Holtje profile picture

Holtje

Eventually I'll think of something clever to put here....

About Me

All my Friends are people I've interacted with offline. Call me old school....
In February/March 2006, I composed and recorded a soundtrack for Bystander, John Reilly's documentary film examining war crimes, why people let them happen, and the remarkable exceptions. It's a project that deserves to be picked up by a distributor.
I split my work time between developmental editing (mostly books on cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and sociology), working at a record store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (www.soundfixrecords.com), and writing about music. No prizes for guessing which pays best and which pays worst.
You can read my criticism online at Culturecatch.com , where I'm an editor, and at Bigtakeover.com , where I post weekly.
The newest books I've edited: Mind from Body: Experience from Neural Structure , Don M. Tucker; How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? , John R. Anderson; Beyond Rationality: The Search for Wisdom in a Troubled Time , Kenneth R. Hammond
Others: Montessori: The Science behind the Genius , Angeline Stoll Lillard; Coping with Aging , by Richard S. Lazarus and Bernice N. Lazarus; When Treatment Fails: How Medicine Cares for Dying Children , David Bearison; Reparations: Pro and Con , Alfred L. Brophy; the historical section of Broca's Region , Yosef Grodzinsky and Katrin Amunts; MusicHound Jazz: The Essential Album Guide , various; The Ballplayers , Mike Shatzkin & Jim Charlton.
Coming later this year: Neurorationality: A Neuroeconomic Approach to Mental Health and Good Sense by Peter Politser
I wrote The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Baseball Quizzes as a work-for-hire project for The Idea Logical Company.

My Interests

People (and bands) I've interviewed: Wayne Shorter, Yo-Yo Ma, Dizzy Gillespie, Wire, Peter Gabriel, Yusef Lateef, Taj Mahal, McCoy Tyner, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau , Dawn Upshaw, Morton Subotnick, Philip Glass, Vernon Reid, Bad Religion, George Clinton , Lorin Maazel, Joe Henderson, Robert Fripp, David Sylvian, WAR, Margaret Cho, Henry Threadgill, Charlie Musselwhite , Maurizio Pollini, Michael Franti, Anton Fier (Golden Palominos), Andy Partridge (XTC), Dave Douglas, William Parker, Michael Tilson Thomas, David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Charles Gayle, Henry Rollins, George Carlin , Stan Freberg, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Paavo Jarvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Aaron Rosand, Billy Harper, George Martin, Juliana Hatfield, Oneida, Steven Bernstein, Ani DiFranco, Gary Lucas, Elliott Sharp, Peter Phillips, Anonymous 4, Denyce Graves, Robert Lockwood Jr., Shemekia Copeland, Maggie Estep, Cranes, Kristin Hersh, Joan Osborne, Billy Bang, Susie Ibarra, Nicolai Kachanov, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Joachim Berendt, Richie Beirach, Yosuke Yamashita, Shonen Knife, Pizzicato Five, Matthew Sweet, Buffalo Tom, Satan & Adam, Sonny Landreth, Hilary Hahn (scroll down) , Maya Beiser, John Lee (aMiniature), Bob Belden, Eliahu Inbal, Harry Van Walls, Evan Dando (Lemonheads), Caspar Brotzmann, Michael McGlynn (Anuna), Frederic Chiu, Eroica Quartet, Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode/Recoil), Come/Thalia Zedek, James "Blood" Ulmer, John Eliot Gardiner, Band of Susans, Steve Dalachinsky, Arto Lindsay (DNA/Lounge Lizards), Eiji Oue, Stephen Lynch , Eroica Trio, Robyn Hitchcock, Mekons, Otis Rush

I'd like to meet:

Christy Canyon. Oh, wait, I'm married now, never mind.
George W. Bush, so I can tell him what an ass he is.
Chris Anderson, the best jazz pianist who even 99% of jazz fans haven't heard of.

