Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs (1999) contains two of Stephin Merritt’s most beloved numbers, “The Book of Love” and “Papa Was a Rodeo.” Both have become standards a quarter century after their release, though they represent but a tiny fraction of equally brilliant earworms that appear in that industrial-sized collection of music. When Merritt started […]
Music history
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Behind the ultimate rock-umentary — and its 20th anniversary re-release, ‘Dig! XX’ — is a sister-brother duo with an eye for mad genius
Multi-award-winning filmmaker Ondi Timoner has amassed a wide-ranging body of work about people she calls “impossible visionaries.” Her documentary subjects tend to stray from social convention and take the path less traveled, which can sometimes put hers in impossible situations. I imagine that nothing was more difficult than making Last Flight Home, a 2022 film […]
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Peak Iowa: Arthur Russell, Oskaloosa’s lost genius
Tape hung like curtains in Arthur Russell’s apartment. The recording devices responsible were powered by an extension cord that ran out the window and down a few floors to Allen Ginsberg’s. Russell left behind 166 feet of tape when he died, only 40 years old, of AIDS-related illness in 1992. And if you’ll let me […]
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Growing up in Normal, USA with Pharrell Williams
After entering my 25th year in Iowa City — longer than anywhere I’ve ever resided, including my hometown — I’ve been thinking about how places can shape our lives. Those thoughts came into sharper focus while watching a compelling new documentary about musician Pharrell Williams, who grew up down the street from me. “I’m from […]
