Top of page
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Wow. Wow, wow, wow! I promise that I will quit posting so heavily about Paul Simon ? maybe after the concert airs on June 27 on PBS ? but I do have to gush a bit about Wednesday night’s performances. Where to begin? First, leave it to the Library of Congress’s blogger (moi) to be …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Sorry about the ?radio silence? for much of the past few days ? it’s a function of the slam-bang schedule we?ve been having. I simply could not, however, merely drift into Memorial Day without writing this post. I’m as excited as anyone that this weekend marks the unofficial start of summer in the United States. …
Posted in: LC Web site, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Big night last night, big night tonight. Paul Simon was in the Great Hall last night to receive the first Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. His acceptance remarks were funny and humble. He touched on the moment when he was first inspired to write music: He was listening to the radio as …
Posted in: Music, News, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I hope this whole Gershwin Prize thing can help serve as my mea culpa for the sparse posting, but I did want to point out this Richard Harrington story in the Washington Post’s Weekend section on the selection of Paul Simon as the first recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I was a few paragraphs into writing this post when, just a few minutes ago, the power in the Madison Building flashed off and back on again. Were it not for WordPress?s auto-save function (new in this version, thankfully!), I would have lost the entire thing. The only reason I mention that is because ? …
Posted in: News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I just came from Dr. Billington?s office, where he conducted a media interview in advance of the fast-approaching Gershwin Prize and all-star concert. (I hope to link to the news story within the next few days.) What was especially interesting to me before the interview was that a few other staff members were there, each …
Posted in: Events, Music, News, Washington DC
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Attending poetry readings seems like one of the great fringe benefits of my job, except that occasions such as last evening?s are free and open to the public at large. The Poets Laureate of the United States and the United Kingdom came together in a historic joint reading at the Library of Congress in a …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
For people of a certain age ? for instance, mine ? few performers or artists have defined American music quite so distinctly and significantly as Paul Simon. I remember watching ?Simon and Garfunkel: The Concert in Central Park? on HBO as if it were yesterday, and Paul Simon?s ?Graceland? was one of the first CDs …
Posted in: Events, Music, News, Washington DC
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I’m overdue in mentioning this, as I had promised several days ago, but in addition to the other annual diversity months, the Library of Congress is joining in the official May observance of Jewish American Heritage Month. A list of our events can be found here. In addition — and I believe this is a …
Posted in: Congress, Events, Jewish American History, News, Washington DC