Are the front-page editors of The New York Times embarrassed that it took them so long to catch up with The Wall Street Journal, which front-paged the same story three years ago? Probably not. But maybe they should be. Way back on Aug. 11, 2003, under the subhead The basics of the story about “An […]

“Cobra II.” What more could they have to say that they hadn’t said already? Still, it was worth witnessing Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor this morning at the

What’s the difference between a plagiarist and a copycat? Nothing really — except one admitted it and the other didn’t, one is a writer and the other is an artist, one had her novel plagiarism vs. Vik Muniz’s

“Armed Madhouse,” a five-part investigation of the “global economic piggery” that starts at home in the good ol’ U.S. of A. To borrow a friend’s coinage for one of Greg Palast’s typical columns, goes like so: Here is our new world of militarized greed, where America’s panic over lunatics with box-cutters has metastasized into a […]

Here’s one fer da books: “Naked Lunch” and tales of one to make your hair stand on end. Remember Karl Böhm, beloved German maestro at the Met?” PPS from another friend: “A

new Neil Young album (due out in May)? I haven’t. But the song title sounds catchy. [April 28: written here, during the 2004 election campaign: On the third anniversary of 9/11, the best way for Americans to honor the dead is to look to the future by realizing that the upcoming presidential election will be […]

Brazen arrogance + abysmal incompetence = “I’m the decider.” An old story by now. But the

Now that Repulski has his And the answer is: In a The artist’s son writes that his father “started out as a Cubist under the influence of his friend, Juan Gris.” Quintanilla was reluctant to engage in politics, but in 1934 he hosted a committee of the October revolution in his studio and was arrested […]

Apparently prompted by yesterday’s Dear Repulski — You are a man of strong intuition or ESP, maybe both, because I just re-read

Mining the files has uncovered a text from Sept. 23, 1971. The original, typed out on seven pages of orange graph paper with photo illustrations, includes this little potboiler: A LIBERATIONIST PLOT The Pacific Railroad Station was marked for destruction. It sat between two hills adjacent to an old farm. The morning was cool and […]

“Cut Up or Shut Up,” “Twinpak” (with an illustration), “la poésie visuelle politique,” and so on. Sorin’s article is part of a two-page spread, “LA ‘LITTÉRATURE’ SAUVAGE,” which also includes Jean-Michel Palmier’s essay, “Quand Lénine devient Mickey,” about Abbie Hoffman, Allen Ginsberg, and others. Ain’t dat a kick in da head?

First he made “Old Glory” condoms that came in red, white and blue. Then he got them patented as a patriotic anti-AIDS device after a fight with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Now he’s submitted a formal proposal to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a Disneyfied Vegas-style Resort & Theme Park in […]

Several points to make before signing off for a while: 1) Dontcha just love Paul Krugman’s anti-McCain columns? “The Right’s Man” on March 13 was tasty. “It’s time for some straight talk about John McCain,” Krugman began. “He isn’t a moderate. He’s much less of a maverick than you’d think. And he isn’t the straight […]

Looking through my files, I see more than a dozen videotapes hidden away in the dark recess of a book shelf. Off the top of my head, I didn’t recall making as many. But there they are, most of them dating from 1971 and 1972. They document the works and views of a handful of […]