Music:

Muhal Richard Abrams, George Adams, Pepper Adams, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Air, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Pheeroan akLaff, Aaron Alexander, Rashied Ali, Geri Allen, Henry "Red" Allen, Ben Allison, Barry Altschul, Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons, Curtis Amy, Cat Anderson, Chris Anderson, Ray Anderson, Peter Apfelbaum, Apostolic Polyphony, Arcana, Louis Armstrong, Bruce Arnold, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Albert Ayler, Babkas, Derek Bailey, Chet Baker, Billy Bang, Steve Bargonetti, Charlie Barnet, Kenny Barron, Gary Bartz, Count Basie, Django Bates, Mario Bauza, Sidney Bechet, Bix Beiderbecke, Richie Beirach, Borah Bergman, Jerry Bergonzi, Bunny Berigan, Tim Berne, Steve Bernstein, Chu Berry, Barney Bigard, Bigfood, Ketil Bjørnstad, Ed Blackwell, Michael Blake, Ran Blake, Art Blakey, Carla Bley, Paul Bley, Hamiet Bluiett, Dupree Bolton, Lester Bowie, Ruby Braff, Anthony Braxton, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Cecil Bridgewater, Gordon Brisker, Brooklyn Sax Quartet, Tina Brooks, Peter Brötzmann, Clifford Brown, Lawrence Brown, Marion Brown, Ray Brown, Rob Brown, Dave Brubeck, Ray Bryant, Dave Burrell, Kenny Burrell, Gary Burton, Henry Butler, Jaki Byard, Don Byas, Donald Byrd, Don Byron, Uri Caine, Joey Calderazzo, Roy Campbell, Valerie Capers, Baikida Carroll, Bill Carrothers, Benny Carter, Daniel Carter, James Carter, John Carter, Ron Carter, Catalyst, Philip Catherine, Caveman Hugescore, Serge Chaloff, Joe Chambers, Paul Chambers, Vincent Chancey, Thomas Chapin, Denis Charles, Teddy Charles, Doc Cheatham, Mikhail Chekalin, Vladimir Chekasin, Don Cherry, Cyrus Chestnut, Charlie Christian, Jodie Christian, Pete Christlieb, Circle, Sonny Clark, Kenny Clarke, James Clay, Buck Clayton, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Clusone 3, Arnett Cobb, Jimmy Cobb, Codona, Al Cohn, Steve Cohn, George Coleman, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, Johnny Coles, Collective 4tet, Buddy Collette, Colson Unity Troupe, Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane, Eddie Condon, Conference Call, Junior Cook, Bob Cooper, Marc Copland, Tom Cora, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, Sylvie Courvoisier, Stanley Cowell, Anthony Cox, Hank Crawford, Marilyn Crispell, Sonny Criss, Curlew, Ted Curson, King Curtis, Andrew Cyrille, Tadd Dameron, Franco D'Andrea, Carlo Actis Dato, Lowell Davidson, Anthony Davis, Art Davis, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Miles Davis, Richard Davis, Walter Davis, Jr., Wild Bill Davis, Wild Bill Davison, Deadline, Santi Debriano, Barrett Deems, Joey DeFrancesco, "Papa" John DeFrancesco, Buddy DeFranco, Jack deJohnette, Paul Desmond, Walt Dickerson, Whit Dickey, Joe Diorio, Mark Diorio, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Bruce Ditmas, Bill Dixon, Doctor Nerve, Eric Dolphy, Miles Donahue, Lou Donaldson, Christy Doran, Kenny Dorham, Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey, Dave