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Showing posts with the label Sparse

Remembrance of T-Shirts Past

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There is nothing quite like digging in old closets, through shirts and sweaters like past shrift. A confession of sorts is in the hem and stitch of each garment. Myriad stains on white shirts mingle with frayed collars and dust bunnies. The shelves look forlorn in half-light. Those old clothes look alone even in abundance, each telling a different story about the minuscule and the larger. Moments are defined by those old shirts. So are basic daily decisions. Some are transitory and momentary. They are gone in months. They may fit wrong or remind us of a lost love. Perhaps they fall apart in multiple washes or bleach out in the sun. Some hang much longer, years even, before they are folded and put in drawers or donated to become part of other lives. They mean something more to us. Something as simple as comfort, as undefined as fashion, as amiable as a cool slogan or pattern. These things matter to us as we scan the tired folds. A new shirt is too clean, too loose, too inanimate. Not ...

Bathroom Elegy

Staring at the unrelenting forgiveness of the shower wall, I stumble into the regrets of the past. Each year ticks off the clock and goals fall underneath the wheels of graduate school and time, slowly slipping towards a reaper with few words and little sympathy. The wall is clean, yet the grout is stained. Dark dirt sleeps in the crack of the shower nozzle. It might hold redemption or just another ray of chlorinated water slipping down the drains of the world. The water circles backwards and forwards, unceasing. Its blues and greens match the eyes of the world's watchers. Here I am, I think. Another day or week older, another step closer to some goal, another shadow of my former self. The mirror reflects a cracked visage, one a little rounder, a little more grizzled, perhaps, a little wiser. So much time is spent in the bathroom examining and reexamining, warbling long forgotten pop songs. Thinking, thinking, thinking, and more regret. It is here that honesty exists within each ...

Grant Lee Phillips' Walking in the Green Corn

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Grant Lee Phillips' Walking in the Green Corn is a contemplative affair, much like 2009's understated Little Moon . Unassuming yet self-aware, Phillips' songs pack a quiet power.  Always a first-rate vocalist and lyricist, he digs deeper here paying homage to his Native American heritage in ways he hasn't since Virginia Creeper. Phillips blends his subtle lyrics with quiet guitars and tons of intimacy. He expertly sets the stage for his story songs, taking his time in order to get the details just right. On "Vanishing Song" his lyrics are sparse, yet they tell an expansive tale of times long gone. "Great Horned Owl" is more upbeat, recalling Grant Lee Buffalo more than Phillips' solo work but still creating a vibe of late nights and long ago moments. Walking in the Green Corn perfectly captures the intimacy one feels with old friends as new discoveries become more important because they are made together. Phillips' narrative world is f...