Music

30 Day Song Challenge, Day 1: Your Favorite Song

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson #30DaySongChallenge 2011, 30 Day Song Challenge, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment

For the month of June, I’m participating in a meme called the 30 Day Song Challenge. I’ll be posting my songs each day to my Facebook profile and Twitter feed, but I thought I’d also post them here on the blog where I have a little more room to explain the why’s and wherefore’s of…

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Segue

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Memphis, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment

It’s been a minute since I updated this blog. There are lots of reasons for that– I was tied up with the American Values Project (and its New York Values iteration) for a while, then the Memphis Grizzlies were in the NBA playoffs, then end-of-the-semester grading was upon me, then graduation and curriculum seminars, etc–…

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2010 Year In Music

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 2010 Year in Review Lists, Dr. J's Lists, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive, Year in Review Lists 4 Comments

Let me just be clear at the outset: the following list is not meant to represent the best of 2010’s music in any kind of remotely “objective” sense. This is my list. It represents my year in music. My musical tastes tend toward the rootsy, the groovy and the nostalgic. I prefer simple, but well-constructed,…

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One World (Stand By Me)

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 1 Comment

This is one of the greatest things I’ve seen on the old interwebs in a long, long time. It’s a collaborative recording of “Stand By Me,” the familiar Ben E. King standard, with musicians and vocalists from all over the globe contributing. Here it is, for those of you who may still doubt that some…

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The Uncanny Valley 6: Unreal and Unreal-er, or, Why a “Fake” Fake Isn’t Uncanny

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, Philosophy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Uncanny Valley 2 Comments

I made a brief mention in my last uncanny valley post about the difference between “real” music, by which I mean music played on actual (i.e. “real,” material or physical) musical instruments by musicians (i.e. human beings with some skill on those instruments, availing themselves of said instruments without superadded technological assistance) on the one…

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Deconstructing Sasha Fierce

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Women and Gender Issues 10 Comments

I’m guessing that many of us have those fleeting fantasies from time to time in which we conjure up what we imagine would be the AWESOMEST. COURSE. EVER. For example, my fantasy courses: “I’m Not Here To Make Friends: Ethics and Reality TV” (sort of a cross between ethical theory, applied ethics, and existentialism), or…

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More Good Listenin’

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Dr. J's Lists, Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 2 Comments

One advantage of sabbatical life (a.k.a. the solitary writing life) is that you get all the music-listenin’ time you could ever want or stand. Assuming you’re one of those people who can work while you listen to music, which I am, you may find yourself compelled to supplement the ol’ iTunes Music Library from time…

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Kermit and Me

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, RMWMTMBM Archive 3 Comments

I just returned from a long weekend in New Orleans, the second-greatest city in the U.S. South. One of my chief aims while in NOLA was to see Kermit Ruffins, an absolutely amazing trumpet player, co-founder of the legendary Rebirth Brass Band and, more recently, a regular star on the HBO series “Treme.” Before I…

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Let Them Play!

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Music, Politics, RMWMTMBM Archive 2 Comments

As I’m still not quite over my post-New-Orleans euphoric haze, I wanted to post one more thing about that city and its blessed horns before returning to more serious material on this blog. This time, however, the news is not good… One of the most fantastic and unique things about New Orleans is its street…

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Thanks x 50K

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson BlogCounts, Music, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, RMWMTMBM Archive 0 Comments

We’ve reached another milestone here at Dr J’s blog: 50,000 hits! We passed 10,000 hits back in our second year, and so it’s exciting to reach the 50K mark at just under four years! Here’s a big THANK YOU to all the readers who keep coming back to this small little speck in the blogosphere….

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