Douglas, Ray Draper, Mark Dresser, Kenny Drew Sr., Kenny Drew, Jr. , Paquito D'Rivera, Ray Drummond, Marc Ducret, Paul Dunmall, Cornell Dupree, Dominic Duval, Charles Earland, Marc Edwards, Teddy Edwards, Mark Egan, Marty Ehrlich, Eight Bold Souls, Bruce Eisenbeil, Either/Orchestra, Roy Eldridge, Mark Elf , Eliane Elias, Duke Ellington, Don Ellis, Herb Ellis, Pee Wee Ellis, Kahil El' Zabar, Buddy Emmons, Ensemble Modern, Peter Erskine, Ellery Eskelin, Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, Kevin Eubanks, Robin Eubanks, Bill Evans (pianist), Gil Evans, Everyman Band, David Eyges, Tal Farlow, Art Farmer, Joe Farrell, Claudio Fasoli, Zusaan Kali Fasteau, Mark Feldman, Victor Feldman, Maynard Ferguson, Garrison Fewell, Ken Field, Figure 8, First House, Paul Flaherty, Tommy Flanagan, Bob Florence, Flying Monkey Orchestra, Marty Fogel, Chuck Folds, Joe Fonda, Mitchel Forman, Michael Formanek, Jimmy Forrest, Joel Forrester, Sonny Fortune, Frank Foster, Donal Fox, The Freedom Sounds Featuring Wayne Henderson, Von Freeman, Don Friedman, Friends, David Friesen, Frigg, Johnny Frigo's DNA, The Fringe, Bill Frisell, Satako Fujii, Curtis Fuller, Stephane Furic, Joe Gallant & Illuminati, Hal Galper, Slava Ganelin, Ganelin Trio, Jan Garbarek, Red Garland, Erroll Garner, Carlos Garnett, Kenny Garrett, Giorgio Gaslini, Gateway, Charles Gayle, Bruce Gertz, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, John Gilmore, Jimmy Giuffre, Larry Goldings, Vinny Golia, Benny Golson, Paul Gonsalves, Benny Goodman, Jerry Goodman, Andy Goodrich, Mick Goodrick, Dexter Gordon, Lou Grassi, Milford Graves, Wardell Gray, Green Line, Grant Green, Narada Burton Greene, Mike Greensill, Sonny Greer, Johnny Griffin, Henry Grimes, Tiny Grimes, Richard Grossman, Steve Grossman, Gigi Gryce, Russell Gunn, Gutbucket, Barry Guy, Vyacheslav Guyvoronsky, Charlie Haden, Tim Hagans, Jim Hall, Chico Hamilton, Slide Hampton, Herbie Hancock, John Handy, Kip Hanrahan, Masashi Harada, Wilbur Harden, Roy Hargrove, Rufus Harley, Billy Harper, Tom Harrell, Harriet Tubman, Beaver Harris, Bill Harris, Craig Harris, Eddie Harris, Gene Harris, Jerome Harris, Kevin Bruce Harris, Stefon Harris, Donald Harrison, Billy Hart, Mark Harvey & the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Greg Hatza, Hampton Hawes, Coleman Hawkins, Louis Hayes, Graham Haynes, Phil Haynes, Roy Haynes, The Headhunters, Heath Brothers, Jimmy Heath, Mark Helias, Gerry Hemingway, Julius Hemphill, Eddie Henderson, Fletcher Henderson, Joe Henderson, Scott Henderson, Ernie Henry, Woody Herman, John Hicks, Billy Higgins, Higher Primates, Andrew Hill, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Milt Hinton, Jutta Hipp, Hiromi [Uehara], Hiroshima, Johnny Hodges, Dave Holland, Bill Holman, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Steve Holtje, Elmo Hope, Fred Hopkins, Glenn Horiuchi, Ron Horton, Wayne Horvitz, Francois Houle, Fred Ho, Freddie Hubbard, Human Feel, Charlie Hunter, Bobby Hutcherson, Dick Hyman, Susie