Image via WikipediaAs a critic, I spend a lot of energy resisting both cliches and superlatives. Hyperbole be the enemy of specificity, and so on. In this instance I have no hesitation: I heard George Shearing at the Aspen Music Festival in 1979. He played a long, adventurous set with a bassist, … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2011
Elton John’s Greatest Non-Hits via Rob Sheffield
Image via Wikipedia"Hercules" (Honky Château, 1972) Elton has fun pretending to be a grits-kicking Southern boogie man, boasting "I like women and I like wine" over roadhouse piano, guitar twang, and a "doo-wop shoo-bop" chorus. It sounds like he's tipping his hat to Lynyrd Skynyrd -- except their … [Read more...]
Scripting News: Does Assange have an agenda?
Image via WikipediaDoes Julian Assange have an agenda? We've heard the question so many times, usually asked by American media, whose agendas we are intimately familiar with. My answer, on reflection, is yes, I think he has one, and he has said what it is. And it's not what the big media people … [Read more...]
GRIFTOPIA, TAIBBI
Cover via AmazonWith the $13-Plus trillion we are estimated to ultimately spend on the bailouts, we could not only have bought and paid off every single subprime mortgage in the country (that would only have cost $1.4 trillion), we could have paid off every remaining mortgage of any kind … [Read more...]
La Lupe, by Milo Miles
"The story of Guadalupe Victoria Yoli Raymond, known as La Lupe, is a poignant tale of a performer ruled by instinct and ecstasy. First, she was the right talent at the right place at the right time -- and then, all too soon, she wasn't. Before long, the one-time sensation was cast aside by the … [Read more...]