A man who looks Middle Eastern walks into the salon Sunday afternoon with his pretty 9-year-old daughter. Amalia sits him down and begins to chat with him and trim his graying hair. Read more...

Belle and Sebastian “The Life Pursuit” Matador Records Belle and Sebastian’s newest effort, “The Life Pursuit,” will do a fair amount to turn the heads of hipster hordes expecting yet another sequel to the band’s 1996 classic, “If You’re Feeling Sinister.” This time around, the Scottish sensations are ““ musically speaking ““ all over the place. Read more...

I. in my mist-swathed dreams, i am driving, blindfolded by horizontal gravity to the glow of my sputnik’s disparate love and though i am pulled headlong ““ i feel at once the swarming rushes of air falling towards the surface, abandoning me, leaving me behind. Read more...

I. pre-morning, a prologue the bag in my hand splatters, the bottle breaks. I wait for the familiar aroma of whiskey to wind its way up, rise and I know that it will lie there, an irregular pool, hoping never to be mopped. Read more...

Every January, a growing horde ventures into the ice and snow of Salt Lake City and beyond, in hopes of catching sight of the glitterati meant to be roaming the streets like regular folk. Read more...

Some still think learning to “play the game” is that sad day we put on the suit and mind our p’s and q’s to the corporate guy whose house we used to toilet paper in our idealistic and spirited teens. Read more...

Cat Power “The Greatest” Matador Records On her seventh album, Cat Power’s Chan Marshall returns to her roots. In “The Greatest,” Marshall sheds the anthem-like qualities of 1998’s “Moon Pix” and slumps deeper into emotional complexity than in her 2003 release “You Are Free.” But she does so this time by digging deep for the gold of the Memphis soul sound. Read more...