Ibarra, Abdullah Ibrahim, Iconoclast, ICP Orchestra, Italian Instabile Orchestra, D.D. Jackson, Milt Jackson, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Willis "Gatortail" Jackson, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Illinois Jacquet, Ahmad Jamal, Jon Jang, Joseph Jarman, Keith Jarrett, Jane Jarvis, Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, Jazz Crusaders, Jazz Mandolin Project, Jazz Minstrels, Jazz Modes, Leroy Jenkins, Budd Johnson, Howard Johnson, James P. Johnson, J.J. Johnson, Marc Johnson, Pete Johnson, Richard Leo Johnson, Phillip Johnston, Elvin Jones, Hank Jones, Jonah Jones, Thad Jones, Spike Jones, Scott Joplin, Clifford Jordan, Henry Kaiser, Kamikaze Ground Crew, Misako Kano, Pandelis Karayorgis, Darrell Katz, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Geoff Keezer, Wynton Kelly, Chris Kelsey, Rodney Kendrick, Stan Kenton, Barney Kessel, Franklin Kiermyer, Frank Kimbrough, Andy Kirk, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Kenny Kirkland, Osamu Kitajima, Eric Kloss, Jimmy Knepper, Franz Koglmann, Charlie Kohlhase, Lee Konitz, Briggan Kraus, Adam Kriney, Gene Krupa, Peter Kuhn, Sergey Kuryokhin, Charles Kynard, Steve Lacy, Oliver Lake, Andrew Lamb, Byard Lancaster, Harold Land, Art Lande, Eddie Lang, Steve Lantner, Last Exit, Bill Laswell, Yusef Lateef, Hubert Laws, Hugh Lawson, Elliott Levin, Adam Levy, George Lewis (clarinetist), George Lewis (trombonist), John Lewis, Meade Lux Lewis, Ramsey Lewis, John Lindberg, Booker Little, Joe Locke, The Lounge Lizards, Jacques Loussier, Joe Lovano, Allen Lowe, Frank Lowe, Sylvain Luc, Jimmie Lunceford, John Lurie, Jimmy Lyons, Johnny Lytle, Harold Mabern, Al MacDowell, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Mike Mainieri, Tony Malaby, Raphé Malik, Joe Maneri, Mat Maneri, Albert Mangelsdorff, Herbie Mann, Shelly Manne, Guido Manusardi, Charlie Mariano, Dodo Marmarosa, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Warne Marsh, Pat Martino, Masada, Cal Massey, Zane Massey, Mark Masters, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, M-Base Collective, Christian McBride, Les McCann, Pete McCann, Brother Jack McDuff, Howard McGhee, Jimmy McGriff, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Makanda Ken McIntyre, John McLaughlin, Jackie McLean, Jim McNeely, John McNeil, Marian McPartland, Joe McPhee, Charles McPherson, Jay McShann, Medeski Martin & Wood, Brad Mehldau, Myra Melford, Misha Mengelberg, Mephista, Pat Metheny, Microscopic Septet, Stephan Micus, Ron Miles, Milestone Jazzstars, Glenn Miller, Charles Mingus, Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, Blue Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, Hank Mobley, Modern Jazz Quartet, Nils Petter Molvær, Ben Monder, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Tete Montoliu, James Moody, Jemeel Moondoc, Cooper-Moore, Jackson Moore, Jason Moran, Frank Morgan, Lee Morgan, Butch Morris, Joe Morris, Wilber Morris, Jelly Roll Morton, Mosaic Sextet, Moscow Composers