Music

When writing, I find it helpful to play music that relates to the Work In Progress. Searching for songs has opened up a world of relatively unknown artists, usually through a connection from another relatively unknown artist. Lately I've been playing a lot of Pierce Turner and Christy Moore, the latter having led to the former. Moore's newest album, Burning Times, covers some songs by a Chicago duo who I had not listened to before, even though they recorded a live CD at Schuba's. The Handsome Family has created some interesting songs that suggest stories, and a novelist with a keen ear is always looking for something to spark a writing binge.

">Handsome Family

I don't know how I actually learned of Christy Moore, but his covers of Pierce Turner sent me to the internet and I ended up buying some of Turner's CD's. Everyone has a web page these days, and the more obscure talent usually sells their music directly from the web site, making it easy to acquire songs that are only available in shops overseas.

The internet has also opened up the news from abroad, giving us isolated Americans an opportunity to read what Europeans think of us and our foreign policy. If one reads the New York Times regularly, it is obvious that foreign journalist rely heavily on that particular source, even though the average American never looks at the Times. Is it any wonder that what we think is not what our neighbors think we think? I am not surprised that they do not understand why Bush was elected again, not if they presume that most Americans share the views that are presented in the New York Times.

Back in the Sixties, music had more influence than journalism to rally the masses, providing the backdrop to the anti-war movement. Bob Dylan is hawking women's underwear and selling cars. The youth of the Viet Nam has grown up and they don't take protest songs seriously any more. The times they have a'changed.