[This is another in an occasional series on popular songs with appeal across the generations. This post will be broken into two parts; Part 2 will appear in a few days is here.]
As a kid, I once read a “funny” comic-book episode in which aliens landed in mid-20th-century America and reported back to their home [...]

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Last night, The Missus and I attended a combined reading-talk-Q&A session with Margaret Atwood. (For the curious, if you’re ever in this neck of the woods in (mostly) February, do check out this arts festival.)
The bandwagon of people who believe that those of diminutive physical stature tend to compensate with outsized personalities and ambitions is [...]

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Heartiest congratulations to RAMH regular visitor and blog-friend Froog, who has performed the hat trick and then some in garnering — all at once — five best-of-the-year awards for his online presences:

Most Prolific Blogger,
Most Alcoholic Blog,
Most Uncomfortably Personal Blog,
China-Basher of the Year, and (the one I really envy him for)
Most Diverse Blog

It’s about time someone [...]

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[This is Part 2 of a two-part series about the song "Cry Me a River," made popular, originally, in a recording released in 1955. Part 1, about the song's history, appeared a few days ago. As I indicated there, if you hope to learn anything from this about the Justin Timberlake song of the same [...]

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[Another in a series of occasional posts about popular American songs with long histories. And if you are seeking information on the Justin Timberlake song by the same name, believe me, you are 100% in the wrong place.]
On paper, it doesn’t appear to be a “big” song. Nearly always, the arrangement features a single vocalist [...]

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Bobby McFerrin is brilliant. (And so are his audiences. It’s just that he’s the one onstage.)
[Hat tip to Janet Reid.]

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From whiskey river (first stanza):
Childhood Is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies
Childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age
The child is grown, and puts away childish things.
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.
Nobody that matters, that is. Distant relatives of course
Die, whom one never has seen or has seen for [...]

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From whiskey river:
The states of mind or feelings that art can excite have been helpfully distinguished in Sanskrit aesthetics, where they are called rasas, from a word meaning “juice” or “essence”. A fully achieved work of art should flow with all nine of them: their names might be transposed into English as wonder, joy, sexual [...]

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[Image above, "Where the Wild Things Are," a tribute to Maurice Sendak
by elmicro of the deviantArt site. Click the image to see the original.]
Today marks Maurice Sendak’s 81st birthday.
This year also marks the 45th anniversary of the publication of Where the Wild Things Are.  From 100 Best Books for Children:
After creating art for almost fifty [...]

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[Above image, "Magic Eye" by Jennifer Love, first appeared on TrekEarth.]
From whiskey river (italicized portion):
Beside the grand history of the glaciers and their own, the mountain streams sing the history of every avalanche or earthquake and of snow, all easily recognized by the human ear, and every word evoked by the falling leaf and drinking [...]

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