Have you ever heard of John Martyn? Maybe not. But, an amazing musician. Scottish/Jewish, died in Ireland in 2009 at age 60. Listen to this whole 2 hour compilation of his songs, and then tell me if you like it.
British singer-songwriter and guitarist John Martyn (1948 - 2009) performs live in London, circa 1977. (Photo by Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns/Getty Images)
I discovered him from some other folks who post on Soundcloud, a long time ago.
I was in graduate school working on my masters degree in arts of administration when the pandemic hit. I was taking a course on fundraising in the nonprofit world when we had to take the class online and learn how to use Zoom. Can you believe that was almost 5 years ago? We focused a lot on the necessity of art during times of crisis and sensitivities around needs. If you're not familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's the theory that your “higher” needs, so to speak, like art and critical thinking cannot be addressed until you have sustenance and everything needed for your body, like food and shelter.
But there's also an argument to be made that art can shift how needs are delivered and improve things dramatically. I think that, for instance this new album by Bad Bunny has exploded the conversation about the past and future of Puerto Rico for a large number of people just in a matter of weeks, not to mention men being comfortable with sharing their emotions. It is incredible what art can do.
It is also remarkable that this is a Spanish language studio recording, but it is being received by people all over the world, including millions of people who do not speak Spanish. I think that you're going to see a huge Bunny bounce in the economy of Puerto Rico, and hopefully that will make an impact for a very long time to come, because I don't see this man slowing down or compromising his vision in any way. It is inspiring.
The response to the album has been so massive, that he added more shows in September 2025, and I think you can still get them.
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If you haven't heard the new Bad Bunny album, what even are you doing? Anyway, you should go listen to the Bad Bunny album, or watch THE SHORT FILM HE MADE because it's really fantastic but more than that it's a piece of cultural history already. Senor Bunny was already a superstar, but this album is a love song to Puerto Rico and it has turned into a call to action, from what I have seen on social media. I watched a few interviews with him and I feel like the dumpster fire that was the Republican National Convention at MSG last summer where they took time out of their day to trash Puerto Rico set a fire in Bad Bunny, and it’s not hard to understand why. As an unincorporated territory of the United States, residents of Puerto Rico are US citizens but cannot vote in US presidential elections. They are subject to compulsory military service - as in when there was an active draft during the Vietnam war 48,000 Puerto Ricans were drafted and fought. A long and complicated colonial history. I don’t speak Spanish but I love this album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
Wild horse on Vieques, Puerto Rico - January 2013
I had one of the best vacations of my life on the island of Vieques in 2013 and man do I wish I was there right now. Wild horses, bioluminescent bay, pristine tiny beaches, clear blue water. Tourism is a very complicated thing in the Caribbean, and I can barely add much to that conversation with my limited knowledge, except to say that I would hope that the extreme interest in Bad Bunny’s music will drive a good kind of tourism for PR, with money flowing to the actual residents of the islands, and not just giant multinational hotel chains. I stayed at Hix Island House back in 2013 which was great, and that is owned by Canadians I discovred now.
Bad Bunny announced a whole mess of tour dates only in Puerto Rico, which is such an amazing move. If you want in on this situation, you are going to have to pull up in the PR yourself! But slow down, many of these dates are for PR residents only, AND already sold out of course.
Below is a painting I made a couple years ago in my old house here in Connecticut. I don’t have a rabbit. I was painting my space, and one day, the rabbit just showed up.
I was feeling a little rundown today, so I took myself to the movies tonight, which is a really fun thing to do sometimes - try it. Who isn’t feeling run down after the autumn that the United States has had, and then comes “the holiday season”? The other night I went to go see A Complete Unknown with my mom who actually was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when Bob Dylan went electric and so it was really fun to see the movie with her. We loved it, and I am working on a TikTok video of her. I tried to convince her to go right from that movie to an IMAX screening of the new Nosferatu movie, but she said no which I think was a wise decision on her part. So I went on my own tonight. You know what I'm gonna have to say that this movie was not made for me, and that's OK just like the studio Ghibli movies are not made for me. I tried them once - I tried it twice and I'm not gonna try again, I am going to have to say the same with campy horror like this.
Although my experience might have been ruined by the couple in front of me, who were vaping the entire time back-and-forth, although luckily, whatever breeze from the vents caused the smoke to go directly to the left of me, I felt bad for those people. Then the vaping folks turned on their phones and started tuning out the giant IMAX screen in front of them that they had paid to go to, but I finally had to lean in and tell this guy to turn off his phone when he started looking at naked selfies of himself during one of the climactic scenes of Nosferatu. I'll probably never see this movie again, so I just wanted to be able to sort of pay attention to Willem Defoe, who held this movie together.
That feeling you get when press SCHEDULE SEND on an email.
The entire audience that I was with did not like it. That's too bad. Lily-Rose Depp is beautiful and I think that she did a really good job. But it was a beautiful thing to watch, something did not quite fit together for me. The funniest part is they really drive home at the beginning that the husband is being sent on a trip for a real estate document transaction which is such a banal premise.
Tim C in the place to be
Ok, slow down I know you're freaking out…. you're wondering Ellen, please tell us which movie to go to. What do you think that we should do with the rest of our time.. before we get back to the soul sucking, muckraking, everything-taking, hyper volume that is about to be 2025. I mean it's no contest. Go see A Complete Unknown and then, go home and on this album on. I can’t tell you how many times I have listened to these songs, and this recording was made eleven years before I was born.