Archives for August 2006

Here's my story on Pollini's Nocturnes, aired last Wednesday. If you just wanna grab the RA file, go for it. He gave me a very chatty twenty minutes, even though everybody I asked beforehand reported him to be "monosyllabic." He was in Lucerne, Switzerland, doing press from his hotel room, and I … [Read more...]

When George Will can say something as racist as this on TV without a firestorm: "When you see Lamont standing there on victory night with Jesse Jackson looming over one shoulder, and Rev. Al Sharpton looming over the other, where does the Democratic death wish come from...? " [paraphrase] … [Read more...]

On last Friday's Front Porch with Eric Lott talking about the Dartmouth Dylan conference. … [Read more...]

"Does this Leonard Cohen trib pic have too many Canadians? Yes. Does he come from Montreal? Of course. Do they give Rufus two songs when Teddy T. has the better voice? Absolutely. Should they have interviewed some critics to provide a larger context? You bet. And where's Bruce Cockburn? Rebecca … [Read more...]

Joke of the week. (Audio) … [Read more...]

You don't see Wills genuflect all that often, except perhaps to St. Augustine or Abe. But I spent the vacation pouring through At Canaan's Edge by Taylor Branch, and it's to drool for. There's an intriguing unanswered question left dangling at the end: LBJ suddenly announces his withdrawal from … [Read more...]

Weird watching Munich a couple weeks back; it's soundtracked the Hezbollah crisis for me. Easily swamps Schindler's List in how Spielberg handles prickly moral themes; Geoffrey Rush is quiet and astounding; the Tarantino homage where PLO confront the Israelis at their "safe house" is a hoot. That … [Read more...]

SOFT FEATURE, SOFT EDIT Inexplicably missing from Rob Walker's report on Brand Underground are sites like Threadless, where you get to make up your own slogans and vote for designs. Walker did include a link to Cool Hunting, however, which is a clickfest for anti-fashion. … [Read more...]