Sean Murphy
- Location
- DC, District of Columbia, USA
- Birthday
- May 13
- Bio
- Loves music, books, and movies and can't imagine a world without sub-titles. Despite living just outside DC, he remains recalcitrant in his conviction that paychecks mean less than personal fulfillment and that the pursuit of peace is not ironic. Endorses, in no particular order: anyone who is similarly allergic to right-wing radio and reality TV, the Red Sox, miniature schnauzers, Pho and Blanton's single barrel bourbon. Ambition: to write the pretty-good American novel. Blog: http://bullmurph.com/
MY RECENT POSTS
- Every Day Is Mother's Day
May 13, 2012 10:32AM - 2012: When Rhetoric Meets
Reality
May 09, 2012 05:33PM - Bright Moments*
March 23, 2012 10:44AM - John Belushi's Greatest
Performance
March 05, 2012 07:29PM - Rush Limbaugh: Don’t Hate
the Player, Hate the Game
March 03, 2012 04:42PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “I am not worthy of that
comment. Amazing. Thank you
for
sharing that!”
March 06, 2012 11:28AM - “Tom,
I'm very glad
you shared that link. Thank
you.”
January 10, 2012 10:13PM - “Thanks, all, for reading
and responding. As always,
the
comments are their own
li…”
January 10, 2012 10:04PM - “SS: Glad you read, and
more importantly, I hope you
enjoy the
album! Happy New
Ye…”
January 01, 2012 02:06PM - “Thanks, all, for taking
the time to read and respond.
I know
this is not the
most…”
December 07, 2011 09:10AM
Sean Murphy's Links
- New list
- No links in this category.
Every Day Is Mother's Day
I’m fortunate, in a sense, to be the type of person that gets more sentimental about the times I read a certain book or heard a particular album than I ever do about holidays. But I’m still human. I still recall the almost breathless inability to accelerate… Read full post »
2012: When Rhetoric Meets Reality
I read the news today. Oh boy.
Looks like one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry is beginning to spring a rather unseemly leak.
Sounds like art may have been imitating life a tad too closely when Travolta, as Vincent Vega, maintained that “I’ve given a million ladies a… Read full post »
Bright Moments*
Question: What’s it all about?
Answer: I don’t know.
But I do know a few things.
I know some of the things that make me tick.
Even though I write (for fun, for real and forever), I would still say that music has always been
… Read full post »John Belushi's Greatest Performance
How many people who would care to quibble that John Belushi’s endlessly quotable turn as “Bluto” Blutarsky does not represent his finest work? Not me. And yet, he had to be Blutarski; he needed to be Blutarski. He was Blutarski. Just like he was the Samurai, The Thing… Read full post »
Rush Limbaugh: Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game
Beneath contempt? Of course.
Shameless? Obviously.
A ludicrous, cowardly ass clown? Clearly.
A bullying blowhard? Yup.
A self-aggrandizing huckster who sells snake piss to imbelices and laughs all the way to his drug dealer? You know this.
Are we really surprised by his latest lowering of the… Read full post »
Print The Legend: Johnny Cash at 80
Two questions:
1. Is that the most bad-ass picture ever taken of a pop icon?
2. Is there a more bad-ass pop icon who's ever walked the planet?
(Those questions are rhetorical in case you didn't already know.)
Sex, drugs… Read full post »
The Contraception Contretemps and the Siren Song of Sanity
Did you see Rick Santorum today? Did you hear him yesterday? A year ago? A decade ago?
Look: I’ve had little to say about this recent (very manufactured, very cynical) hysteria about womens’ right to not have their private parts and personal volition subject to what a bunch of
… Read full post »Reagan & Dickens or, The Money Dread
Did you know Reagan and Dickens almost share the same birthday?
I didn’t.
One day apart: Dickens –and his readers– celebrate his 200th birthday this week. Reagan –and his disciples– celebrate his 101st.
Perhaps I’m forcing the irony, but the forces of Natu
… Read full post »Darkness or, The Weight of Love and The Power of Loss*
You say: What about the dark things?
I say: What about the dark things?
Should I make it a point to avoid mention of the dark things?
Do we need to discuss the dark things? In this story? In my mother’s life? Within… Read full post »
Please Talk About Me When I'm Gone*
L’amour de l’art fait perdre l’amour vrai.
I did not say that.
