permission to be as different, exceptional, and free as they wished. It’s a lot to handle, especially following so soon after Bowie’s passing. But as with Bowie, celebration […]
...moreDrake shared the song “Summer Sixteen” on the latest episode of OVO Sound Radio, Pitchfork reports. Among other things, the track calls out President Obama in reference to the Commander-In-Chief publicly declaring his preference for Kendrick Lamar, saying, “To do what you couldn’t do/ Tell Obama that my verses are like the whips at the end/ […]
...moreKendrick or Drake? YouTube vlogger Adande Thorne asked President Obama the big question, and Obama went with Kendrick Lamar. “Got to go with Kendrick,” President Obama responded, as reported Consequence of Sound. The President continued to say, “I think Drake is an outstanding entertainer, but Kendrick—his lyrics, his last album was outstanding. Best album of […]
...morePresident Barack Obama appeared at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater this weekend, and took the opportunity to give Kanye West, who was performing later in the night, some advice for his potential 2020 campaign. Read what the President counseled after the jump, and watch a video of the President speaking and […]
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Writer and former US Army infantryman Colin D. Halloran on his new collection, Icarian Flux, how he used experimental narrative to explore his life with PTSD, and why he doesn’t want to be known only as a “war poet.”
...moreAs USA Today reports, the President shared that he can’t rap last Thursday, quashing many a dream of seeing the Commander in Chief reprise hits like this, this, or this: “My rapping skills are terrible,” the President confessed….“That’s one thing I can’t do is rap. I like rap but I cannot rap.”…He added, however: “I got […]
...moreA funny thing happened on the way to President Obama’s second inauguration Monday. The president’s speech and Richard Blanco’s poem got reversed. Broadly speaking, one’s expectations of political rhetoric is that, at its worst, it reduces complex argument to slogans and platitudes or, at its best, that it singles out constituencies and individual citizens in […]
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Indignation clicks on in moments of perceived injustice. Unchecked, it rolls quickly out of control, gaining momentum at the expense of perspective.
...moreIn our earlier roundup about Hurricane Sandy, we linked to this piece from The Atlantic’s Garance Franke-Ruta which quotes Governor Mitt Romney in 2011 at a Republican debate. He was talking about government spending in the context of a concern that FEMA was running out of money for dealing with national emergencies. He’d already said […]
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