Latest News: Posts Tagged ‘Metaphysical graffiti’

“ Tackling contentious questions about rock and pop music, forcing us to look deeper into our relationship with music; how we shape it, and how it shapes us.” —Showcase on SETH KAUFMAN’s METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI

Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

An interview with Seth Kaufman about his title METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI for Showcase

SHOWCASE: But as I understand from the book, you’re an avid supporter of air guitars, and I wonder why that is. Can you please tell us what is there to like about air guitars at all?

KAUFMAN: Yeah, well, air guitar, like singing, like clapping, like dancing, is a way in which people have come to react to music. But it’s a funny way to react to music. It makes you look foolish, often. It’s silly. But what I like about air guitar is the idea that we know guitars are real, but air guitar is not real, and yet, we all know what air guitar is. So on a philosophical level, it both is and isn’t, and there are many things that don’t have a physical, ya know… Thoughts; that are abstractions, and air guitar is one of those. But I like to ask people when they’re playing air guitar, what kind of air guitar are they playing, and no one ever thinks about this.

Watch the full interview here.

“A genial foray into the meaning of rock ’n’ roll.”- METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI reviewed in Kirkus Reviews

Wednesday, October 10th, 2018

Does Rush suck? The answer is—well, the author answers, carefully, sort of, but by no means as much as Billy Joel does: “Here I am trying my damndest to rehabilitate Billy Joel, or at least give him his due, and try—TRY—to appreciate his songcraft,” he writes. “But it’s not possible. It’s not. Because the craft itself is so often flawed. His songs fall apart under minimal pressure.”

Read the full review here.

“This is a book that the reader will love and hate and thoroughly enjoy.” – METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI reviewed at Evil Cyclist

Monday, August 6th, 2018

Metaphysical Graffiti: Rock’s Most Mind-Bending Questions by Seth Kaufman is a light look at rock music and bands. Kaufman is a recovering musician Seth Kaufman grew up overseas, in Kenya and India, the son of a foreign correspondent. He ran a popular online music store where he sold so many copies of Kenny G records he should be tried at The Hague. Kaufman’s own biography sets the tone for the book.

Read the full review here.

“Erudite, caustic and hilarious… creative non-fiction writing at its best.” METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI reviewed in The Morning Star

Wednesday, July 18th, 2018

ERUDITE, caustic and hilarious, Seth Kaufman’s essays in Metaphysical Graffiti are creative non-fiction writing at its best. He uses lists, anecdotes, mock-Socratic dialogues and dramatic pastiche to condemn hype and celebrate authenticity and audacity.

Kaufman takes pains to define “audacity,” citing the smart satire, purposeful virtuosity and musical game-playing of Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick. But 2112 by Rush, a celebration of the “odious anti-collectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand,” self-indulgent and pretentious, is no risk-taker.

Read the full review here.

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