II. I've been trying to figure out a way to engage with you on some of your arguments. I deliberately steered clear of the homosexual themes in part because they don't reflect my direct experience but also because I felt a firm groundwork needed to be laid first before somebody could come along and give that treatment... I think it would still be very useful, can imagine a VERY good book waiting to get written... but to me the LEAST interesting aspects of Bowie, Elton John, and Boy George are their sexualities... I wanted to mount a spirited … [Read more...]

I. Date: May 16, 2006 10:33 PM Subject: finished your book To: Tim Riley and boy do I have comments. They are too lengthy to go into right now, but I hope to soon. In the meantime... My main question is: What is this book about? What I expected was a book about Madonna, Bowie, Elton, Mick, k.d. lang, Boy George, 80s hair bands...and how they blurred gender. I also predicted comments on how shitty women in rock (not pop) are treated in the mainstream, or even in indie rock. Instead I read a book about how Elvis and Tina are the blueprint for … [Read more...]

SPIN CYCLE In ONE WEEK, the Bush Administration, mired in DEEP POISON-POLL DOO-DOO, still managed to turn the story from this (G.O.P. LAWMAKERS FAULT A TOP PICK TO LEAD THE C.I.A.) to this (Bush's Picks for C.I.A. and a Court Succeed). Imagine the kind of success they could enjoy elsewhere if they were as competent at spin as they were policy, deployment, international relations, emergency management, etc. BANDS ARE BANKS Investment banks have identifiable personalities, decided Mark Gilbert, a columnist for Bloomberg News. So do rock … [Read more...]

LINE OF THE MONTH "Crime watch on the braid..." Marjene reluctantly agrees with her neighbor to keep an eye on her own polygamist wife. SONG TITLES TO LIVE BY from Willie Nelson on Imus in the Morning: "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body Except Mine." … [Read more...]

CAN YOU UNDERSTAND MY PAIN?"* Despite some SHAMELESS name-dropping (never a good sign), Goldstein's "Satellite Dylan" piece in The Nation (nice cover!) steers things back to the bard's misogyny, which he usually skates on: I don't claim that Dylan is determined by machismo -- there's much more to him than that. But I will say that he reaches many men of a certain age and status on precisely these grounds. He digs beneath their ambivalent embrace of sexual equality, the insistence that they acknowledge their interests as a sex, and he … [Read more...]

Time was when a set of Chopin Nocturnes didn't really make waves... everybody does'em, and recently the fad has centered more around the Preludes. Both can be mistaken for student pieces, but like everything else by our beloved Freddie, they're all student pieces and every pianist is gonna play them to death so get used to it. Still, this DG set from Pollini stands out more for the pianist than for the material; it's the kind of recording that could be defining for him, after eons of ravishing perfection, the great Italian takes his biggest … [Read more...]

THE BOB DYLAN ENCYCLOPEDIA by Michael Gray (832 pp, Continuum) While not the David Thomson of rock, Gray aims pretty high, and hits enough marks to keep you going back for more (see Marcus, Greil, and Lee, CP). Without ever describing his tone or solo style, his incisive entry on Robbie Robertson spins your head around several lampposts: ...In 2005 he saw the rease of another of his rewriting of history, a 5-CD plus one DVD set titled THE BAND: A MUSICAL HISTORY, in which he re-mastered his own choices of material from Ronnie Hawkins & the … [Read more...]

THE MOST RADICAL WRITER IN AMERICA If I were lucky enough to be teaching a Freshman expos-lit course, I'd bring this in (from 5/02/06): Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, released a video in which he showed his face and claimed that the Bush Administration had lied about its military victories. "America," said Zarqawi, "will go out of Iraq, humiliated, defeated." The United States announced that it would free 141 of the 490 "enemy combatants" at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba because they do not threaten U.S. security … [Read more...]

On May 4, 2006, at 2:07 PM, JB wrote: Dear fellow music lovers:  As you know, I collect lists.  Over the years, I have assembled a list of the top records of all time, as identified by various critics and publications.  These lists usually focus on rock, pop and r&b, with very little attention to blues, jazz or country and no classical at all.  I am looking to fill in some of the gaps in my collection, but the gift certificate I have will only allow me to buy 2 or 3 CDs, so I need your help.   The list below contains the highest ranking … [Read more...]

blog of the week What Would Jesus Blog? LOVE LIKE A TRUCK On two new releases, the Bottle Rockets make like special prosecutor's on the country's warrantless wire-tapping WMD-lying ass: Zoysia and Live in Heilbronn Germanny July 17, 2005 on which they make Neil Young's "Cortez" lie down and beg for it. PS: Does anybody else remember El Chicano? Pueblo, Colorado, 1971? METANEWS CJR * Daily CSJ … [Read more...]