Blog — Half Mystic

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"As birds sing to survive, although they don’t have to." (Maureen Evans on Aubade)

"As birds sing to survive, although they don’t have to." (Maureen Evans on Aubade)

Dawn is portentous as any moment.

Music, Personal Essay, LiteratureGuestApril 27, 2019Maureen Evans

"The rhythm of these words gives me hope that moments of such precise beauty will always exist." (S.K. Grout on Aubade)

"The rhythm of these words gives me hope that moments of such precise beauty will always exist." (S.K. Grout on Aubade)

Aubades take place in liminal space; they are ephemeral and, like the perfect melody or the exquisite lyric, they are robust in the moment.

Literature, MusicGuestApril 16, 2019Taifa Faizullah, Ocean Vuong, John Donne, Radiohead, Mamamoo, Frank Ocean, Spiritualized

"A gratitude that exists not just opposite but sometimes within." (Courtney Felle on Aubade)

"A gratitude that exists not just opposite but sometimes within." (Courtney Felle on Aubade)

At fourteen, I watched the sun rise not as the beginning of a new day, but as a continuation of the night before, an endless monotony.

Music, Personal EssayGuestApril 12, 2019The Fray, The Script, Janelle Monae, Florence + the Machine, the Japanese House, Courtney Felle

"There is a horizon for me to meet. This is a limitless astonishment." (Rona Wang on Cranesong)

"There is a horizon for me to meet. This is a limitless astonishment." (Rona Wang on Cranesong)

For years, I wanted to diverge from my heritage, because to do anything else would be to assume the debt of being loved.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayGuestFebruary 7, 2019

“Motherhood is everything between.” (Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach on Interlude)

“Motherhood is everything between.” (Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach on Interlude)

Motherhood feels like it happens between things, between a finite beginnings and endings, to begin and end infinitely.

Music, Personal EssayGuestNovember 21, 2018Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

“Now the next movement begins. Now the music starts again.” (Sara Hovda on Interlude)

“Now the next movement begins. Now the music starts again.” (Sara Hovda on Interlude)

Now the music starts again, the ending morphs into an interlude morphs into new notes. Never a silence that stays.

Personal Essay, MusicGuestNovember 9, 2018Sara Hovda

"Both movement and stillness. Both overture and opening. Both promise and abandonment." (Donna Vorreyer on Interlude)

"Both movement and stillness. Both overture and opening. Both promise and abandonment." (Donna Vorreyer on Interlude)

So much of our lives are scheduled. We mourn the lack of interlude, lament the promising lull of nothing to do.

Music, Personal EssayGuestOctober 29, 2018donna vorreyer

Self-Portrait With Cardinal Wing & Mesabi Cherry (Adrienne Novy on Crowd Surfing With God)

Self-Portrait With Cardinal Wing & Mesabi Cherry (Adrienne Novy on Crowd Surfing With God)

You came so far & you still made it here, she says, & I am thinking of a migration of birds exhaling into feathers.

Literature, Music, Personal EssayGuestAugust 8, 2018bill moran, sun yung shin

"All of our pieces have as many stories as they have listeners." (VIRTA on "About to Fly" & Cadenza)

"All of our pieces have as many stories as they have listeners." (VIRTA on "About to Fly" & Cadenza)

I think the meaning of this piece and all of our music depends when and where and by whom it is being listened.

MusicGuestMay 24, 2018

“An observed animal that moves in an odd dance, a snippet of line that seems written across a storm-filled sky.” (Kate Bucca on Cadenza)

“An observed animal that moves in an odd dance, a snippet of line that seems written across a storm-filled sky.” (Kate Bucca on Cadenza)

The music jumps, cuts, flourishes in a way I don’t attempt to map out, recognizing the particular logic of feel.

Music, Personal EssayGuestMay 6, 2018carole king, elton john, john prine, kate bucca, king crimson, the beatles, the police, the who