Orchestra, Bob Moses, Bennie Moten, Paul Motian, Moutin Reunion Quartet, Famaoudou Don Moye, George Mraz, Bheki Mseleku, Idris Muhammad (AKA Leo Morris), Mujician, Gerry Mulligan, Tisziji Muñoz, David Murray. Diedre Murray, Sunny Murray, The Music Ensemble, The Music Improvisation Company, Music Inc., Music Revelation Ensemble, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Amina Claudine Myers, Myth Science, Simon Nabatov, Sainkho Namchylak, Paul Nash, Fats Navarro, Buell Neidlinger, Oliver Nelson, New Air, New and Used, Phineas Newborn, Jr., David "Fathead" Newman, New York Art Quartet, The New York Composers Orchestra, Herbie Nichols, Red Nichols, Mike Nock, Red Norvo, Nu Band, Larry Ochs, Odyssey the Band, Arturo O'Farrill, Chico O'Farrill, Betty O'Hara, Old and New Dreams, Stephan Oliva, King Oliver, Sy Oliver, One World Ensemble, Junko Onishi, Open Loose, Oregon, Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Orkestrion, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Greg Osby, Other Dimensions in Music, Hall Overton, Tony Oxley, Pachora, Oran "Hot Lips" Page, Eric Pakula, Jeff Palmer, Eddie Palmieri, Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Charles Papasoff, Tiny Parham, Charlie Parker, Errol Parker, Evan Parker, William Parker, Andrea Parkins, Horace Parlan, Joe Pass, Jaco Pastorius, John Patton, Jessica Pavone, Mario Pavone, Cecil Payne, Nicholas Payton, Gary Peacock, Duke Pearson, People Like Us, Art Pepper, Ben Perowsky, Eric Person, Houston Person, Oscar Peterson, Ralph Peterson Jr., Michel Petrucciani, Oscar Pettiford, Phalanx, Flip Phillips, Sonny Phillips, Enrico Pieranunzi, Pigpen, Roberta Piket, Bucky Pizzarelli, Pony Poindexter, Jimmy Ponder, Ponga, Valentina Ponomareva, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ben Pollack, Odean Pope, Chris Potter, Benny Powell, Bud Powell, Mel Powell, Power Tools, Bobby Previte, Sam Price, Julian Priester, Prima Materia, Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers, Tito Puente, Don Pullen, Bernard Purdie, Ike Quebec, Quest, Paul Quinichette, Ernest Ranglin, Enrico Rava, ReBirth Brass Band, Sonny Red, Rob Reddy, Dewey Redman, Joshua Redman, Dizzy Reece, Django Reinhardt, Vladimir Rezitsky & Jazz Group Arkhangelsk, Arthur Rhames, Mel Rhyne, Buddy Rich, Dannie Richmond, Yannick Rieu, Ben Riley, Sam Rivers, Max Roach, Hank Roberts, Luckey Roberts, Marcus Roberts, Sonya Robinson, Sonny Rollins, Wallace Roney, Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, Ned Rothenberg, Charlie Rouse, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Roswell Rudd, Adam Rudolph, Kermit Ruffins, Hilton Ruiz, George Russell, Hal Russell, Pee Wee Russell, Terje Rypdal, Jamie Saft, Akira Sakata, David Sanborn, Pharoah Sanders, Mongo Santamaria, Saheb Sarbib, Saint Louis Creative Ensemble, Ken Schaphorst, Maria Schneider, John Scofield, Clifford Scott, Shirley Scott, Stephen Scott, Tony Scott, Sea Ensemble, Sex Mob, Bud Shank, Sonny Sharrock, Linda Sharrock, Artie Shaw, Charles "Bobo" Shaw, Woody Shaw, George