Archives for June 2005

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 … [Read more...]

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, … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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? … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]

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...]

Lisa Napoli at Marketplace talked to me for a short industry story this morning (RA). Thanks Vince! … [Read more...]

"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 … [Read more...]

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. … [Read more...]

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 … [Read more...]