RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

       

Imagine Dragons

 

By RAR

"Dan Reynolds cites Arcade Fire, Nirvana, Muse, The Beatles, Paul Simon, and Harry Nilsson as some of his and the band's artistic influences. In terms of success, Reynolds credits bands like Foster the People and Mumford & Sons for bringing alternative pop music to a new level of commercial success in recent years."

That bit of insight in the above paragraph comes from the band's Wikipedia page, and it presents a weird sense of who Imagine Dragons must feel they are. Do they think of  Foster the People and Mumford & Sons as alternative pop? Neither of those acts are very alternative at all, and neither is really of the caliber of the artistic influences they cite. Well, maybe Nirvana.

Imagine Dragons is a strange, almost non-musical act. Listen to arguably their best songs in the videos below. There is almost no music there at all, unless you consider the cavernous, if not very ambitious, drum sounds.

What Imagine Dragons does have going for them is some effective visual wordplay. Their tune "Demons" seems particularly strong, in this regard. "Radioactive" includes some clever tropes, though the song itself doesn't really seem to make any sense. It doesn't matter in the alternative pop world that Imagine Dragons has come to inhabit, because for them it is all about the exploding chorus. It is the part of the formula that the Imagine Dragons guys have used to create their radio-friendly sound. It is perfect for an "alternative" radio market that isn't really very alternative at all. It sounds modern, like now, and so one must offer a tip of the hat to Reynolds, the sound designer, for capturing the moment.

That said, one suspects that Imagine Dragons will have a short shelf-life and that their sound will soon enough seem as much an historical artifact from a shifting cultural landscape as everything else that has happened since...hmmm, The Beatles, Paul Simon, and Harry Nilsson. Arcade Fire is already an idea that just somehow happens to still be around without having any real current pop-culture significance. Nirvana clings to the walls of pop culture and "alternative" rock radio like a mold or bacteria. Muse will likely never be considered an equal to the pop songwriters of The Beatles, Simon, and Nilsson, but at least Reynolds and crew have recognized authentic musical prowess in them. Maybe they could borrow some compositional insights from Bellamy and company to eventually grow the sound of Imagine Dragons into something greater than the dull boom of their lead-heavy repeats.

On the other hand, they did that stupid "I Bet My Life" song, so perhaps there is no actual, long-term hope for them once the festival tours turn to a new roster of exploding talent.

Imagine Dragons got their big break when Pat Monahan of Train became ill and couldn't make a planned performance at a festival in the Dragons hometown of Las Vegas. Imagine Dragons took the call on short notice, played to 26,000 people, and became kind of an over-night sensation.

Songwriter Dan Reynolds recently discussed the band's interest in doing some songs that somehow celebrate Las Vegas culture, if you can use a word like that to describe Las Vegas. "Viva Las Vegas" was referenced as an example of what could be done. It seems like a weird ambition for guys from the campus of Brigham Young University. Maybe its the radioactivity, or the demons in their souls?

Selling Out to Target?

Imagine Dragons may have lived down to the lowest expectations of their critics by participating in a Target advertisement timed to this year's Grammy Awards show. They performed their tune "Shots".

Here is how Billboard Magazine reported the response:

Put off by the overt, well, commercialism of the clip (which cost about $8 million in airtime), critics sniped at the group online. But Imagine Dragons -- which memorably mashed up "Radioactive," its breakthrough mega-hit and 2014's best rock performance Grammy winner, with Kendrick Lamar's "M.a.a.d. City" on the 2014 telecast -- saw "Shots" leap from No. 99 to No. 26 on iTunes the next day. Interscope Geffen A&M vice chairman Steve Berman says, "We saw a big spike in preorders and awareness" for the group's new album, Smoke + Mirrors (out Feb. 17).

"We're an atypical band," says lead singer/
songwriter and founder Dan Reynolds, 27, a week before the Grammys. "We're not tatted-up, trying to make a statement. The spirit of rock'n'roll is not that you're living on the edge, that you're a cokehead -- those are just lifestyle choices."

Its label's savvy strategy (Interscope persuaded -- yes -- Target to carry the unproven band's debut album) and some lucky timing ("EDM was starting to be big, and 'Radioactive' was an alternative song with dubstep," says Reynolds) helped fueled an explosive start for the band. But now Imagine Dragons must strike a balance between rock and pop while attempting to match an unexpected smash of a first album. The Grammys-ad gambit could have triggered backlash (think: U2's ill-fated freebie iTunes release). The response to, and sales of, Smoke + Mirrors will prove whether the band can truly help rock forge a new path.

And then there is that Mormon Thing

(More excerpts from the Billboard piece).

After high school, Reynolds, who was raised Mormon, went on a two-year mission in Nebraska, proselytizing for the church and helping drug addicts. He attended Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, only to drop out and form Imagine Dragons. "It was an extremely hard decision for me to make -- I come from a family where academia is priority one," says Reynolds. After the lineup solidified, the band relocated to Las Vegas. The other three members all attended the Berklee School of Music; until he quit, McKee paid his tuition with financial assistance from a California state scholarship for talented chemistry students.

Reynolds acknowledges that the last couple of years have brought many wonderful things. But he has been "depressed as hell" for a while, and sees a therapist. "It's lonely when your life changes like this," he says. "I've lost all my friends. It's not like we had some blowout arguments or that I feel I'm too cool -- the relationships feel false. Anytime I'm talking to someone, I feel they're just thinking about Imagine Dragons." He sighs. "Probably a lot of them aren't treating me differently. I just can't get over it."

Although he was raised Mormon, Reynolds doesn't subscribe to all the church's tenets. "I don't necessarily agree with a lot of the culture that comes with it, but I still identify as Mormon," he says. "I like to think of myself more as a spiritual person." Reynolds has harbored these doubts since childhood; he used to write songs about them to play for his conservative parents, letting them know indirectly about his internal struggles. He comes from a large family, with seven brothers and one sister. "He suffered from some of the woes of being the seventh son," says Mac, who now manages Imagine Dragons. (Another brother, Robert, is the band's lawyer.) "That brought some insecurities -- it was difficult having older brothers who were valedictorians in high school."

The religious mission proved to be the most difficult work Reynolds would ever do. "I lived in the projects and would help mothers who were abused to get out of the situation or clean their houses before child services would come to take away their kids," he recalls. "It's super-heavy stuff for a 19-year-old." While he was never comfortable knocking on strangers' doors, being onstage has always felt natural to him. "A lot of time during the day I'll feel nervous, or have anxiety about talking to people," he says. "On-stage, I just don't."

 

 

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©Rick Alan Rice (RAR), November, 2018

 

 

 
   

 

 

  ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

Copyright © November, 2018 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)