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Why Taking Turns Creates a Strong Society

Taking turns is one of the most important — yet underused and underappreciated — totems of social living.  I’m not talking about, “It’s My Turn!” as in the clarion call of a self-centered existence when it comes to job promotion or marriage tying; I’m talking about public moments in society when we are confronted against each other and there’s a moment of wondering if I should go or if you should go — and it seems we have an ever-deepening problem with being strong enough, and confident enough, to let the other person go first and subsume our own personal entitlements for the goodness of making things actually work between people with warring wants.

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2012 in Review

The year 2012 went by rather quickly for me — one day at a time, as it were. It was a year of many moments spent with my wife and son and remarkably not too many spent attending concerts and movies as in years prior to Chaim being born — but we are quite okay with it and know that it too shall pass and we will eventually have a sitter over more than once every half a year or so.

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The Traveler Review

I have long been a fan of Trey Anastasio, lead singer of Phish and extraordinary guitarist who seems to have tried his hand at more styles of music than the average musician. I was first interested in Trey Anastasio as a musician outside of Phish when he released a self-titled album in 2002.

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How to be Rude at a Bowery Ballroom Concert

On Monday evening, I attended a concert at the Bowery Ballroom — it was The Mountain Goats with opening band Matthew E. White. There were a number of occasions when I could not help but notice people being not just a little impolite but outright rude and I think that it is high time that you, if you are unaware, learn exactly how, you too, can join the ranks of people being rude at concerts.

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The Idler Wheel Review

Like so many, I have followed Fiona Apple from the moment she released Tidal and have enjoyed just about every note, and have been wondering along with David W. Boles when she would release a new album and I am pleased that the time has finally come in the form of an album whose title starts with The Idler Wheel and continues for a good number of words but is still a bit shorter than one of Apple’s previous albums, When The Pawn…

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The Ringo 2012 Review

I have not always been a fan of Ringo Starr. Of all the Beatles, I liked him the least — for me it was always John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and then finally Ringo. Yet between the two Beatles that are with us now (those being Paul and Ringo), I actually prefer Ringo a bit even though Paul does so much to promote vegetarianism. When I listen to McCartney’s newer music I don’t quite feel the same enthusiasm as I did with his earlier work, both with The Beatles and with The Wings. I was therefore intrigued when I saw that Ringo was coming out with a new album, and that its title was a tribute to one of his best selling solo albums — Ringo. I am happy to report that it is a strong album, albeit short — I will get to that.

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The Blues Album that Roared: Warren Haynes Band Live at the Moody Theatre

I am crazy wild about Warren Haynes.  He’s a SuperGenius guitarist and composer and performer and he’s one of the greatest guys in the world.  How do I know the character of the man?  I follow his career.  I watch his interviews.  You can’t hide from his goodness.  Mean people try to mask who they really are and they are never successful.  Good people are open and welcoming and unpretentious.  Warren Haynes is one of the good guys.  Warren has a new Blues album that dropped this week — Warren Haynes Band Live at the Moody Theatre — and it is a rip-your-throat-out Blues album that is packed with a ferocious, and pleasing, energy.

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The Jack White Blunderbuss Review

Jack White’s first solo album, Blunderbuss, dropped today — and thanks to iTunes streaming the album for free the past week — I’ve been able to immerse myself in the music from start to finish many times a day.  The album is a fascination.  It’s ’70s Rock?  Alternative Pop?  Blues?  Ragtime?  Yes, Blunderbuss is all that and more.

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The Death of Levon Helm is the Beginning of the End of the Dylan Era

Levon Helm died yesterday in New York City of throat cancer. He was 71. Levon was a tremendous talent and an outstanding drummer. Few people understand the engine that drives any sort of live performance music is the rhythm — and in modern music, that means a live drummer. Without a proper human metronome keeping the entire band on track and in sync, the entire song falls apart. If you have a terrible drummer, the job of keeping the energy of the music moving forward falls to the bass player. If both drummer and bass player are inept, you do not have a band. Levon Helm was, The Band:

Helm, the drummer and singer who brought an urgent beat and a genuine Arkansas twang to some of The Band’s best-known songs and helped turn a bunch of musicians known mostly as Bob Dylan’s backup group into one of rock’s most legendary acts, has died. He was 71.

Helm, who was found to have throat cancer in 1998, died Thursday afternoon of complications from cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, said Lucy Sabini of Vanguard Records. On Tuesday, a message on his website said he was in the final stages of cancer.

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Spotify Apparently Does Not Need Your Money

When one thinks about the history of music distribution and consumption over the years it is a fascinating one. For the majority of the history of music the only way that one could hear music was to either have access to some kind of musical instrument (even if that instrument was the voice) or to be physically present for the playing of music. Recorded music came in the form of sheet music that was sold in stores and eventually wax cylinders that contained the beautiful music fans so longed to hear in the privacy of their own home. Skip ahead to the different formats of music and how many times The Beatles discography has been made available (quite a few) and we land on the present moment, where warehouses full of music can sit nicely on a few terabytes of hard drive space.

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