Time magazine chokes, Iranian President-elect possible hostage-taker, and Brooke Shields goes all FEMINIST on Tom Cruise. Kelly Macdonald saves humanity, a concept the nimble Nighy somehow manages to keep aloft for an hour and forty minutes. In the real world, let's hope Pink Floyd takes the stage by ripping into the lopsided, "Money" riff (in 7/4), let those 8 power-drunk white men sort that one out... FAVORITE PIANISTS (living) 1. Andras Schiff (Bach, Schubert, Schumann) 2. Stephen Bishop Kovacevich (Beethoven) 3. Leif Ove Andsnes … [Read more...]
GILMOUR AND WATERS REUNION
June 29, 2005 By
FAVORITE PIANISTS (recordings) 1. Sergei Rachmaninoff (Chopin) 2. Arthur Rubinstein (Chopin, Brahms) 3. Dinu Lipatti (Chopin) 4. Friedrich Gulda 5. Walter Geiseking (Schubert, Schumann) 6. Geza Anda (Bartok) 7. Wilhelm Kempff (Schubert) 8. Rudolph Serkin (Marlboro, early Beethoven, chamber music, Brahms Second Piano Concerto in B-flat with Szell) 9. Solomon (Beethoven) 10. Artur Schnabel (Beethoven, Schubert) … [Read more...]
SCOTS ARE THE NEW AUSSIES
June 26, 2005 By
Funny, Craig Ferguson said this ("An armed society is a polite society...") on his show last week and I mistook it for a Scot's blandishment on American gun culture. Turns out to be Heinlein? GUILTY PLEASURES 1. Paul McCartney MCCARTNEY (1970) 2. Graham Nash SONGS FOR BEGINNERS (1971) 3. Alice Cooper SCHOOL'S OUT (1972) 4. James Gang LIVE IN CONCERT (1973) 5. Harry Nilsson A TOUCH OF SCHMILSSON IN THE NIGHT (1973) 6. Elton John CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (1975) 7. Amy Grant HEART IN MOTION (1991) 8. Frank Sinatra FRANCIS A. & EDWARD K. … [Read more...]
WEEDS WEEDS WEEDS
June 21, 2005 By
DEATH CIRCUS Is Six Feet Under all about unsympathetic characters? Is Claire out of her mind? How unbearable is Ruth--more unbearable than last season? Will Rachel going to jump on her new boss? Will she jump on her new boss's family? Do Keith and David have the healthiest relationship on the show? Doesn't partying with a Vegas stripper seem like a stupid reason to deny gays the right to parent? Could somebody point Rico in the general direction of a clue? Are we supposed to sympathize with George for marrying Ruth under false pretenses? Will … [Read more...]
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK
June 16, 2005 By
BEAT IT : Michael Moonwalks Boston Herald (previously a winner for HELLFIRE!, after Waco. Why was there so little competition for this?) MUST BE A GOOD SIGNWhen the season-closer of a series makes you feel a sense of loss. THE SHIELD did this, despite the fact that Glenn Close's last scene, fired and sipping wine alone in her apartment, didn't send shudders down the spine. But it was just a gentle landing to a show that's all about subtext, which is lacking in most forms of dramatic storytelling these days. In fact, it's a theme: Seans Ryan's … [Read more...]
NIXON IN HEAVEN: DEEP THROAT IS FELT! FELT!
June 12, 2005 By
Why did "they" let Harry Shearer's Nixon into heaven? So he could "let off steam?" No, just hoping he and his toady Erlichman would "lose their edge [RA]. Sorta thing. LET US NOW PRAISE Chip Kidd … [Read more...]
POCKETBOOK CULTURE
June 9, 2005 By
Lisa Napoli at Marketplace talked to me for a short industry story this morning (RA). Thanks Vince! … [Read more...]
IKE’S INNER KRESKIN
June 8, 2005 By
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible, and they are stupid." - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, l952, from the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association TAKES A … [Read more...]
GO DOWN, OPRAH
June 6, 2005 By
Oprah picks three Faulkner novels for her summer reading club, complete with free online commentaries by scholars... The Vintage box includes AS I LAY DYING, SOUND AND THE FURY, and LIGHT IN AUGUST, which is more like the novelist's broiling core than a 8th-grade educated audience's introduction. Probably don't have time to reread these, but I'll be checking on this... DYING is often used as a primer, but FURY is stone-cold difficult no matter who you are, and AUGUST is a Christ allegory that should get some tooters hooting. TOP 90s ACTS … [Read more...]
GUT-BUSTER
June 1, 2005 By
Don't let the opening number put you off: Mario Cantone captures Norma Desmond as well as Jim Morrison (the lost Christmas special), and his Laugh Whore Showtime special makes the direct and necessary connection between gay-bashing and lynching. Nobody's caught Liza quite this well, and for Cantone, "Cher has an Oscar... and that's the punch line." (Mario Cantone.com) WHEN NEWS WAS NEWS While VF basks in beating the Washington Post out of its own defining story, nobody's asking where the Woodward and Bernstein of the Bush administration … [Read more...]
