Where They’re Turning The Police Blotter Into Literature

WORDS Posted: December 24, 2013 12:57 am

This town’s daily newspaper has just released a second paperback of police stories under the title, We Don’t Make This Stuff Up. (No, it’s not in Florida. Who’d believe what goes on down there?)

Facebook

Twitter

Duke Ellington, 1899-1974
Forty-nine years ago this evening at the White House in Washington, DC, the president of the United States hosted a party honoring Duke Ellington on his 70th birthday and presenting him with ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-24
Bob Dorough Is Gone
Word has arrived that Bob Dorough died today at his home in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania. He was 94. Dorough’s greatest fame in popular culture stemmed from his central role in the enormously ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-23
Monday Recommendation: McNeely & The Frankfurtians
Jim McNeely, The Frankfurt Radio Big Band, Barefoot Dances and Other Visions (Planet Arts) McNeely fortifies his position in the upper echelon of jazz arrangers in this set of new pieces for ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-23
Brio and Blossom
This week, the Cassatt String Quartet is having its annual Cassatt in the Basin residency, through which they bring the abiding principles of chamber music — effective communication, responsibility to the group, mutual respect, and ... read more
AJBlog: Infinite CurvesPublished 2018-04-23
Just because: Dick Haymes sings “Come Rain or Come Shine”
A rare kinescope of Dick Haymes singing “Come Rain or Come Shine,” by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, on Stage Show, originally telecast by CBS on October 1, 1955. He is accompanied by the Dorsey ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-23
Almanac: Carl Van Vechten on the critic’s job
“To me, discovery is nine-tenths of the interest in life.” Carl Van Vechten (quoted in Loulou Kane, “Prince of Portraits,” ia, October 2, 2012) ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-23
Catching Up
CATCHING UP When albums come out of the mailbox in batches of five, six, eight a day—or more—it is possible to overlook, set aside or misplace some that are worthy of mention. ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-22
‘Peculiar Shortcomings’
A word of warning from a century ago … Now one word to my own people and their peculiar shortcomings. Anglo-Saxon domineering is the greatest danger to Humanity in the world today. Americans are proud ... read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-04-22
La Salle Art Museum’s Promo Video Highlights Deaccessioned Works
“Wander through six permanent galleries [emphasis added],” the caption for the video walk-through on the La Salle University Art Museum’s homepage exhorts potential visitors. But while the galleries may be “permanent,” the installation shown on ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-04-20
‘For Sure Verboten’
U.S. cities with the fastest-growing wealth gaps. Monster Nor’easter The first day of spring a blinding white curtain kidnapped the city. It was a true blast of winter. We solemn jurors braved the ... read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-04-20
Poor Professor Higgins
In today’s Wall Street Journal I review Lincoln Center Theater’s new Broadway revival of My Fair Lady. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Of all the great Broadway musicals of the postwar era, “My Fair ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-20
Men without women
In the online edition of today’s Wall Street Journal, I review an off-Broadway revival of Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer. Here’s an excerpt. * * * Now that Brian Friel is gone, who is Ireland’s foremost ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-20
Replay: the Benny Goodman Trio plays Gershwin
Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa, the original members of the Benny Goodman Trio, play George Gershwin’s “Nice Work if You Can Get It” in an unidentified 1960 video clip: (This is the ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-20
Almanac: Winston Churchill on vengeance
“It may be that the Gods forbad vengeance to man because they reserved for themselves so intoxicating a drink. But the cup should not be drained to the bottom. The dregs are often filthy-tasting.” Winston ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-20
Armstrong And Ellington: Azalea
Until the past couple of days, spring around here was a date on the calendar and a rumor. But now there are tulips in front of the house. And magnolia blossoms 15 feet ... read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2018-04-19
Deaccession Dejection: La Salle’s Sales Slide at Christie’s
This is an I-told-you-so post. Some six of 16 old masters deaccessioned by the La Salle University Art Museum were left stranded on the auction block at Christie’s this afternoon. Of the 10 that did ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2018-04-19
A shock from the wider world
About Kendrick Lamar winning the Pulitzer Prize…of course it’s a great moment for the evolution of music as an art. Or rather for the recognition of how music long ago evolved. But then there are ... read more
AJBlog: SandowPublished 2018-04-19
C.L.R. James: Cricket Shaped Him
I know nothing about cricket. My only sense of the game came from Frank Harris’s portrait of H.G. Wells. But now that I’ve read The Young C.L.R. James: A Graphic Novelette (PM Press Pamphlet), which ... read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2018-04-19
So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-19
Almanac: Clive James on leaders and intellectuals
“Finally leadership, in any democracy, is a matter of character—a fact few intellectuals find palatable.” Clive James, Fame in the 20th Century ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2018-04-19

Older posts