New Music of 2026
Notable albums released each month this year.
Gem
Music, Musings & More
Latest posts
Escape to new promises
I think these observations on Ursula K. Le Guin explain why Science Fiction is the only type of fiction I can usually tolerate. I read to learn and grow, to feel new feelings and experience new possibilities. I do not read to escape from these things. Even as a child, I enjoyed adventure stories because they took me to different places (physically and psychically) and broadened my horizons.…
A Blooming Body
I have been looking forward to the album A Blooming Body released today by Cinder Well. I first heard the artist Amelia Baker from the theme song for the TV series Small Prophets . Not surprisingly, the new LP is just as beautiful and haunting. Listen to the music on Bandcamp or watch the videos on YouTube . While the Womb Screams Silently Beyond the Pale 💬 Say Something
Only a quiet corner
As someone with a tendency to retreat to a quiet corner, away from society and its many mores, I need to remember to not spare myself at the cost of truly living. Claim more from life if you can. DO NOT SPARE YOURSELF by Mario Benedetti (1920-2009) translated by Maria Popova Don’t stand motionless by the side of the road don’t petrify your joy don’t desire with reserve do not spare yourself now or…
Diversity of thought versus AI slop
Meghan O’Gieblyn, the author of God Human Animal Machine published in 2021, recently gave an interview about her impressions of Artificial Intelligence today. She researched and wrote this book from 2017 to 2020, before the current "AI" craze and subsequent awareness of its tentacles of harm. Her background in philosophy and theology gives her a unique, and remarkably astute, view of the…
DaySleeper in Movieland
One of the winners of the prestigious 2026 Hasselblad Masters photo competition captured an image that matches my blog nicely.
Thinking Like a Mountain
Many years ago, I took some photos in a remote region of the Gila Wilderness Area.
They are coming for us all
I wrote about a beautiful moment between musicians Norah Jones and Rachael Yamagata, which led me to thinking about co-creation and its opposite exploitation.
A Knowing
I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote a prose-poem about a moment between two people. Maybe it was a dream, a memory, or just a mood.
The Language of Rain
I am once again blown away by the beautiful prose of Wajã Xipai, a young Indigenous writer from a small Yupá village in the Amazon. Here he writes about the language and intimacy of Forest-rain as a forgotten miracle that we must pause to un-forget "because forgetting such beauty is deadly." Then as I switch from poetry to science, which are often indistinguishable to me, I read about a new study…