The D Man

The D Man is a commercial litigator and has too much iron in his blood.

Among other things, The D Man enjoys music, the Chicago Cubs and Boston Celtics, Sufjan Stevens, Mark Kozelek, poets, lists, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page, Cormac McCarthy, Harold Bloom talking about Cormac McCarthy, concert posters, South Africa, sons (Dylan, Colin, Evan), theology, Adam Miller, Terryl Givens, and Truth with a capital T.

His blog is dedicated to sharing the best in contemporary music.

Consider this Bloomian rip-off: we have but one life, and cannot listen to everything.  If we choose to listen, and I believe we should, as it allows us to enjoy or contemplate our mortality, what shall we listen to?  The "popular" music shared on this blog is an attempt to answer this question.  Because you value life and what you listen to enough to visit this blog, The D Man thanks you for your participation.  Listening to great music is a pursuit that can augment your consciousness in ways that only reading can rival (and arguably even trump).

Perhaps music's prime concern is similar to reading, which Bloom suggests is to discover, in the words of Samuel Johnson, "what comes near to ourself, what we can put to use." We may likewise apply Sir Francis Bacon's solemn recommendation for reading to the realm of music: "Listen to not contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk or discourse, but to weigh and consider."  Finally, we may paraphrase Emerson regarding the best books, and argue that the best songs also "impress us with the conviction, that one nature [sings] and the same nature [listens]."  Pragmatically, all of this means the following: learn to listen deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that sings and listens.