Jeremy Denk wrote a piece in the current New Yorker about two of his piano teachers, one of whom we shared. A friend wrote to ask about my reaction, so I replied: "Joseph Schwartz was really quite a terrific teacher, and invested in the idea of teaching on an individual level. We were all friendly in his studio and played for one another informally all the time. He had no cult of personality, and although his musicianship had virility and danger, he was a quiet man who acted as though all the great ideas were there for the taking. He … [Read more...]

...The things in Anderson’s films that recall Cornell’s boxes—the strict, steady, foursquare construction of individual shots, by which the cinematic frame becomes a Cornellian gesture, a box drawn around the world of the film, as inMoonrise Kingdom’s dressing room scene, with the little bird-girls framed by strips of lightbulbs; the teeming, gridded, curio cabinet sets at the heart of The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr. Fox—are often cited as evidence of his work’s “artificiality,” at times with the … [Read more...]

...Where are the writers of that stature today in the Tea Party South? I was made aware of the odd mix of gain and loss when I went back to Atlanta to see my beloved grandmother. She told me not to hold change between my lips while groping for a pocket to put it in—“That might have been in a nigger’s mouth.” Once, when she took me to Mass, she walked out of the church when a black priest came out to celebrate. I wondered why, since she would sit and eat with a black woman who helped her with housework. “It is the dignity—I would not … [Read more...]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "I don't want to talk about 1993. Want to talk about 1994." Kim Gordon Looks Back - NYTimes.com … [Read more...]

  How has your life changed following the success of Downton? I’ve been to parliament in England. We went to the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Paul McCartney was off-key completely, but I’m a massive Beatles fan, so who cares? I was there. I’ve been to South America to promote this show. I’ve swam with Great White sharks. It’s all because of this show and how people have bought into it. I just want to say thank you to everyone who watched and tuned in and loved my evil gayness. via Downton’s Rob James-Collier Assures … [Read more...]

Released date: February 5 Related articles Multi-Grammy© Winning Americana Duo Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell and Richard Thompson Electric Trio at DPAC, Durham Performing Arts Center, March 30, 2013 First Listen: Richard Thompson, 'Electric' Richard Thompson 1.16.13 Though of the Day … [Read more...]

… [Read more...]

From LRB: 23 May. A party for HMQ at the Royal Academy where around six we join a straggling queue of notables, the actors the most obvious, though Vivienne Westwood is her usual unobtrusive self. Talk to various people in the queue, one of whom seems to know my plays well but then congratulates me on my paintings of trees – she’s the first of three people who confuse me with Hockney and though he too is at the party I doubt if he is ever confused with me. Inside the place is less crowded than one had expected and with the rooms so … [Read more...]

  Too much plot (in a good way) with twists aplenty, from Patton Oswald's hapless knife-in-foot to the way the prison librarian drops the name Alan Furst just before Raylon's dad slits his throat, you could mistake this stuff for Elmore Leonard himself. It's as if Graham Yost not only internalizes the voice, mood, creep and suspense of the novelist's finer traits, but the larger psychological backstory of his dialogue's characters. Related articles Timothy Olyphant Talks JUSTIFIED Season 4 TCA: 'Justified' Spoilers and Scoop on … [Read more...]

Here We Go Magic (Secretly Canadian) Leonard Cohen, OLD IDEAS (Columbia) Loudon Wainwright, OLDER THAN MY OLD MAN NOW (2nd Story) Kelly Hogan, I LIKE TO KEEP MYSELF IN PAIN (ANTI) Mission of Burma, UNSOUND (Fire) Tame Impala, LONERISM (Modular) Raveonettes, OBSERVATOR (Vice) Iris Dement, SING THE DELTA (Flariella Records/Redeye) Norah Jones, LITTLE BROKEN HEARTS (Blue Note) Billy Bragg and Wilco, MERMAID AVENUE COMPLETE SESSIONS (Nonesuch) AC Newman, SHUT DOWN THE STREETS (Matador) Neil Young and Crazy Horse, PSYCHEDELIC … [Read more...]