John Paul Davis

Update: Neil Peart really loved long drum rolls. Like, a lot.

Should I enter my "being really into Rush" era? I've never really listened to them.

A rain puddle in which is reflected the leaves of a tree, with a stick partly intersecting it, so that the combination of the two looks like a tree.

Even Better Than The Real Thing https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/even-better-than-the-real-thing/ #photography

INSIDE? I did not even know that was a thing.

Album cover art for Counting Crows's August and Everything After

#morningcoffeelisten Counting Crows’s 1993 album, August and Everything After. Accordion, Hammond organ, mandolin add emotional depth to the usual rock instrumentation, paired with soul-probing lyrics hung on smooth, memorable melodies. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen81 #nowplaying

I'm a plucker.

Thanks Nancy! (P.S. - it's "John Paul" - two Beatles, not one.)

The movies made living through the collapse of a civilization look like a lot more fun than it actually is.

Some days are the kind of days that end with listening to Bill Evans records in the dark while the rain taps at the window.

Two trees lean over the Cross Country trail in Van Cortlandt Park

A Difference of Opinion https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/a-difference-of-opinion/ #photography

Album cover art for Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest

#morningcoffeelisten Grizzly Bear’s 2009 album, Veckatimest. Innovative arrangements, careful instrumentation, impressionistic lyrics, delicate, emotive singing result a gorgeous songs that bounce & swoop & ascend. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen80 #nowplaying

Thanks for reading it!

A horse looking out of a barn in Van Cortlandt Park

We Only Have Time For One More Question https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/we-only-have-time-for-one-more-question/ #photography

SAME

New episode of my podcast #theuncomputable : Please Hang Up And Try Again https://johnpauldavis.org/podcast/please-hang-up-and-try-again/ #podcast #poetry

Infinite Jest has a plot?

Album cover art for Squirrel Nut Zippers's Hot

#morningcoffeelisten Squirrel Nut Zippers’s 1996 album, Hot. Ironic, sometimes flippant but never unserious lyrics spun into catchy melodies add a sense of mortality & menace to these deftly-played, rollicking, energetic & fun songs. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen79 #nowplaying

Pinkish purple Rose of Sharon

Several Kinds of Light https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/several-kinds-of-light/ #photography

Album cover art for Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder

#morningcoffeelisten Lee Morgan's 1964 album, The Sidewinder. Over propulsive bass, swinging drums, & blues-soaked, keenly instinctive piano, trumpet & sax trade smoothly perfect solos improvised off catchy, classic hooks. Listen: johnpauldavis.org/url/listen78 #nowplaying

Get the fuck off Substack already.

Rings in the trunk of a young felled tree in Van Cortlandt Park

History Lesson https://johnpauldavis.org/photography/history-lesson/ #photography

Meme showing Wesley from The Princess Bride. Instead of saying "I spent many years building an immunity to iocane powder," he's saying "I spent many years building an immunity to 'how' sentences in poems."

LOL I'm strong enough to manage.

Just think, instead of this bridge we could have had a whole extra Kim Thayil guitar solo.

A: I do not have a car, because I live in New York, so that bit annoys me.
B: These criteria describe many people living in poverty
C: The conclusion is a tautology & also a cliche ("things could be worse!")
D: This was written by the guy who also wrote the brutal poetry of "The Day I Tried To Live"

Here are the lyrics from the bridge of that song: "Have you got a car and
Somewhere to sleep?
Someone who loves you?
Something to eat?
Well, I would say you're doing better than most
But maybe not as well as some"

This mini-essay on economics is mid, to say the least.

Once again thinking about how Soundgarden's 2012 comeback album, "King Animal," would've been a perfect 12-song album, but they included the dopey cringefest that is "Halfway There," which I skip every time, which reminds me I wish I could uncheck songs in Apple Music's iOS app.

Try being one who hates sentences beginning with "How..."

Let us hope you ensured their conversion to Christianity first, even if at weed claw point.

Album cover art for Kelis's Food

#morningcoffeelisten Kelis’s 2014 album, Food. Kelis lays her heartache & hopes out with her honeyed, soulful singing backed by chewy guitars, funky drums, groovy, spidery bass, & a boisterous brass section. Inventive & energetic. Listen: https://johnpauldavis.org/url/listen77 #nowplaying

My poem "Please Hang Up & Try Again" in the the latest issue of @psalteryandlyre.bsky.social