Month: March 2025

Jacksonville Jazz Festival announced lineup

Presented by Jacksonville Aviation Authority, this Jacksonville Jazz Festival is amazing multi-day music festival, is completely free! Featuring several award-winning artists performing in the heart of Jacksonville, Florida.

Weekend Gamer: Xbox Keenan

The much-rumored Xbox Handheld, codename Keenan, is coming to us closer than you think (I first mentioned this in Nov 2024)! The details are exclusively from a report via Windows Central. It’s set to be released this year (probably before Christmas to make for the maximum sale) and it is as much as I suspected: MicroSoft is just going to get a manufacturer to make their handheld. I think they are going to partner with Asus, who make the ROG Ally (my favorite handheld), to redesign an Xbox-branded ROG Ally. There will be some key difference, probably the branding and also that Xbox Button that you find on all their controller. The Xbox button would bring up a hotbar – similar to what you get when you’re playing on an Xbox Series X or S.

The Magic of Wandering Days

Nobody’s Empire by Stuart Murdoch. There are plenty of artists who cross genres into writing books—actors, directors, and musicians have all tried this form of creative expression. It doesn’t surprise me that musicians venture into the literary genre, especially singer-songwriters, who only have to trade their microphone for a pen to tell a story that sings. Stuart Murdoch, the singer-songwriter behind Belle and Sebastian, the Scottish indie-pop band that gained acclaim in the early ‘90s behind Murdoch’s witty lyrics and gorgeous melodies, seems perfectly suited to the task. Besides writing several albums that now span decades, Murdoch has published The Celestial Café, a collection of blog entries, poems, and lyrics, and written and directed a film, 2014’s God Help the Girl, about a lost and lonely young woman who starts a band with friends in Glasgow.

Cindy Lawson at Cloudland Theater (March 7, 2025)

An evening of local music was on the slate at Cloudland Theater with Cindy Lawson as the headliner. Entering Cloudland, you will get greeted by Anslem, just about the friendliest door man in all of the Twin Cities. He’s been at it since they opened and does nearly every show. And Cloudland really is a tremendously friendly and inviting venue, giving local artists a real space to perform.