Individual desire can be deadly. Longing can lash all of our roots. Today, let my writing be a subtle question. A musician might tell you of the following ambitions: they want to be the best in their genre, play X or Y music festival and be released on Z label, or be on A playlist. […]
Choking on your own vomit isn’t a way that anyone wants to die. Rumor has it that this was the fate of Jim Morrison of the Doors one night in Paris back in 1970. Nor is dying from acute liver failure in a New York hospital as Billie Holiday did in 1940 considered desirable, or […]
In 2006, Renee Yohe swiped a razor blade from a friend’s kitchen table, entered the bathroom, and carved “FUCK UP” in the flesh of her arm. She was high on cocaine and the listless love of cheap liquor, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She was a 19-year-old addict with physical and emotional […]
Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Eagles, Radiohead and more have donated items to a charity auction through eBay. Eagles fans can bid on an acoustic guitar from 1999’s The Millennium Concert at Los Angeles’ Staples Center, signed by the whole band; Radiohead fans can get their hands on an In Rainbows vinyl/CD box set, signed by […]
Mustafa Sheikh can still remember the damp smell of his middle-school classroom on rainy days. It wasn’t the typical scent of wet weather – that kind of earthy, metallic odor one would expect. Instead, it was the smell of soggy t-shirts and moist pants, sweat and skin. The classroom air was humid and hard to […]
Bloom is a weekly column exploring mental health through the eyes of recording artist and mental health advocate, Alex Wagner. To me, well-being is like a garden. The seed was planted when I was young, seeing my mother outside gardening for hours on end. When I’d come outside onto the backdoor steps, she’d turn to […]
Enjoy where you are right now. That’s the aphorism rendered on a tall wall at the 27 Club, located in Cleveland’s Flats district. And while the more cynical folks descending upon the city for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies might snort and roll their eyes at the sentiment, it fits the vibe […]