Although that is the sort of thing I might say, since I am the sort who feels obliged to quote the books I’ve read and I allow art to remind me how to relate to myself.
The love… Read full post »
Whispered Words or, What We Say at The End
How long will it take? I did not ask, because I wanted to make every second count. It would be over quickly enough; it was already happening entirely too soon.
It’s okay, I said as I held my dog, flanked by friends and the friendly technicians who… Read full post »
Deus ex machina*
Was that as bad for you as it was for me?
That’s the question I did not ask when Father _____ left our house. On to his next appointment; all in a day’s work.
Extreme unction: the old-fashioned term for that quaint custom. It serves its purpose even now, I… Read full post »
The Best Album of 2011: PJ Harvey's 'Let England Shake'
“You cannot get the news from poems”, William Carlos wrote. “But men die every day for lack of what is found there.” Percy Bysshe Shelley famously declared poets the unacknowledged legislators of the world. Of course this was during a time when people actually read… Read full post »
Sui generis on the rocks: Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P.
The best way to compliment a writer, as a reader, is to recommend their work to others. That I wholeheartedly do –and have done.
The best way to compliment a writer, as a writer, is to recognize, with neither regret nor resignation, that on your best day you will
… Read full post »Fairy Tales and Feeding Tubes*
The brief experiment with the feeding tube was sufficiently impractical and unsavory that it seemed a small, if conflicted victory when we agreed to discard the apparatus.
“So just call us if you have any questions or trouble using the tube,” the nurse said.
My mother frowned. &l
… Read full post »Why Not Pink Floyd?
The Pink Floyd Discovery Studio Album Box Set
I. See Saw
I have recently listened to every single song from every single Pink Floyd album, do you don’t have to.
The question is: Should you?
The answer: I’m not sure.
Pink Floyd occupies a curious and somewhat unique place in rock… Read full post »
Bill Buckner, Mookie Wilson and Me
I’ve never been able to appreciate the aesthetic perfection (that is to say, the perfection of baseball’s most imperfect play; it’s most jarringly incongruous moment) because it was too painful. I was too invested in the response to that stimulus and what it signified: game
… Read full post »R.E.M.: The Greatest American Band. Ever.
Almost exactly three years ago I tried to settle a question many people had asked me (and that I had asked myself): what is the all-time great American band?
The only way to tackle a project like that is to have fun with it. I did manage to have fun,… Read full post »
The Catholic Church is (still) Decadent and Depraved
Follow the money. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
These are the two oft-invoked quotes I kept thinking to myself as I read Sabrina Rubin Erdley’s piece, “The Catholic Church’s Secret Sex-Crime Files” from Rolling Stone. Find it here.
I enc
… Read full post »The King Is (Still) Dead: Long Live The King!
Poor Elvis.
The one-time king is now more often the (big) butt of jokes (see?).
But his musical and cultural imprint remains huge and will forever be impossible to escape from. This is, for the most part, a good thing. Just consider the number of musicians who have… Read full post »
Holiday Fireworks from the Godfather of Soul
On this most American of weekends, it seems appropriate –if not obligatory– to celebrate the most American of geniuses.
It does not get any more American than James Brown, does it?
From the (literal) rags-to-riches story, the innovation and influence, the (inevitable?) disintegra
… Read full post »Bill Hicks: An American Comic
Not familiar with Bill Hicks? You need to be. Check this out:
Four Albums and a Film: The Best Summer Entertainment*
The Congos – Heart of the Congos (1977)
Great art knows no seasons. Nevertheless, some music is made for—or at least can be fully appreciated during—specific times of the year. Reggae, which many people still believe means Bob Marley’s music, tends to get broken out on… Read full post »
Mothers and Sons*
The room was dim and cool, a shadowy contrast to the searing humidity outside.
Her son had left his car running while he took her upstairs. In the elevator she noticed he had sweated through his shirt and she felt guilty, once again. He had to get back to
… Read full post »Medicine vs. Miracles: The Machinery of Cancer
2002
During the summer of 2002 if the phone rang while I was getting ready for work, that meant my mother was calling. If the phone rang while I was getting ready for work, that meant my mother was calling to tell me she needed to get fluids. If the… Read full post »
STATHI STATHI
Midwest Muse
Wren Dancer
fernsy
Algis Kemezys
MichelleD
Salon.com