The English language has been forced to jump through many hoops over the past century. One of the most delightful ringmasters in the circus was the American poet, novelist, and painter E.E. Cummings. His lowercased name can scarcely prepare the reader for the punctuational and syntactical oddities fo
Most can say without hesitation that Bob Dylan wore the pop music crown during the 1960s, and his influence on American music has been surpassed by few. Dylan reinvented the Folk genre by personalizing Folk songs, reconnecting rock and country, and contributing a vocal sound that influenced artists o
Artists often talk about how they hope their work will fundamentally transform the way their audience thinks, perceives, or experiences reality. As members of that monolithic cultural phenomenon "the audience," we should, perhaps, wonder what certain works are doing to our minds. One piece in particu
A minimalist jazz pianist who took bebop to even higher heights, Thelonious Sphere Monk was a unique character and a maverick in the music industry. How else can we describe a man who kept his grand piano in his kitchen? Not interested in using his music to please people, Monk strove to discover ways