Here & Now broadcast my Petra Haden piece today, everybody should run out and buy it. … [Read more...]

Sure, Bernard Kerik and Judith Regan are easy targets. But last week's LAW AND ORDER had a spicy ex-police commissioner plot with Kevin Dunn doing a deliciously narcissistic Kerik, who was two-timing on publishing magnate Regan with a porn star. (In real life, the married Kerik was cheating on his mistress, a corrections officer...) Tape "Publish and Perish" next time it repeats… (NBC still hasn't updated for Annie Parisse, the new DA, on its web site.) WE STILL DON'T GET OUT MUCH Critical darling Mike Leigh blows hot (SECRETS AND LIES) … [Read more...]

"Imagine Something Awful," -- Phil Gallo in Variety (try bugmetnot). THEY LIKE ME... James Levine appeared on Charlie Rose a couple weeks back, and nobody seemed to notice his scathing subtext. The overall theme was how great his career is going, how beloved he is at the MET, how the BSO has rushed to embrace his leadership, and how shuttling between the two cities saves him all kinds of jet lag. But amidst Levine's descriptions of the good life, longtime BSO buffs heard pointed critiques of his BSO predecessor, Seiji Ozawa. To begin with, … [Read more...]

What's the Matter With Liberals, the new afterword to WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS, details the subtextual class warfare that Rove perfected in 2004: The only centrism to be seen on the Republican side was the parade of GOP moderates across the stage of Madison Square Garden, an exercise clearly intended more to pacify and reassure the press than to win over actual voters. When the cameras were off, it was a completely different affair: what Karl Rove called a "mobilization election" in which victory would go to the party that best rallied … [Read more...]

Elitism for Dummies: Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on DVD got picked up for the WBUR Arts Online pages. … [Read more...]

CLICKTRACK SNOBSITE … [Read more...]

"John Lennon's ex-lover May Pang has slammed his widow Yoko Ono for erasing her relationship with the late Beatle from the Broadway, New York musical about his life." Starring Joan Collins as Yoko Ono, Linda Blair as May Pang, Tab Hunter as Peter Fonda, and Brian Dennehy as Leon Wildes (Lifetime, 8pm). OOOOH... More Lists … [Read more...]

First saw this LONG EMERGENCY excerpt linked off Wolcott, then found Kunstler's own page of rants. (Is Rolling Stone trying to earn back our respect? If so, how come we still can't search by byline?) After we lock Karl Rove in a room with a laxative-dosed greased pig, this is our questioner... I HEREBY DUB THIS A NEW GENRE: If Largely Novelty Revolved Claudine Longet singing "Here There and Everywhere" as indelible match of singer to song, form to content. FINALLY Obscured in death last week by the mighty Saul, Frank Conroy is best … [Read more...]

I LOVE HUCKABEES (DVD) Reminds us how much we hate West Wing's TOTAL WASTE of Lily Tomlin…not to mention Kristin Chenowith… (John Spencer for VP? Can they Cheney-ize his broken ticker…?) UPSIDE OF ANGER Plenty of yucks, worth seeing for Pat Nixon, you'll forget it's Costner, daughters are thinly drawn, shocker twist should have come halfway, limps to a finish. Rental. SUPER SIZE ME (Showtime) Radicalizing. Favorite line: how at the end it takes him six months to burn off the last 4 pounds… OUR RATINGS, OURSELVES (New York Times … [Read more...]

WORDS ESCAPE ME A reader sent this link from Zwecker's People, via CBS2Chicago.com: "Hard-working actor and Glenbrook North alumnus Jeff Cahill will be featured on next Sunday's "Deadwood" series on HBO -- though Jeff's mom and dad, Josie and Ed Cahill (and Josie's loyal customers at the George What's Cooking eatery in Deerfield) are about to see Jeff look "the worst I've ever looked," a crazy, ear-less character named "Crop Ears" on the upcoming episode of the critically-acclaimed show..." Reader continues: "Also got it from Jim Beaver, who … [Read more...]