Phil Keaggy Archives - Bob on Books

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The Silent Book Club Boom

Back in 2016, I posted an article about Silent Reading Parties. No thanks to me, I’m sure, this idea has caught on in a big way. Healthline, as part of a feature on the social and cognitive benefits of reading, highlighted Silent Book Club, an organization that now has 1400 chapters and counting worldwide.

The idea is simple and genius. Get a group of friends together, everyone bring your own book in whatever format you wish (with headphones for audiobooks). Here’s how many break down the time:

30 minutes–people arrive, order drinks/food, share what they’re reading
60 minutes–quiet reading
30 minutes–optional socializing, or just keep reading

Groups can adjust the times to fit their needs. Most meet monthly.

It looks like a number of these are hosted by bookstores, often offering discounts on books people buy during these gatherings. Makes sense.

What also makes sense is the idea of reading in companionable silence without having your reading choices determined by a club. And its always fun to talk books with other bookworms. For those who don’t like book clubs but like to talk about books with others, this might be something to try. The Silent Book Club website includes a map to help you find a group near you as well as help starting a group of your own.

Five Articles Worth Reading

You don’t have to tell most readers the benefits of reading. But if you want to encourage others to take up the habit, “How Reading Can Help Reduce Stress and Anxiety” discusses the mental health benefits of reading.

Poetry and prayer have a connection going back to Israel’s Psalms and other Ancient Near East Literature. Ed Simon explores the close connection of prayer and poetry throughout literature in “Prayer is Poetry.”

Friends who have seen the Book of Kells describe it as one of the most beautiful books in the world. Plus, it is housed in the incredible Trinity College Library in Dublin. Open Culture offers a great introduction to this illuminated manuscript, including a six-plus minute video at “An Introduction to the Astonishing Book of Kells, the Iconic Illuminated Manuscript.”

From ancient manuscripts to this year’s books. NPR just posted its “Books We Love” feature for 2024 with 350 picks from their staff. In addition, you can access their choices going back to 2013!

Whether you like Taylor Swift or not, she has revolutionized the music industry, including re-recording much of her work, enhanced the fan base of the Kansas City Chiefs, and recently concluded her Eras tour, breaking concert attendance, gross income, and other records. Now, in publishing her own book on the tour, she’s changing the way some celebrities relate to publishers. The Atlantic has the story in “Taylor Swift Is a Perfect Example of How Publishing Is Changing.”

Quote of the Week

“Variety’s the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor.”

This is one of those axioms that is part of our collective store of wisdom. But who said it? English poet and hymn writer William Cowper, who was born November 25, 1731.

Miscellaneous Musings

I was thrilled to learn today that a recording by two of my favorite artists is coming out this weekend. Phil Keaggy is an incredible guitarist from my hometown of Youngstown. Malcolm Guite is a contemporary poet, priest, and scholar with a marvelous English accent. They have combined talents with Guite reciting poetry and Keaggy providing guitar accompaniment in “Strings and Sonnets.” I wish I could recite poetry like Guite does!

Speaking of poetry, I’ve been reading Dana Gioia’s Meet Me At the Lighthouse. “Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir” reminds me of the “ghosts” behind some of the ornaments we hang. I have to admit to finding things I like about Gioia’s work and ways I connect every time I read him!

Just finished Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, this year’s Booker Prize winner. While I think I’ve read better fiction in 2024, Harvey does capture something I’ve heard about before–seeing our planet from space is transformative–both its beauty and precarity. There is NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) footage online that gives some sense of what the fictional International Space Station astronauts and cosmonauts experience in Harvey’s work.

Next Week’s Reviews

Here’s what I expect to be reviewing next week:

Monday will be my monthly “Month in Reviews” post recapping my November reviews.

Tuesday: Agatha Christie’s One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Wednesday: Samantha Harvey’s Orbital

Thursday: Dana Gioia, Meet Me At the Lighthouse

Friday: Mike Cosper, The Church in Dark Times

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 17-23, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Vintage Glass Harp LPs

Rock ‘n Roll and Youngstown just seem to go together. Your gritty, basic guitar, drums, and bass bands seemed to just fit the gritty character of the city. Probably at one time in most neighborhoods of the city, some young adolescent guys would form a garage band with a guitarist who knew three chords (but what more did you need to play Gloria, the classic garage band song?).

In the 60s and early 70s there were some classic bands many of you might remember — Blue Ash, Left End, Pied Pipers, the James Gang, and Glass Harp among them. Probably the band that made the biggest splash, albeit a one hit wonder was the Human Beinz with “Nobody But Me.”

Bands like Left End and Glass Harp played all over the area and have had reunion concerts in recent years. Left End had a reunion in June of 2014. A month later, Dennis T Menass (Dennis Sesonsky) passed away. Blue Ash was a favorite at The Freak Out, where they made their debut. I remember seeing Glass Harp in concert at a union hall on Belle Vista, and like everyone who has ever seen them was astounded with Phil Keaggy’s guitar work.

There were lots of music venues around the city (and still are from what I can tell). I already mentioned The Freak Out on the South Side. Over in Austintown, a favorite was the Gazebo Room or the Orange Room at Wedgewood Plaza. Eventually the State Theatre in downtown became a music hall, later the Tomorrow Club and the Youngstown Agora. Lots of people drove up to Kent to hear area bands at J.B.’s. I also remember a place near the university called “Gates of Eden” that was kind of a coffeehouse, and a good place to hear acoustic music while we were all weirdly illuminated by “black” light.

Idora Park ballroom for many years was the scene for many of the great Big Bands. By the sixties they started hosting teen dances at which many of the local bands played. Major groups played the park as well including Blue Oyster Cult. WHOT days also featured a number of singers and groups. I remember my sister going to see Bobby Sherman when she was crazy about him!

When we were at Youngstown State, Beeghly Center was the venue of choice for a number of big name acts: Don McLean (“American Pie”), Cheech and Chong, The Guess Who, Aerosmith, and James Taylor among others. Of course, Blossom Music Center was nearby. I still remember an America concert I went to with some friends. It had rained that day and the lawn was wet. We were seated near an embankment and we spent the whole evening watching couples arm in arm and guys trying to act cool go slip-sliding down the hill and ending flat on their backs. Far more entertaining than the show!

My hunch is that if you had to pick the iconic Youngstown band, it would probably be Left End, with its bad boy, punk rock character, epitomized in Dennis T. Menass. Somehow that fits the “you gotta be tough” attitude of the city.

I suspect this all sparks lots of memories of the places and groups I’ve mentioned and many more that I haven’t. I’d love to hear your stories of rock ‘n roll in Youngstown!