Archives for 2008

Gone to China. Light blogging ahead. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

An artist friend of mine sent me a brilliant image he saw (and admired) a long time ago. He believes it was posted at Dark Roasted Blend. He can’t remember when it was posted or whose image it is. Can anyone identify and/or date it? The reason I ask: In the issue of The New […]

Harold Pinter, who died two days ago at 78, received the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 2005. Too sick to travel to Stockholm to accept the award, he gave his Nobel Lecture on video: The lecture begins with a quotation: In 1958 I wrote the following: ‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real […]

Elisabeth Bumiller’s Pentagon Memo takes note of the “semantic dance: What is the definition of a combat soldier?” Even though the agreement with the Iraqi government calls for all American combat troops to be out of the cities by the end of June, military planners are now quietly acknowledging that many will stay behind as […]

Lately I haven’t been paying much attention to “Countdown.” Non-stop, over-the-top bluster can get on anybody’s nerves, and Keith Olbermann has managed to get on mine — even though his rants take guts and even though I agree with them. But whenever he has Jonathan Turley on the show, as he did last night, I […]

The Iraqi TV journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi who threw his shoes at the Bullshitter-in-Chief is not the first to do it. The difference is Zaidi missed. But as Ed Sullivan used to say, he put on “a really big shew.” Too bad Señor Wences isn’t around to comment. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

You just read the special five-day, 16-blogger AJ conversation A Debate on Arts Education, right? OK, so maybe you didn’t. Well, never mind. Here’s the real thing: arts education in action, musically speaking. It’s a work for trombone choir and tuba by a composer who writes that he dedicated it to the memory of “the […]

At the Council on Foreign Depredations Relations this morning I expected to hear what I thought would be a Southern-fried swan song from Laura Bush. Instead it turned out to be a speech someone wrote for her about women’s rights, because today marks the 60th anniversary of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She […]

I don’t know what took me so long. It’s old news by now. But I’m still amazed. Here’s a text in English about William Styron, chosen at random from this blog. (Actually, someone else chose it.) Now here it is in Spanish, in French, in German … OK, how about Chinese? Gawd! Put in any text […]

Malcolm Mc Neill’s unpublished memoir about his longtime collaboration with William S. Burroughs, Observed While Falling, is just as spellbinding as the lost art of Ah POOK IS HERE, his current show at Salomon Arts (now extended through Jan. 16 ) in Manhattan. Mc Neill is one of those artists who can really write. The […]

Floating around cyberspace for at least a month and a half, via White Rabbit, this leetle coupon saver caught the staff’s attention only the other day.Though we were slow on the uptake, we did notice that no toaster coupons were available to match the many lesser-known banks that failed in the last year. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

Given the so-called change said to be coming to the aaaeulc, it may be seen as cynical to recall this Thanksgiving Prayer, first offered 20 years ago this week and dedicated to John Dillinger. But Uncle Bill‘s words of gratitude have a certain je ne sais quoi … the ring of truth maybe? Listen or, […]

Have a listen to the sweet nothings William S. Burroughs offers, by way of Philip Hunt’s extraordinary animation short. It was pointed out to me by Supervert. Ah Pook I’d say the film is an ideal accompaniment to Malcolm Mc Neil’s “lost art” exhibition, which has been extended through January. That’s Burroughs reading his text, […]

Is it something in the November air? Doubtful. Maybe it’s the god of artistic collaborations wanting to set the record straight. Let’s say it’s strictly dumb coincidence. Whatever the reason, this month provides a happy occasion for legions of Jack Kerouac fans, to say nothing of William S. Burroughs cultists, who always seem eager for […]

Because of something Ralph Nader said on Election Day — he asked whether Barack Obama was going to be an Uncle Sam or an Uncle Tom — I feel obliged to take note of an interview (as posted on YouTube) that Nader did shortly afterward with Fox Report news anchor Shepard Smith, who was shocked […]

If you think people have gone nuts for Obama memorabilia — they bought stacks of newspapers marking the Obama victory — get a look at the book collectors’ market. With enough scratch you can pick up a boxed set of Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope for a meager quarter mil. Here’s […]

Now that America has elected a black fist bumper to the presidency, take a look at the newspaper he has in his hand. Take a close look. The photo, shot during the election campaign, shows him carrying The Wall Street Journal. As everybody knows, the Journal’s editorial page falls somewhere between Barry Goldwater and Attila […]