What album is John Lennon carrying into Abbey Road studios for PEPPER sessions, 1967? (From I Love Music.)Jane Dark has good stuff on Critical Karaoke, the latest teeny-bopper craze out of the EMP, including Greil Marcus doing Roxy Music's "More Than This" by way of Bill Murray. And this is a decent single-page meta-blog directory. … [Read more...]

The front page of Sunday's Seattle Times featured a photo of coffins containing bodies of US soldiers being secured inside a cargo plane at Kuwait International Airport. Tami Silicio, a contractor who took the photo, was subsequently fired from her job. Here's a simple litmus test: papers that run this photo on the front page are good. All others ought to be ashamed. Story continues with ST's Air Force followup here.Can't tell if the WPost had any coffins on its front page, but the story it ran did have a link to The Memory Hole, the site that … [Read more...]

...My feeling is that Deadwood will be an examination of morality. About men with an untouched world at their feet, with the power to turn it in the direction they wish. Some men, like Swearengen, want to spoil the land for their own gain. Law and order is a threat to his violent, corrupt existence. Other men, like Bullock, a smart, tough man born to lead, naturally gravitates to the exact opposite. He's inclined to protect, to aid, to do right by his fellow man. Deadwood is something of an analysis of the inception of law, and of how an … [Read more...]

Sat 10 Apr 2004 John and Yoko. Her supporters are critical of lingering British dislike for the women they think stole their Beatle. by TIM CORNWELL, ARTS CORRESPONDENT, THE SCOTSMAN IF HE were alive today, he might well have approved. As Yoko Ono prepares to bring the most complete collection of John Lennon’s artwork to Britain next month, she is in pursuit of a long-held aim to turn the former Beatle into a global brand. Lennon himself once said that one of his more notorious antics, the Bed-In, in which he and his Japanese wife lay in an … [Read more...]

Lotta traveling, lotta sleep disruption, good to be back. Britain was grand, especially the Elgar and the "adorable" little Fawlty Towers hotel I stayed at in Liverpool. Spencer Leigh invited me to appear on his Merseyside Radio show Saturday night with CP Lee, a very funny Dylan author from Manchester; alas, not available online. Erstwhile, headed WEST for a Spokane gig, return late tonight, and back in the saddle Thursday and Friday. Next week Moses is on spring vacation... Is it just me or do kids get loads more vacation than I did as a … [Read more...]

4 April 2004, 7.30pm Barbican Hall, London ELGAR: The Apostles LSO, Richard Hickox, conductor  John Mark Ainsley, St John  Alastair Miles, Judas  Alice Coote, Mary Magdalene Claire Rutter, Blessed Virgin/Angel  Teddy Tahu Rhodes, St Peter  James Rutherford, Jesus (Brian) London Symphony Chorus Several years ago in Chicago, Sara and I dropped in to hear the CSO even though we didn't know the piece, Elgar's FALSTAFF. I'm no big Barenboim fan, but it was an INCREDIBLE evening of music: he conducted without a score, which is dicey no matter … [Read more...]

So I arrive in London last night after an interminable British Airways flight after watching SHATTERED GLASS, that movie about the NEW REPUBLIC fiction scandal, which I stuck with only because people like Chloe Sevigny and Steve Zahn were in it. Lead performance was pretty decent, it was the writing again, alas. In a movie about WRITING. But the thing is I came over with a new Nokia 3100 all ready to rock and the damn thing wouldn't work. It noticed THREE available networks but wouldn't get chummy with any. So I spent the morning at a global … [Read more...]