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 1-2019

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

                                 

What happened to the list?

As the CCJ transitions to a model better geared to leverage social networks, we are moving away from our past use of email notification services. If you would like to be added to our internal email distribution, please send your request to Rick@RARWRITER.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, which we will use to keep you notified of new features and news articles.

 

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.

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RARADIO

Use the RARADIO link to go to our radio page, where you will hear songs you are not likely to hear elsewhere.

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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 called ATWOOD. 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 Deliverance is 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 at NOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 
 

 

MUSIC  

"Windowpane"

The Cabin Fever

We have tossed earlier light on L.A. dream rockers The Cabin Fever. In this video, and with this song, the shoegazers seem to be channeling the Zodiac killer, who is as iconic to the world of psycho killers in California as the Sierra Sasquatch has been to the Gold Country. Neither has ever been captured. This band seems like it has an idea about what it wants to be - sonic explorers of themes ranging from murderous inner voices to spiritual emptiness - and they have nicely matched their sound to their inquiries. They have a dark cool factor. - RAR

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"Weeds Like Us"

Janiva Magness

One suspects that no impression is more immediate when it comes to invoking a response as that first tone to emerge from a singer's throat. The response will be personal and subjective, but you will know immediately if you want to keep listening. Janiva Magness pulls me in right away. She has been around for decades, starting in Minnesota, working her way out to L.A. in the '80s. She has a compelling back story, filled with tragedy and trauma, and she has experienced some real triumphs. Only Koko Taylor and her have been female recipients of the prestigious B.B. King Entertainer of the Year Award, which is handed out by the Blues Foundation. It is all detailed in a book, Weeds Like Us, and expressed through an album she has out of John Fogerty covers. - RAR

"What if I?"

Young Mister

Clean production, sweet vocals, actual melody lines, accessible lyrics - what's not to like? North Carolinian Steven Fiore has been writing for Universal Music Publishing Group for nearly a decade, collaborating on songs with Art Garfunkel and Ryan Cabrera, and sharing stages internationally with Albert Lee, Jeff Goldblum, Pete Yorn, and Lori McKenna. Fiore has done well streaming tunes on Spotify and Apple Music and he is now out with a new recording, Sudden Swoon. He recorded tracks in his home studio and then shared twenty to get input on which ones people thought were big-studio worthy. His camp describes the songs as furthering his reputation for "literate, emotional pop songs". - RAR

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Pedal Steel

Maurice Tani & Crying Time

Bobby Black on pedal steel. Say no more. Bobby Black is one of the world's great pedal steel players, the top of a small group of people who have given themselves to one of the world's more complicated instruments. Now in his 80s, Black once backed an up-and-coming George Jones, before Jones became as Country music legend. Black had a whole career in Country before the '60s arrived and the Bay Area began spawning eclectic hybrid Country-Jazz bands and Black was introduced to a new generation of fans as a member of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Asleep at the Wheel. He is presently playing with Crying Time, a Bay Area Country-Western outfit that does a wide variety of classic Country, including a tribute to George Jones. These are some of the finest veteran players in the Bay Area and way worth catching if you are a hardcore fan of such frolic.

"Hippie Love"

Rob Laufer

Rob Laufer is an L.A. musician who made the public radar in 1999, when he landed the role of George Harrison in Beatlemania. He turned that good fortune into an impressive performing, songwriting, and recording career. His recording credits include playing guitar on Fiona Apple's Grammy-winning single “Criminal”, as well as work with the Pixies’ Frank Black, and Welsh songstress Katell Keineg, among others. He has sold a raft of material for use on TV shows (Scrubs, Felicity, Melrose Place), movies (In the Land of Blood and Honey, Ramona and Beezus, and Baby Mama), and ads (the award-winning HP “Frames” commercial and a series of Sears ads with Johnny Cash, Shawn Colvin, and B.B. King performing his songs). Laufer appeared as a member of the Wrecking Crew in the Brian Wilson biopic Love and Mercy. Laufer is also musical director of the fabled Wild Honey Orchestra, which performs an ongoing series of all-star benefit concerts for the Autism Think Tank in Los Angeles. This video is from his recently released The Floating World LP, in which Laufer chronicles growing up in the Decade of Love. He was inspired to do this album by the death of Tom Petty, who he sounds a lot like on this recording.

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  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 © September, 2019 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)