WELCOME.

The Avocado Jungle is a source for current events, politics, arts and culture on the web. Editor In Chief David P. Kronmiller, along with a talented staff and guests, bring you news, commentary, analysis, interviews, humor, music, art and more. Our deeper mission is to seek truth in understanding, offering current events, arts and culture as paths to that understanding. We value and promote creative thought, intelligent dialogue, elevated debate, and informed action. If you see something that interests you on the site, please take the time to leave a thoughtful comment. Thanks for visiting.

Jungle Writers

David P. Kronmiller, Editor-In-Chief
Notes from the Jungle
Matthew Tullman, Current Events Editor
On current events.
Joyce Chen Blogging from New York.
Tharuna Devchand Blogging from South Africa.
J Lampinen
Our resident comic strip, Congo & Steve
Joanna Lord
Blogging on life, art and spirituality.
Jeremy Olsen
Director of Development emeritus and occasional commentator.
Dan Rickabus
On things musical.
Nicky Schildkraut
On poetry.

Plus guest writers and past staff, including Zach Fehst, Amy Reynolds, Aaron Vaccaro, Jae Day, Sarah Jawaid, Scott Martin, and Bronson Picket.
July 23, 2010, at 12:07 pm — Arts and Culture | Audio | audio interview | Interviews | Music / / / / / / / / /

An interview with Dana Castaldo of Red Light Go

"Aldo Sings", photograph by Angela Richelle. From the Red Light Go recording session at PRS in Pasadena March 12, 2010.Dana “Aldo” Castaldo, the founder and the musical heart of Los Angeles rock band Red Light Go, talked to our music blogger Dan Rickabus about his music. And don’t miss his recent performance with his wife, Claudia, on Music In Our House!

July 21, 2010, at 10:30 am — Arts and Culture | Music | music blog / / / / /

Just Jam!

Worrying about what art will be, before the art actually IS, can only hurt art. Just get it all out there, put all of your heart into something and if it sounds/looks/tastes/feels like mush, then its mush. However, the more we do it, the better it becomes. So, long story short, just jam!

July 20, 2010, at 5:24 pm — Arts and Culture | Audio | audio interview | audio podcast | Interviews | Music / / / /

An interview with singer-songwriter Adjoa Skinner

Adjoa Skinner, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and Summer 2010 Avocado Jungle Artist In Residence.Some people just radiate energy and life. It seems those who have it might just have been born with it. Our music blogger, Dan Rickabus, had a great interview with one of those people: singer-songwriter (and Avocado Jungle Artist In Residence) Adjoa Skinner.

July 11, 2010, at 7:38 am — Arts and Culture | Music | music blog / / / / /

A Musical Thing

In terms of music, success typically means that someone is paying you big bucks to make your music, and you can buy your record at Best Buy. However, being the emotional-honesty-purist and societal skeptic that I am, I would beg to differ.

June 11, 2010, at 6:58 am — Arts and Culture | Blogs | Music / / / / / / /

The Dissonant Truth

After hearing one of the strangest and most violently foreign peaces of music I’d ever heard, I ended up taking away a great comfort in knowing that you can always travel deeper in this limitless universe.

June 2, 2010, at 2:39 pm — Arts and Culture | Blogs | Music / / /

Tribal Reprise

Tribal music is making a return, seeping slowly into our modern tunes, and as it was the first music that anyone made EVER, all it can do is bring us together.

May 25, 2010, at 6:17 pm — Arts and Culture | Music / / / / / / / /

Scope & Scale of Tune & Tale

Playing with the scope and scale of the music as a whole vs. the actual message of the song is quite fascinating to me – especially when huge songs deal with tiny momentary topics, or tiny songs deal with massive truths.

May 20, 2010, at 6:48 pm — Arts and Culture | Music | music blog / / /

The Sounds of Now

Now isn’t a bad time for music at all! We’ve got the internet, and the power it has given us has led to a diverse musical climate that encourages uniqueness.

May 20, 2010, at 12:16 pm — Arts and Culture | Audio | Music | music tracks / / / /

Music: “Never” by Adjoa Skinner

The Avocado Jungle is proud to welcome our new Artist In Residence, Adjoa Skinner, and to present a track from her EP Nothin More To Say. This is “Never”.

Never by Adjoa Skinner.

May 18, 2010, at 6:03 pm — Arts and Culture | Music / / / / / / /

Simplicity

I was having a conversation with my brother the other day about a new record that came out, and it lead to me discovering a problem I’m continually having with albums released in the last couple years. The issue is, for lack of better terminology, too much stuff!