Podcast: Paisley Park is in Your Heart – A Conversation with Stuart Willoughby, Author of Minneapolis Reign

Podcast: Paisley Park is in Your Heart – A Conversation with Stuart Willoughby, Author of Minneapolis Reign

(Featured Image: Cover art for Minneapolis Reign: A Guide to Prince’s Hometown by Stuart Willoughby.)

As listeners are no doubt aware, next week will be a big one for Prince fans in Minneapolis: Monday through Wednesday is Prince from Minneapolis, the second-ever (and first in the States) academic symposium devoted to papers about Prince; then, from Thursday to Sunday, Paisley Park will open its doors for its second annual posthumous Celebration event. I will be there for both, so I thought now was the perfect opportunity to talk to Stuart Willoughby, whose book Minneapolis Reign: A Guide to Prince’s Hometown documented his own trip to last year’s Celebration 2017. Stuart and I had a really fun conversation, which will hopefully give everyone else out there planning their own pilgrimages some pointers about where to go and what to do in Prince’s hometown.

As always, remember to subscribe to the d / m / s / r podcast on your service of choice (iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play), and to leave us a review if the spirit moves you. I look forward to meeting some of you in Minneapolis next week!

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Prince Track by Track: “Dead on It”

Prince Track by Track: “Dead on It”

(Featured Image: “Master Rapper” Barney Rubble, an MC at least slightly wacker than Prince circa 1987; photo stolen from Overthinking It.)

I’ve been trying to squeeze in at least one guest spot on Darren Husted’s Prince: Track by Track podcast per album, and for The Black Album I couldn’t resist taking on what is arguably its goofiest track, “Dead on It.” Listen to Darren and I dissect Prince’s skills on the mic here:

Prince Track by Track: “Dead on It”

I’ll be posting another podcast–one of my own–by the end of the week, then it’s off to Minneapolis!

Surprise, Dystopian Dance Party is Out!

Yesterday I sent the first physical issue of Dystopian Dance Party, the magazine I create with my sister Callie, to the press. I initially tried to share a preview of the page layout, but apparently the service we’re using doesn’t allow that without it being listed for sale on their storefront; so, what the fuck, you can now order our inaugural Prince issue a week earlier than planned!

If any readers out there are wondering why I haven’t been posting much lately, this is pretty much your answer. We put a lot of work into the magazine, and I hope that shows in the results. Included is work by myself and Callie, obviously, but also poets (including friend of the blog Jane Clare Jones!), artists (9T99, Jonathan Caustrita, Purple Project, and more), and even an honest-to-goodness spiritual medium. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be: eclectic, slightly irreverent, and unlike any other Prince tribute on the market.

For those interested in a digital copy, those will be available next week at a slightly reduced price (I’m thinking $6.99). And if you happen to be in Minneapolis next week for the Prince from Minneapolis conference and/or Celebration 2018, I’ll have about 50 extra copies for sale at $9 each!

You guys know I hate sounding too sales-pitchy, but I really am proud of this and want to get it into the hands of as many people as possible. I’ll be back to giving away my work for free soon, I promise!

Podcast: 40 Years of For You

Podcast: 40 Years of For You

dance / music / sex / romance is fast approaching its third year, so to celebrate, we’re going…backwards? That’s right, to mark the 40th anniversary of Prince’s debut album, I thought now was the perfect time to go ahead with an idea I’ve been toying with for a while: our own sub-series of review podcasts looking at each of Prince’s albums in isolation.

I’m doing this for a few reasons. First, it’s a way to bring those of you who have been listening to the podcasts but not reading the blog into the loop on my chronological Prince project–and also a way for me to work through some of these albums before I can get to it with my glacially paced writing schedule.

Second, I’ve known from the beginning of this project that if I really wanted to do Prince’s catalogue justice, I would need to incorporate more voices and perspectives than just my own. We all have our biases and blind spots, and as a Prince fan I am acutely aware that one person’s sentimental favorite can be another’s unlistenable mess (and vice versa). That’s why I asked my friends Harold and KaNisa, both of whose encyclopaedic knowledge of Prince’s career dwarfs my own, to join me. I think you’ll find that our tastes and opinions both intersect and diverge in a lot of interesting ways, which allowed us–and hopefully, will allow you–to take a different perspective on some of these songs and the context in which they were created.

I hope you enjoy this new approach to an album that remains underappreciated in Prince’s catalogue. If you do, I hope you’ll subscribe to the podcast on your streaming app of choice (iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play), and if you’re so inclined, leave a review! No matter what, thanks for listening, and see you again soon.

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