Summer 2021
Random Perfect Plan
Review of album by Tova and Richard Tillinghast » More ...
Music
Spring 2021
WSM staff picks for the pandemic
WSM staff picks
Here’s what the staff of Washington State Magazine has been reading, watching, and listening to since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
Larry Clark (’94 Comm.)
Editor
Books
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (Gallery Books, 2017) – Haddish’s comedy shines through some rough times in this memoir. I was laughing out loud during several parts.
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner (Harper, 1972) – A classic of science fiction and environmental destruction
Ivory Apples by Lisa Goldstein (Tachyon Publications, 2019) – I enjoy a good novel about fiction becoming reality, and obsession. Goldstein’s words are gripping and, at … » More …
Spring 2021
Pandemic playlists
Music stimulates the parts of the brain that register pleasure, provoking memories, reducing stress, and profoundly influencing our moods. It’s both a salve and a distraction. And, during the current novel coronavirus pandemic, it offers perhaps one of the easiest and most accessible forms of self-care.
Music comforts us. It alleviates anxiety, helps us cope with emotions, and offers an outlet. It’s art, and art saves lives.
Here are some suggestions from the Cougar Nation for your listening pleasure during the pandemic.
Dean Karr (’88 Fine Arts)
Music video director, photographer, visual artist
Eruption by Van Halen on Van Halen (Warner Bros., 1978). … » More …
Summer 2020
In our new backyard
A portrait of resilience from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens to the COVID-19 pandemic » More ...
Summer 2020
Butterfly Launches from Spar Pole
Krist Novoselić, Ray Prestegard, and Robert Michael Pyle
Murky Slough Music: 2019
This eleven-track acoustic folk offering celebrates the natural world with profound but approachable spoken-word verse inspired by the cycles of life and sciences of ecology and geology. Armed with a PhD from Yale University and sense of curiosity about and reverence for the biosphere, Robert Michael Pyle—a lepidopterist, naturalist, and award-winning writer—presents compelling poetry that explores the intertwined fates of humans and nature.
Pyle, largely considered the godfather … » More …
Spring 2020
Volume 2
A review of Volume 2, an album by Giants in the Trees » More ...
Winter 2018
Eyes Wide Open
Jazz singer and composer and arranger Jamie Shew’s new album Eyes Wide Open is reviewed by Kristina Ploeger. » More ...
Fall 2017
Cougtunes
Recent releases from the WSU School of Music:
Gator Tail, faculty jazz quartet (Brad Ard, David Jarvis, Brian Ward, Greg Yasinitsky) (contemporary hard bop—even a classic Hammond B-3 organ can be found on the album)
YAZZ Recordings
Singular … » More …
Spring 2017
Briefly noted
No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon
Erik Weihenmayer and Buddy Levy
Thomas Dunne Books: 2017
After Weihenmayer became the first and only blind man to reach the top of Mount Everest, he decided his next adventure would be to traverse the treacherous Grand Canyon by kayak. He and Levy, a Washington State University instructor, chronicle the turbulent whitewater journey, and the insights gained by Weihenmayer and other trailblazers he has met.
Unusual Punishment: Inside the Walla Walla Prison, 1970–1985
Christopher Murray
WSU Press: 2016
Murray was an employee of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services … » More …
Spring 2016
Lowell Liebermann: Complete Works for Two Pianos
88 Squared Piano Duo
Albany Records: 2015
WSU piano faculty members Jeffrey and Karen Savage are the formidable pianists of 88 Squared, a critically acclaimed piano duo. This remarkable recording of Liebermann’s music for two pianos will only add to their international reputation. Liebermann’s piano music requires keen attention to color, texture, balance, and lyricism. His ample use of counterpoint requires absolute precision between the four hands.
88 Squared … » More …