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How to Hug a Cactus Tree
Paul Allen Anderson reviews Ann Powers’s “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell.”
Music
"I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds." — Dizzy Gillespie
The Glory and Freedom of Our Ukraine Has Not Yet Perished
Nick Owchar reviews Reuben Woolley’s new translation of Andrey Kurkov’s “Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv.”
Eurovision in Wartime
Lina Abascal reports from the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden.
Reviving “Ophelia”: On Returning to the Music of Natalie Merchant
Jenny Boyar writes about her midlife rediscovery of singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant.
Echo, Echo: Death, Rebirth, and New Age Music
In an excerpt from LARB Quarterly no. 41, “Truth,” Peter Holslin reflects on synthesizer drones, inoffensive ambience, and his father’s affinity for New Age soundscapes.
Respect Is Just a Minimum: On HBO Max’s “Rap Sh!t”
Alyx Vesey bemoans the cancellation of HBO Max’s series about a female hip-hop duo, “Rap Sh!t.”
Actual Real Life: On Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile”
Jayson Buford revisits Curtis Hanson and Eminem’s “8 Mile.”
Ocean of Sound
Theo Spielberg appreciates Fatima Al Qadiri’s haunting score for the 2019 Senegalese film “Atlantics.”
One-Man Band: A Conversation with Ben Greenman
Jaelani Turner-Williams interviews Ben Greenman, co-author of Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”
The Journey of a Musical Émigré: On Inna Faliks’s “Weight in the Fingertips”
Herb Randall reviews Inna Faliks’s “Weight in the Fingertips: A Musical Odyssey from Soviet Ukraine to the World Stage.”
Fading Memories: On Sly Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”
Matthew Ritchie reviews Sly Stone’s “Thank Ya (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin).”
That Mystic Shit: On Lou Reed’s “The Art of the Straight Line” and Will Hermes’s “The King of New York”
Michael Scott Moore writes on the life, death, and possible religion of Lou Reed, via Lou Reed’s “The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi” and Will Hermes’s “Lou Reed: The King of New York.”
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