Here’s something I wrote for the highbrows, who will probably disagree: “The Vienna Philharmonic’s discriminatory practices against women and people of color cast such a pall over its considerable artistic achievement that the orchestra has turned out to be the shame, not the pride, of Western civilization.
STRIKING THE GONG
As a recovering workaholic I took an unannounced day off yesterday. I’m also unprepared today. If the world were right side up, it would matter. But it’s not. So I’m relying on my old friend Skeets Gallagher to bring me around, and he’s no model of efficiency. Skeets is still catching up with last week’s […]
ZEN KRASSNER
“Neglect Paul Krassner at your own risk.” So sayeth Skeets Gallagher. Krassner’s most recent Zen Bastard column in the New York Press, begins with a tidbit about Der Gropenfuhrer that must have had the Los Angeles Times eating its heart out. Krassner writes: Maybe I should start selling “I Told You So” t-shirts. Five years […]
KITTY KELLEY, SINATRA & ME
Reprinted from the German edition of LUI, Nr. 11, November 1986, where it appeared in German translation as “Des Sängers Fluch.” It was never published in English — until now. By Jan Herman For a professional snoop, Kitty Kelley harbors a remarkably decorous feeling about her work. The least suggestion that she enjoys exposing the […]
SAMMY’S WHITE DREAMS
Four decades ago Lenny Bruce sentenced Sammy Davis Jr. to “30 years in Biloxi,” stripping him of “his Jewish star” and “his religious statue of Elizabeth Taylor.” Now we have two new biographies of Davis that spring him from ridicule, if not from doubts about his legacy, and restore a measure of dignity to a […]
DEFICIT ATTENTION MUST BE PAID
I’m falling down on the job. My staff of thousands reminds me it’s been a while since I’ve paid any attention to Gee Dubya Shrub. The reason, easy to understand, may be summed up in two words: Der Gropenfuhrer. Culifornia’s lemmingmeister has loomed so large he’s edged li’l Shrub out of the frame. This morning, […]
SCHISM OF THE ‘ISMS’
Because I don’t want to end the week on a sour note about Shrub and Der Grope, I’d like to point to Timothy Noah’s challenge to Tom Wolfe, yesterday in Slate. Will Wolfe take it? I hope so. I’d wondered why Wolfe’s entertaining polemic in defense of Edward Durell Stone’s white marble Gallery of Modern […]
TAP DANCING FOR DER GROPENFUHRER
So Der Gropenfuhrer has tapped a rabbi from the Simon Wiesenthal Center for his Culifornia transition team. Nu? The rabbi said he accepted the appointment, according to the Jewish daily Forward, because of “the assurance that this is not a partisan group.” More than that, the rabbi is already arranging a trip to Israel for Der Gropenfuhrer, notwithstanding his now-regretted […]
REVIEWS FROM THE BALCONY
The Gotham reviews are in. The score so far for “Golda’s Balcony”: two raves (Clive Barnes and Michael Sommers), one near-rave (Howard Kissel), one positive notice (Linda Winer), and one huge slam (Bruce Weber). If the variations make you wonder whether critics are worth their weight in newsprint, that’s not a surprise. Artists themselves, when […]
DON’T ASK WHY
You’ve probably seen references to most of the news events that Harper’s Magazine listed the other day in its Weekly Review. These aren’t all of them, just the ones that might have been a figment of Jon Stewart’s funny bone: A shoplifter in Amsterdam was kicked to death by supermarket employees. A lightning bolt killed […]
ACROSS THE COLOR LINE
Four decades ago Lenny Bruce sentenced Sammy Davis Jr. to “30 years in Biloxi,” stripping him of “his Jewish star” and “his religious statue of Elizabeth Taylor.” Now we have two new biographies of Davis that spring him from ridicule, if not from doubts about his legacy, and restore a measure of dignity to a […]
TARZAN AND DER GROPENFUHRER
The election of Culifornia’s Gropenfuhrer has spawned many articles about the meet-cute of fame and power, most recently Anthony Lane’s Talk of the Town piece, “Poll Stars,” in this week’s New Yorker, and Todd Purdom’s Week in Review piece, “Government by Celebrity …,” in Sunday’s New York Times. As Der Gropenfuhrer settles into Sacramento, we’re bound to […]
VIEW FROM THE EDGE
It’s hard to imagine a Jewish schoolteacher from Milwaukee with the power to plunge the world into a nuclear war. But after seeing the William Gibson play “Golda’s Balcony” (opening Wednesday on Broadway, following a successful Off-Broadway run), it’s not only imaginable but credible. Goldie Myerson, better known as Golda Meir, the prime minister of Israel from […]
TUROW AND THE DEATH PENALTY
“The death penalty is probably the one legal issue that everybody has an opinion about,” Scott Turow said. The best-selling novelist is out on the lecture circuit promoting his latest book from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, “Ultimate Punishment,” which he describes as “a memoir by way of an essay.” I caught his lecture the other […]
MAXING OUT
Overlooked but not forgotten, artist Peter Max has designed a limited edition of a half-dozen patriotic posters to help raise $1 million for the proposed Pentagon Memorial. Here’s one of the six, titled United We Stand, and here are two others, God Bless America and Peace on Earth. The signed posters, which go on sale […]
TIME OF THE LEMMINGS
It’s already old news that the lemmings have spoken. But now that they’ve elected Arnold Schwarzenegger as governator of Culifornia, what’s next? Running Clint Eastwood for president? Re-animating Sylvester Stallone and running him for senator? That’s too obvious. How about doing something really subtle. Let’s join Sen. Orrin Hatch’s campaign to amend the constitution so […]
SOUNDING FINE
Ever since Lorin Maazel took over the New York Philharmonic, critics have lined up for and against and in between. Today’s Financial Times review of their performance of Berlioz’s “Roméo et Juliette” puts the case on both sides as well as anything I’ve read: The maestro “is a bit like that girl with a curl. […]