August 2006 Archives

Here's my story on Pollini's Nocturnes, aired last Wednesday. If you just wanna grab the RA file, go for it. He gave me a very chatty twenty minutes, even though everybody I asked beforehand reported him to be "monosyllabic." He was in Lucerne, Switzerland, doing press from his hotel room, and I Skyped him.

When George Will can say something as racist as this on TV without a firestorm:

"When you see Lamont standing there on victory night with Jesse Jackson looming over one shoulder, and Rev. Al Sharpton looming over the other, where does the Democratic death wish come from...? " [paraphrase]

On last Friday's Front Porch with Eric Lott talking about the Dartmouth Dylan conference.

"Does this Leonard Cohen trib pic have too many Canadians? Yes. Does he come from Montreal? Of course. Do they give Rufus two songs when Teddy T. has the better voice? Absolutely. Should they have interviewed some critics to provide a larger context? You bet. And where's Bruce Cockburn? Rebecca DeMornay? Judy Collins (who showed up at Sundance, not that her absence is a flaw, mind you, but she's the biggest star associated with a Cohen song: "Suzanne," which is sub-par for him). Where's the Jeff Buckley reference during "Hallelujah?" How does Lenny feel about SHREK -- did it buy him a house or something? Do royalties tend to rise during the spring, summer and fall? Do we really need megalomaniac rock star Bono telling us how to be humble? Let me tell you something: as the Sec'y of Defense I could tell Bono a thing or two about HUMILITY. And what about the Brits? Cohen had his biggest hit there in 1969... What about other songwriters, what have they learned from him? You'd have a DICKENS of a time digging up any quotes of him roseating any scenario. He was born with the gift of a golden voice for pete's sake. Well... my goodness... "

Of course if you've got Cohen there telling stories, he's irreproachable. After Johnny Cash, that face is a Mt. Rushmore of rock, the look of aggrieved idealism. There's the sense in which Cohen's whole life has pointed towards his capacity to shrug it off in his old age. Dylan should be so comfortable in his own skin. Cohen's like an old soul grown young. Where does he go for musical solace, Paolo Conte?

Joke of the week. (Audio)

You don't see Wills genuflect all that often, except perhaps to St. Augustine or Abe. But I spent the vacation pouring through At Canaan's Edge by Taylor Branch, and it's to drool for. There's an intriguing unanswered question left dangling at the end: LBJ suddenly announces his withdrawal from the Democratic race, and two days later MLK is dead. What was King's response to this political powderkeg? RFK sat with his nemesis at the White House stuttering for words to convey his gratitude, the selflessness of the act... what kind of phone calls went down in those two days between political operatives, EJH, Nixon, Humphrey, and especially the Viet Cong...?

Weird watching Munich a couple weeks back; it's soundtracked the Hezbollah crisis for me. Easily swamps Schindler's List in how Spielberg handles prickly moral themes; Geoffrey Rush is quiet and astounding; the Tarantino homage where PLO confront the Israelis at their "safe house" is a hoot. That naked hitlady, though, that's problematic, like the shower scene in SL, it's a sop to Hollywood clichés. And that climactic orgasm intercut with the inciting atrocity, well that's just cheap. Here's Hoberman:

As the German police bungled their rescue operation, so Spielberg mangles this sequence by intercutting it with Avner's agonized conjugal relations and scoring the montage with a strident reprise of the film's opening lament. Is this the filmmaker's big bang theory? His tantrum? In a textbook case of abuse, Spielberg surrenders to his own despair and lashes out . . . at the audience...

But isn't it still a step beyond that stupid Schindler red dress? While Spielberg is a pure product of Hollywood, uninterested in aiming beyond our worst habits, or prejudices about ourselves, his treatment of this material is far more than competent. (EAT YOUR HEART OUT MEL GIBSON.) Even critics I usually agree with or respect enough to argue with (Rosenbaum, Zacharek, Sragow, Hunter) are hopelessly divided. Perhaps it ages better than it screened at first.

TONY, THIS IS MITT

Aside from driving home the fact the Romney doesn't read (does that make him presidential?) we have the NYTimes, in a Sunday "Week in Review" print capsule, declaring that Tony Snow apologized for his stem cell = murder remark because he has such a squeaky clean record as the new White House press spokesman. NYTimes, meet the Boston Globe -- waitasecond, don't you two papers have a business connection or something?

SUCKER FOR NIGHY

Even this photo can't spoil the fun:

SOFT FEATURE, SOFT EDIT

Inexplicably missing from Rob Walker's report on Brand Underground are sites like Threadless, where you get to make up your own slogans and vote for designs. Walker did include a link to Cool Hunting, however, which is a clickfest for anti-fashion.