RECOMMENDED: Music, "There Goes Rhymin' Simon" by Paul Simon / Publication, Bomb Magazine

Music. “There Goes Rhymin' Simon,” third solo studio album by Paul Simon released in 1973. Mr Simon’s progression after Simon & Garfunkel is a transcendental maturation and creative open-endedness that isn’t easily achieved by any artist with limited stock that most often than not, got maximized and used-up in his/her former incarnation. Instead, Paul evolved more and, certainly, more at ease with his strut, poetry, and leisure. 

       In this album, Paul Simon spanned into several styles and genres, such as gospel ("Loves Me Like a Rock") and Dixieland ("Take Me to the Mardi Gras"), and more. The later gems “Graceland” (1986) and “The Rhythm of the Saints” (1990) would accentuate the man’s incomparable genius. Add a cappella, zydeco, isicathamiya, mbaqanga, and a sweet stew of diverse worldbeat.

       “…Rhymin’” received two nominations at the Grammy Awards of 1974, which were for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male and Album of the Year. But awards whatsoever, Paul Simon didn’t have anything to prove except that he’s having fun. 

        The musical textures are ethereal. Halo of gospel, shimmer of Jamaican rhythm, and of course, unmistakable old Simon and Garfunkel folk allure. The easy mischief of "Kodachrome," the infectious tease of "Loves Me Like a Rock," and the seductive invite of "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" tell me Paul Simon’s “…Rhymin’” is playful-blessed young with an innocent glow yet still quietly cerebral as his classics “American Tune,” “The Dangling Conversation,” or “The Sound of Silence.”

       Paul Simon made 11 more solo albums after this, 14 in all—the last one is 2018’s “In the Blue Light.” He once said in an interview that what scares him in old age isn’t about dying but losing the ability to create songs. Amen. 🎼🎹🎼

Magazine. BOMB, a New York City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit arts magazine edited by artists and writers. The first issue came out in 1981. I discovered BOMB in second-hand magazine stall called Vision Mix in Manila. I grabbed a copy, randomly—checking out various publications for ideas. 

       My mind at that time was all-pulp motivated; my first venture at self-publishing. Or I was contracted by a huge mass-market publisher A.G. Guerrero to produce a magazine that was “different” from the “komiks/magasin,” showbiz reads, and sports weeklies that his family has been publishing for decades. He gave me full freedom to explore. What I had in mind was an inexpensive reading, printed on inexpensive paper. 

       BOMB wasn’t exactly that “pulp” stuff although the particular issue that I had was black and white on “dirty” bookpaper. What got me was the publication’s concept. Content was primarily interviews between creative people working in a variety of disciplines—visual art, literature, film, music, theater, architecture, and dance. Plus reviews of literature, film, and music, as well as new poetry and fiction. 

       BOMB was launched in 1981 by a group of NYC-based artists who sought to record and promote public conversations between artists without mediation by critics or journalists. The magazine’s name is a reference to both Wyndham Lewis' 1914/15 “Blast” and the fact that the magazine's original editors expected the publication to "bomb" after one or two issues.

       I named my project with A.G. “Cool.” Honestly, I didn’t know if it was going to “bomb” as well. I hired Manila’s “alternative” artists, musicians, and poets as contributing writers and put up a staff of newly-grad Art students at the Univ of the Philippines, the vanguard of progressive thoughts back home.

       When I left Manila in 1998, I founded another similar newsmagazine in New York City called The Independent, which later evolved into The Indie when I moved to Asheville, North Carolina right after 9/11. 📚✍️📚