Shearing, Brad Shepik (AKA Brad Schoeppach), Archie Shepp, Matthew Shipp, Kazuko Shiraishi, Don Shirley, Wayne Shorter, Alan Silva, Horace Silver, Mark Simmonds, Sonny Simmons, Pete (La Roca) Sims, Zoot Sims, Buster Smith, Jabbo Smith, Jimmy Smith, Johnny “Hammond” Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Lonnie Liston Smith, Louis Smith, Tommy Smith, Wadada Leo Smith, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Paul Smoker, Martial Solal, Lew Soloff, Muggsy Spanier, Spanish Fly, Melvin Sparks, James Spaulding, Glenn Spearman, Chris Speed, Sphere, Splatter Trio, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Spring Heel Jack, Jess Stacy, Tomasz Stanko, Bobo Stenson, Michael Jefry Stevens, Bill Stewart, Rex Stewart, Loren Stillman, Sonny Stitt, Strata Institute, Billy Strayhorn, String Trio of New York, John Stubblefield, Sturm Brothers, Sun Ra, John Surman, Ralph Sutton, Steve Swallow, SXL, Sync, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Aki Takase, Tom Talbert, Horace Tapscott, Art Tatum, Art Taylor, Billy Taylor, Cecil Taylor, Jack Teagarden, Richard Teitelbaum, Clark Terry, Frank Teschemacher, Test, Third Person, Third Rail, Gary Thomas, Luther Thomas, Sir Charles Thompson, Lucky Thompson, Malachi Thompson, Vern Thompson, Walter Thompson, Claude Thornhill, Henry Threadgill, Steve Tibbetts, Bobby Timmons, Keith Tippett, Charles Tolliver, Masahiko Togashi, Giovanni Tommaso, Ross Tompkins, Sumi Tonooka, David Torn, Ralph Towner, Tribal Tech, Trifactor, Tri-O, Trio Hurricane, Lenny Tristano, David Tronzo, Gianluigi Trovesi, Assif Tsahar, Joe Turner (pianist), Steve Turre, Stanley Turrentine, Turtle Island String Quartet, 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Gebhard Ullmann, James Blood Ulmer, Kazutoki Umezu, Phil Upchurch, Massimo Urbani, Ken Vandermark, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Anatoly Vapirov, Tom Varner, Johnny Varro, Mike Vax, Charlie Ventura, Joe Venuti, Edward Vesala, Harold Vick, Vienna Art Orchestra, Eddie Vinson, Miroslav Vitous, John Voight, Voodoo Dogs, Cuong Vu, Petras Vysniauskas, Myron Walden, Mal Waldron, Dan Wall, Fats Waller, George Wallington, Jack Walrath, Cedar Walton, Frank Walton, David S. Ware, Dennis Warren, Grover Washington, Benny Waters, Charles Waters, Bill Watrous, Bobby Watson, Trevor Watts, Weather Report, Chick Webb, Eberhard Weber, Ben Webster, Dick Wellstood, Kenny Werner, Fred Wesley, Randy Weston, What We Live, Kenny Wheeler, Rodney Whitaker, Dr. Michael White, Mark Whitecage, Bob Wilber, Ed Wilkerson, Jr., Buster Williams, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Cootie Williams, Jessica Williams, Mary Lou Williams, Tony Williams, Claude Williamson, Jack Wilson, Matt Wilson, Teddy Wilson, Witches and Devils, Jah Wobble, Anthony Wonsey, Phil Woods, World Saxophone Quartet, Frank Wright, Yosuke Yamashita, Yankees, Larry Young, Lester Young, Joe Zawinul, Denny Zeitlin, Richie Zellon, Patrick Zimmerli, John Zorn. And that's just jazz. Wait 'til I have some more time....

