FROM THE VAULT (ORIGINALLY POSTED IN 2015) It seems like a long time ago when I was sitting in my living room, listening to Burnin’, and Bob Marley’s image on the cover of the album spoke to me. Burnin’ Album Cover Picture. TheWailers Burnin’ I wrote down what he said—in Patois—which I do not speak. […]
Author: mikejopitz
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Activist
Activist A few years ago, one of my students–I think the class was Environmental Literature.–had been reading a labor newspaper before class and gave it to me. It had an article about how often women organized and supported labor movements but that the men took the credit and also took the labor of women for […]
The Dub
It’s interesting to think about the relationship of a song to its dub. I discovered this relationship through listening to Burning Spear’s Marcus Garvey and Garvey’s Ghost and Lee “Scratch” Perry’s dubs of many classic reggae songs. Because I was a member of reggae’s white, middle-class audience, I was immediately drawn to the spiritual and political songs and sought them out.
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The Karma Refugees: Mini Concert
Karma Refugees Caitlin Brutger and Mike Opitz perform an intimate three song set live in their home studio, The Maltshop. Here they perform three songs from their recent virtual album, Dreams and Visions (2013—available on this website). The video was shot and produced by Adam Konczewski. Different Lifetime Murakami Moon Summer and a Dream
Notes on the writing of “Streets (One Way)” Dreams and Visions, song 1 One of the aims of this site is to produce songs that are linked to theory that can provide insights into the glut of junk the contemporary consumer world has made for us, and of us. In that sense, the work of […]
My Grandmother and the “Bandit”: Two Songs About Marietta Marcolini My grandmother, Marietta Marcolini, was born in rural northern Italy and came to New York as a very young, naïve woman. She came for an arranged marriage to a much older man, who soon died and left her a single mother. Thus began her descent […]
The Process of Making “Summer and a Dream” Documenting Caitlin said that she loves to document things. This seems to conflict with my avoidance of documenting things. I rarely even take pictures, and like to scratch lines on the beach that the tide will wash away at high tide. Through some strange path of personal […]
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Virtual Album – Dreams and Visions
Streets Suitcases for Walter Benjamin Midnight in Triana Bandit Different Lifetime Boom Soca for Soul Reprise Remake of One Drop Song Lost Cause Beck Summer and a Dream Virtual Bliss What a Shame Trad Blues Murakami Moon from Haruki Murakami 1Q84 Summer and a Dream (live in the Maltshop) Angel from Montgomery (John Prine Live […]
In the ruins of the city Cardboard for a bed Sleep the great musicians With visions in their heads. At the end of Empire Living in the debris Arise the great dancers Struggling to be free. The city falls around them “The fruits of Babylon”* Soldiers in the streets at night Terror in the dawn. […]
Karma Refugees: A Trip through Benjamin’s “Author as Producer” After a while we started to think we needed to give a name to the group of song-makers had that gathered each of the last several years to write, play and record songs. Tom, Kathee and I had been members of The One Drop, a college-town […]
Mike Opitz Song Writing and Theory Project 