Mike Janssen

Not the kissin’ kind, either. Here’s an extended quotation from Dave Hickey’s essay “The Delicacy of Rock-and-Roll,” as published in Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, which I recently finished reading and really dug.

Jazz presumes that it would be nice if the four of us–simpatico dudes that we are–while playing this complicated song together, might somehow be free and autonomous as well. Tragically, this never quite works out. At best, we can only be free one or two at a time–while the other dudes hold onto the wire. Which is not to say that no one has tried … Continue Reading

The bugs seem loud tonight, louder lately, when I sit and work/play at day and night here in my room. As I walked home tonight up the dark street, the occasional cockroach scuttling across the sidewalk, I heard odd little chirps emerge overhead from a tree, and wondered what was making them. I remember once walking up the same street at night and looking up to see a flying squirrel on a tree branch — the only one I’ve ever seen. Funny-looking little bastards, especially when looking right at you with those big dark eyes. It’s official, or as official as … Continue Reading

Good morning. I’m listening to Iron and Wine at the moment, drinking green tea and, it appears, writing my first blog post in a while (for this blog anyway — I post a lot at Scanning the Dial). Bernard is doing his best to get situated in my lap. He is doing much better since I took him in to get a steroid shot a few weeks ago — it seems to have cleared up the condition he had that was causing him to scratch himself frantically and rip himself up. Yay for a happier Bernard.

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p>I wanted to write … Continue Reading