Movies:

Seven Samurai, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Buckaroo Banzai's Adventures in the Eighth Dimension, Bang the Drum Slowly, Tombstone, The Big Sleep (1946), The Long Goodbye (both versions), The Maltese Falcon, Woman in the Dunes, We Jam Econo, Robocop, Sleeper, The Incredibles, Holly Does Hollywood, Bladerunner

Television:

Mets baseball, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Futurama, Inuyasha, Venture Brothers

Books:

Ulysses (James Joyce), Mona Lisa Overdrive (William Gibson), Pattern Recognition (Gibson), Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit (Charles Bukowski), Sonnets to Orpheus (Rainer Maria Rilke - I'm setting these to music), The Wasteland (T.S. Eliot), One Hundred Poems from the Japanese/One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese (trans. Kenneth Rexroth), Seasons of Sacred Lust (Kazuko Shiraishi), Software/Wetware (Rudy Rucker), Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (ed. Bruce Sterling), Flow My Tears the Policeman Said (Philip K. Dick), The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick, Invisible Cities (Italo Calvino), Howl and Other Poems (Allen Ginsberg - published 50 years ago, 11/56), Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams vols. 1 & 2, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (H.P. Lovecraft), The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkein), The Worm Ouroboros (E.R. Eddison), The King of Elfland's Daughter (Lord Dunsany), Complete Novels (Dashiell Hammett), Stories & Early Novels (Raymond Chandler), The Intuitionist (Colson Whitehead), John Henry Days (Whitehead), Get Your War On (David Rees), Selected Poems (Francis Ponge), Man in the Holocene (Max Frisch), Der Besuch der alten Dame (Friedrich Durrenmatt), The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Conan Doyle, ed. W.S. Baring-Gould), Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years with Pogo (Walt Kelly), The Penal Colony (Franz Kafka; includes Metamorphosis, Conversation with the Supplicant, etc.), The Back Country (Gary Snyder), Nausea (Jean-Paul Sartre), Philosophical Investigations (Ludwig Wittgenstein), A People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn)

Heroes:

Howard Zinn, Charles Bukowski, Tom Seaver, Julio Franco (I love that there's a player in the major leagues who's older than me), Sviatoslav Richter, Wolverine, Burt Bacharach

My Blog

Reviews and more

Album Reviews:One of the great post-punk albums: Pop Group: YBrooklyn Krautrock: La Otracina: Tonal Ellipse of the OneThe shoegaze revival continues: Film School: HideoutA compilation of some unusual ...
Posted by Holtje on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:25:00 PST

a new writing roundup

Some stuff to read to perhaps help you decide what to listen to next. John Coltrane died 40 years ago (July 17, 1967). Here's an album from each year of his career as a leader.One of the stranger alb...
Posted by Holtje on Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:56:00 PST

40 year old music

Happy 4th of July (a bit early). Please celebrate a more recent anniversary  by reading my extensive - 67 songs! - look back at the music of 1967. I spent a month choosing the tracks and writing ...
Posted by Holtje on Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:26:00 PST

writing roundup

A couple of months' worth of my reviews and such: The National successfully follows up A solo album by Espers singer Meg Baird Smog frontman Bill Callahan's latestNew freakouts by Japanese av...
Posted by Holtje on Mon, 28 May 2007 08:59:00 PST

SATIRE

I wrote this on a whim for Culturecatch.com but they didn't want it (which I sort of expected - they don't do humor). So here it is. Anybody who's kept up with the Chocolate Jesus "scandal" will recog...
Posted by Holtje on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:34:00 PST

Chocolate Jesus

Sure signs of spring: The groundhog not being frightened by his shadow. Baseball standings showing the Royals, Devil Rays, and Pirates tied for first place. Articles about income tax. Marshmallow Peep...
Posted by Holtje on Tue, 03 Apr 2007 08:16:00 PST

Review of the "Old Knit" benefit for The Stone at Town Hall, NYC on 3/1

In this review I am brutally honest in my opinions about Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. Some people think critics enjoy this sort of thing. I don't. It pained me greatly to pan Lou Reed, who's made mor...
Posted by Holtje on Sat, 10 Mar 2007 08:08:00 PST

writing roundup

My most recent writings.review of The Shins: Wincing the Night Awayreview of Murray Perahia: Bartok Piano Worksreview of a great reissue, Moloch's self-titled 1970 albumreview of an Elliott Sharp solo...
Posted by Holtje on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:08:00 PST

Bono

This was passed along to me. I don't know where it's from or whether it's true. But it's funny."At a U2 concert in Dublin, Bono asked the audience for some peace and quiet. Then, in silence, he starts...
Posted by Holtje on Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:44:00 PST

Alice Coltrane obit

I kinda threw this one together; I was on vacation, hanging at my dad's place, when I logged on for the first time in three days and saw that Alice Coltrane had died. So this is not the most in-depth ...
Posted by Holtje on Fri, 19 Jan 2007 09:26:00 PST