Archives for 2004

My favorite Australian-born TV critic once wrote: “What the junk journalist doesn’t realise — or does realise, and waxes more aggressive so as to shout down his vestigial conscience — is that he’s not really a party to the star’s fame, which is based on solid appreciation and would still be there even if the […]

From the Maximum Leader’s bonkers budget to biochemical terrorism in Washington, the news is too depressing today. So here, for what they’re worth, are laughs from Lara. I don’t know who Lara is. She’s just a forwarding agent. But I do know she has a sense of humor, even though her women’s collection of photos […]

Ah, Vienna. Such a wedding cake. How gemütlich. So warm and cozy. But when you look closer, you discover the tarnish beneath the charm. Consider Austria’s major cultural export, the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic, which performs later this month at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. Seven years ago, after being criticized and pressured […]

We saw Janet Jackson’s breast-cum-starry-nipple bared by Justin Timberlake, reportedly an accident, then we saw a streaker. We saw the Budweiser donkey, the get-an-erection ads and the geriatric tug-of-war over a potato chip. We heard lots of noisy rock and crotch-grabbing rap. Did we see “Child’s Pay,” the moveon.org ad? Nope. Did we hear Willie […]

The big “if.” It’s the only reason to tune into the Super Bowl pre-game show this Sunday, as far as I’m concerned. If Willie Nelson sings his war-protest song, “Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth,” it might even make up for the craven CBS refusal to air “Child’s Pay,” moveon.org’s 30-second commercial, during the Super […]

Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert deliver a one-two punch this morning. Krugman wants to know: “Where’s The Apology?” He doesn’t see any: “George Bush promised to bring honor and integrity back to the White House. Instead, he got rid of accountability.” Two key grafs: As far as I can tell, nobody in the Bush administration […]

CBS won’t budge. More than 340,000 emails and phone calls since Friday have had no effect. The network is still refusing to run moveon.org’s 30-second ad “Child’s Pay” during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Yet it’s “allowing the Bush White House to run an advocacy ad of its own,” moveon.org says. Apparently that’s the CBS version of fair play. […]

Hailed as the latest big deal from the art world, John Currin’s first solo show at a U.S. museum is still at the Whitney in New York. The show’s roughly 40 figurative paintings, many of them satirical, wowed the critics for their cartoonish sensibility, their provocative take on female beauty, and their technical brilliance. (Click on […]

It’s hard to know which is the bigger news-related activities program: the Oscar nominations, the weapons inspector David Kay, the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, or the author Carrie Fisher? And that’s not counting Martha Stewart. Let’s see. … In the wake of Sunday’s Golden Globules, this morning’s Oscar nods seem slow off the mark, […]

The staff thought you’d be interested in this darling guitar tidbit from Jim Washburn’s Lost in OC column, The Music Industry Descends on Anaheim and Gives it a Hickey: “The 171-year-old Martin company unveiled its one-millionth guitar, a commemorative model so ornately resplendent with mother of pearl and jewels that it could double as a […]

What NASA didn’t tell us: Here’s the first Mars photo from the Opportunity showing signs of a primitive life form that apparently migrated to Earth. Puzzled scientists are still trying to figure out how to explain what they’ve seen. I would offer more this morning, but my greedy Internet Service Provider — TimeWarner’s overpriced RoadRunner, […]

If this is true, we’re in deeper shit than we thought: “During this year’s Super Bowl, you’ll see ads sponsored by beer companies, tobacco companies, and the Bush White House. But you won’t see the winning ad in MoveOn.org Voter Fund’s Bush in 30 Seconds ad contest. CBS refuses to air it.” That message just […]

In his weblog here at artsjournal.com Greg Sandow recently wrote a stunning blind item, “Dangerous Ground,” about an American classical-music megastar’s rumored pedophilia. Among other things, he argued that classical musicians, their “artistic piety” and “pretense of loftiness” notwithstanding, should be judged by the same moral standards as the rest of us and, by implication, […]

We’re good little Nazis now: “Republican students at the University of Colorado launched a Web site to gather complaints about left-leaning faculty members, saying they want to document discrimination against conservative students and indoctrination to the liberal viewpoint.” This is scary stuff. It reminds me of the atmosphere of “Berlin Noir,” Philip Kerr’s trilogy of […]

So you’re alone in the chauffer-driven limo, toking on a joint. But the limo is speeding. A state trooper clocks it, pulls its over on Route 28 not far from Woodstock, N.Y., and gets a whiff of that joint you were smoking. You are Art Garfunkel, pop star. Next thing you know you’re being searched, […]

The headlines have moved on, but people still haven’t gotten over Howard Dean’s concession speech on Monday night. That’s the water-cooler chat, not Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. Jodi Wilgoren’s front-page report, written on deadline, caught Dean’s embarrassing performance with an exactness worth a thousand pictures. Every perfectly chosen word was right: WEST DES MOINES, […]

From the Maximum Leader in his State of the Union address: “Twenty-eight months have passed since Sept. 11, 2001 — over two years without an attack on American soil — and it is tempting to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable, comforting — and false.” If this is so, how […]