Art and Culture

I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

I once attended an American Library Association Convention, and I found myself in line for an inscribed copy of Lust by Susan Minot.  Unlike many authors that day, she had a comfortable demeanor as though we were longtime friends.  She signed my book, “Thanks for being the first in line that day.”  I recently got a copy of her latest book, a collection of short stories, Why I Don’t Write.  Her prose is fluid, captivating, and downright funny. 

History and art are interconnected in countless ways, and to understand those connections is a good way to understand both of them better.

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The Jordanairs' "Down on My Knees and Pry" is one of the most manic, most frantic gospel songs ever cut to vinyl.

Hear the full "Down on My Knees and Pray" by the Jordanairs, 45, here.

I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry.

It has been a while, but, at last I received the latest collection of poetry by Billy Collins.  Whale Day is another magnificent collection by this talented poet.  My only problem is trying to narrow down the selections for this wonderful introduction.

One of the country's leading museums is celebrating its 150th anniversary and displaying the range of human creativity as it does so.  

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Echoes of Heaven from 1953 features Austin's Bells of Joe and their original line-up at their very best.

Listen to the full music track , Echoes of Heaven from the Bells of Joy, here.

I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Fiona Davis is a best-selling author of several novels.  She lives in New York City.  She graduated from the College of William and Mary and Columbia Journalism School.   The Chelsea Girls is her fourth novel.

The appearance of a mysterious work of art allows an overlooked artist to appear as well.

It sounds like something straight out of science-fiction: a mysterious silver monolith standing 10 feet high deep in the remote deserts of Utah.  No one knows how it got there; no one knows how long it’s been there; no one knows who put it there.  Utah state biologists counting bighorn sheep from a helicopter discovered it on the 18th of last month.

Very quickly there was speculation in the art world that it could be the work of a minimalist sculptor named John McCracken, who died in 2011. Those who knew him and his work well however were skeptical.  A spokesman for the gallery that 

You probably haven't heard many songs performed faster than "Don't You Know Me, Thomas?" by Rev. H.B. Crum and the Mighty Golden Keys.

Hi, I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry.

With hundreds of books in my TBR pile, sometimes it takes years to get to a particular book.  I am not sure how I came across this one, The Restaurant of Love Regained, by Ito Ogawa.  This interesting and absorbing book was released in 2008.  It is a splendid story of love, loss, and Japanese cooking.  Ito was born in 1973 and she authored several children’s books.  She also runs a popular website about cooking, where she supplies daily recipes of Japanese cuisine.

A Comic strip character that once caused a riot reflects the power of art to convey significant messages.

When I was a little boy, I had two animal toys sitting on my bookcase.  One was an alligator standing up on his hind legs and the other was a little gray furry thing wearing a striped shirt. I had a vague sense that the two came from a comic strip, but I really wasn’t sure.  I knew their names, so I—or my parents—had to have been familiar with where they came from.  The alligator’s name was Albert.  The grey thing was a possum named Pogo.

Pogo was a comic strip drawn by Walt Kelly that ran in newspapers from 1948 to 1975.  Kelly was born in 1913 and worked as an animator on the Disney films  

The Hightower Brothers were a fine gospel family band originally led by 10-year-old lead vocalist Robert Lee, better known as "Little Sugar."

Hear the full track below!

On this month's episode of Conversations with Creative Waco, Emily MacDonald shares about the Historic Waco Foundation's upcoming exhibition "Making History: The Art of Historic Waco" which features works by local artists of all skill levels and styles. Melissa Pardun, co-owner of Maker's Edge, joins Kennedy Sam to give an update on the Makerspace and highlight how to give the gift of creativity this holiday season.