Archives for April 2004

Back in March, we took notice of the Dieter Roth retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. ArtsJournal colleague John Perreault recently reviewed it and quoted Roth dissing the Fluxus group with which he was associated: In fact, Roth hated Fluxus: “It was the club of the untalented who made a verbal virtue of their […]

The Guardian in London has launched a week of arts coverage by guest editors, and it’s not to be missed. On Monday the < FONT color=#003399>Franz Ferdinand issue had “a different take” on tabloid newspapers’ topless pictures (an article < FONT color=#003399>about censorship by the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, who shot this bottomless image); a tale of < FONT color=#003399>music lessons (have they […]

Book critic Michiko Kakutani has the fine habit of writing accurate reviews. I trust them. The other day, though, her review of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar struck a weird note. Was Stalin, as she seemed to allege, a classical pianist? Quoting the book’s author, Simon Sebag Montefiore, she wrote: Stalin, Mr. Montefiore […]

Apparently a different one from Donald (“You bet!”) Rumsfeld, whose command of verbal tactics challenges the basic meaning of words. For instance, when asked Tuesday whether the Pentagon was considering the deployment of more troops to Iraq, he replied: “Are we considering it? No. But have we prepared? You bet.” It would take the editors […]

Strange to say, one of Straight Up’s most faithful readers is a raving rightwing lunatic who sends nicely designed but anonymous emails telling us how great we are, except for what he considers our raving leftwing lunacy. Because we’re so bloody fair-minded, we thought we’d give him the soapbox we keep in the corner for […]

Always good to see the editorial page of The New York Times ratifying our snap judgments. The editorial board must be genteel, of course. It cannot be as blunt as we were about Colin Powell, but its considered opinion this morning is pretty much the same. This is what we said yesterday: So he warned […]

So Colin Powell didn’t want to go to war. So he warned our dopey Maximum Leader about owning Iraq. Let’s not make the U.S. Secretary of State a hero. Isn’t he the man of principle who went to the U.N. with so-called proof of WMD in Iraq, which he in fact doubted? Didn’t his diplomatic […]

What Calvin Trillin’s poetry is to The Nation, Leon Freilich’s is to Straight Up. Noting our question earlier today — we asked for thoughts on “whether ‘the little fucker’ should be our Maximum Leader’s new designation” — Leon penned us this verse: BUNGLE BOY “The little fucker” goes too far;The guy ain’t quite a bloody czar.Something more moderate is dueThe man […]

It was ’60s and ’70s hard rock. Jason Keyser, the AP reporter who filed the news story from Falluja that U.S. troops challenged insurgents to come out and fight by blasting rock music at them, identified AC/DC and Jimi Hendrix as the artists whose music they used.  That at least shows excellent taste and probably that the troops […]

Wrapping the week: U.S. troops reportedly blasted rock music at the insurgents in Falluja to provoke them into a fight. Now that’s an idea that Rummy, Wolfie and the boys never thought of: weaponizing American pop culture to win the war in Iraq. What beats do you think the troops used? 2Pac’s? Eminem’s? 50 Cent’s? Snoop Dogg’s? Jay-z’s? Notorious B.I.G.’s? Ludacris’s? Dr. Dre’s? Nelly’s? […]

“Whatever else there is to say, the guy is simply out of his league,” we said. Charles Pierce, sitting in for Eric Alterman thank you, said the else today in funny, exquisite remarks: Holy Mother Of God God knows we’ve all made happy sport of the Avignon Presidency, especially in this little corner of the […]

Tomorrow’s a big day for Harrison Ford. The theater where he made his West Coast stage debut, The Laguna Playhouse, is to honor him as its “most distinguished alumnus.” The playhouse — which was founded in Laguna Beach, Calif., in 1920, making it one the nation’s oldest continuing theater companies — doesn’t say who the […]

Marc Weisblott was one of blogland’s savviest culture commentators, but he quit blogging. So said I on Monday. He read the item and on Tuesday began posting again. This time he’s calling his posts radio weisblogg, “news and commentary about the evolution of AM/FM etc.” Have a look while it lasts. You’ll see what I meant. … The Burlington Free […]

Jazz drummer Max Roach’s remark on music education and rap — “People who voted for defunding of music education programs in public schools are getting what they paid for” — drew comments. One reader wrote that the poet John Ashbery said somewhere: “The only thing worse than rap is French rap.” Anybody know where? Another […]

A friend of mine just got back from Japan. He’s a record producer, Bill Reed by name, who has also published two books: “Hot From Harlem,” a history of black entertainment that profiles key figures, and “Early Plastic,” a memoir of growing up in West Virginia and coming to New York, where he landed in Greenwich Village and became a […]

Guess who the critic is talking about: 1) Frank Sinatra2) Bing Crosby3) Mel Tormé4) Tony Bennett The man practices artless art. He takes verbal liberties, even makes occasional mistakes. Since he doesn’t seem to notice or care, no one else can. He chats between songs. He invites the audience to ignore the command in the […]

Here we go again. Watch this morning’s hearings live on the Web as the 9/11 commission takes more sworn testimony in public. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit