Archives for 2008

Have You Seen...? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thomson (Alfred A. Knopf, 1024 pp) For a thinker with writerly titles (Warren Beatty And Desert Eyes), this literalism goes kerplunk. And the organizing conceit (1,000 films sequenced alphabetically by title, 1200 thoughtful words … [Read more...]

Tim DeChristopher (best header: LAST AUCTION HERO, Grist magazine) now represented by former Better Land Management lawyer Patrick Shea. … [Read more...]

I have two new obsessions: twitter, and all its flotsam, and I forget the other one. This NYTimes article ran WITHOUT LINKS, making it that all-too typical "norm" in newsprint "web coverage," good reporting that doesn't get you where you want to … [Read more...]

"Something very vital indeed, something revolutionary happened to American culture during the 1930s..."--Francis O'Connor … [Read more...]

First, a comment: Does anybody really think the economy would be in this much trouble if we HADN'T been spending $10b/month in Iraq? How come nobody's asking THAT question? ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Ed Ward reviews Ted Gioia's Delta Blues in Truthdig Anil Dash on music industry, Dylan Tom Carson on Veep … [Read more...]

"In his adivce to the players Hamlet says that the purpose of playing is to hold 'the mirror up to nature' (3.2.20). But the metadrama of modernity does, in a way, the opposite. It holds nature up to a mirror, and it believes the mirror. Never more than when it juxtaposes stage death and real death … [Read more...]

True, the damage wrought by the Weatherpeople is trivial compared with the war itself and has arguably been more thoroughly denounced. After all, John McCain most likely killed civilians while bombing Vietnam, and he got to run for president as a war hero. Henry Kissinger is fawned upon wherever he … [Read more...]

Sasha Frere-Jones Culture Bully's Top Ten Music Vids … [Read more...]

I. Greil Marcus returns Real Life Top Ten to The Believer, where it originated in its imaginary early issues. (Trail of broken dreams: Village Voice, artforum, Salon, City Pages.) Snake in the grass. B. notes on The Shield finale: Chiklis as skilled actor who takes on a magnificent character and … [Read more...]

...A 1929 editorial ridiculed the fact that a statue erected in Grant Park to honor American Indians had given them horses of a sort that never roamed "over the plains that are now Illinois, or anywhere else on this continent." And throughout its run the magazine took it upon itself to defend … [Read more...]

from obituary for Doris Dungey: "Tanta argued that for every asset that banks unloaded on the government, the chief executives should be required to explain "why they acquired or originated this asset to begin with, what's really wrong with it in detail, what they have learned from this experience, … [Read more...]

A pre-emptive radio strike on this hollow opinion. If I were his editor, I'd sit Sorkin down to take notes on this stuff: smart sports anchors, now there's a twist worthy of a progressive economics President from New Hampshire. (Silly wag [Richard Sandomir], West Wing WAS a comedy, Studio 360 was … [Read more...]

Print wimps gather to celebrate 40th anniversary of the Beatles' White Album symposium, at Skidmore College, hosted by Gordon Thompson, author of Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out (Oxford). Panel: Allan Kozinn, New York Times critic and author of The Beatles; Walter Everett, … [Read more...]

The oral rendition of the selected bibliography, in conversation with Scott Woods (mp3). … [Read more...]

blip: (verb) a mashup of pandora and twitter, blindingly addictive, killerapp, non-sequiturs woven through instant classic playlists, ricoched through various anonymous ears of abundance, the flash fantastic, in blissful stereo where available. … [Read more...]