ONCE AROUND THE BLOCK

Nice to see one of our strongest political columnists continuing to appear in the arts and culture pages. I'm talking of course about Frank Rich, of The New York Times, who excoriated the Bush administration Sunday for its sublimely misguided efforts to manage the news, "Why Are We Back in Vietnam?"

Loved it all, but especially his point that "the first place to look" for the news "is any TV news show on which [Condoleezza] Rice, [Andrew] Card, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld are not appearing." They get trotted out for Oprah or Letterman, while real journalists who might ask real questions, like Ted Koppel or the producers of "Frontline," get stiffed. It's an obvious point, but somebody needed to say it -- and Rich said it beautifully.

Speaking of political columnists, I'd say that David Brooks is still trying to find his rhythm as the latest addition to The New York Times's op-ed page. He's best when his political bias comes wrapped in clever social commentary. Otherwise he tends to go flat. Compare Saturday's column, "Living in the Age of Edge," about Helmut Newton as the personification of meaningless style, with a recent one about the three faces of the Democratic Party, "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly."

Just by using that movie cliché for a headline (even copy editors on the feature desk know to avoid it), he lowers expectations and fills up on conventional wisdom. The column on Newton, though not sterling either, at least draws the interesting conclusion "that of all the human traits that shape culture and history, the most underappreciated is the power of vacuousness."

Here's an example of strong writing by Martin Bernheimer on an entirely different subject: the Boston Symphony Orchestra's concert performance of "Pelléas et Mélisande" under principal guest-conductor Bernard Haitink. It's music criticism that speaks in real language, conveying real impressions without resorting to either the academic jargon of the specialist or the technospeak of overdone scholarship.