From Harper's Index: "The House Judiciary Committee cited Karl Rove for contempt, and members of the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes performed a Native American blessing near the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, site of the upcoming Democratic Convention..." … [Read more...]
Archives for 2008
Buddy Song: McCain’s Limbo dance, cont.
Greil Marcus in the New Yorker: "When it started, I thought, This isn't half bad. I like 'halfway to the stars' instead of 'all the way.' But"--he read the line about the storm--" 'touch the legacy that is ours'? You just can't use 'legacy' in a song. It's like a roadblock." … [Read more...]
Toy of the Month (Java)
Wordle, here's a wee glimpse: Bonus rounds: lyrics to A Day in the Life, and guess the poem. … [Read more...]
Quick TV Notes
Having watched the pilot for Mary MacCormack's risibly noxious new USA series, In Plain Site, all the ads woven into the Closer's return only underline the lack of decent material for actresses coming into their own. A couple seasons back MM had recurring roles on both ER and The West Wing. Now … [Read more...]
Wordless Cooliosity
The contraption is one thing -- the announcer is a club mix in waiting. Out of commission until 7/14, so go nuts. … [Read more...]
Cureless Love
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: Leonard Cohen in Montreal: "I haven't been on a stage here in 14 or 15 years... I was 60 years old -- a kid with a crazy dream." … [Read more...]
Sometimes a Great Notion
"...He had a white-labelled 45 rpm test pressing on the turntable and he put it into play. The room was filled with this amazing sound. I had no idea what it was, but it was the most incredible thing I'd ever heard. I slowly and numbly felt my way through the aural maze and discerned what I thought … [Read more...]
Elvis: Suppressed
from Ray Connolly in the Daily Mail... … [Read more...]
Up Past the Dawn
Greil Marcus on "rock poetry" in last week's Guardian: The June 1966 issue of the youth-oriented American fashion magazine Glamour carried an unusual feature: lyrics from the soon to be released Bob Dylan song Visions of Johanna, which Dylan had been performing onstage, alone, with an acoustic … [Read more...]
When You Put Your Foot on the Brake…
Your Life Is In Your Foot's Hands. … [Read more...]
Fabled Loins
David Thomson updates his scabrous, eye-peeling, brain-sizzling Biographical Dictionary of Film with an entry on Angelista, She To Whom Attention Must Be Paid: "...Who knows, the world may last long enough for her to play Dagny Taggart in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, or the mother of apocalypse in … [Read more...]
None But the Brave
Marc Crispin Miller on HBO's RECOUNT in the Huffington Post: ...However, it is at the very end that Recount cops out most egregiously. The last shot is a great one: a grim Kubrickian view down a long corridor, with floor-to-ceiling shelves on either side, all loaded up with crates of ballots -- … [Read more...]
Turn On Your Radio
Second half of On Point this morning, at 11:30 EDT, I'll talk about Gnarls Barkley, Erykah Badu, and Beck... will post podcast as soon as it's available. This gets repeated tonight across many public radio stations. … [Read more...]
Let’s Get Lost
Web Habits, Effectively A juicy sampling of writerly links from Granta. Quote of the Year 'If you fight terror with terror,' the authors ask, 'how can you tell which is which?' … [Read more...]
Schiff’s Schubert at the Wigmore
For tragic albeit fortuitous reasons I find myself in London teaching a Beatle class, put up and well-paid only homesick for my family beyond words. For solace I seek out culture, and last week I caught Andras Schiff playing Schubert at the Wigmore Hall. (The link goes to the Guardian excellent … [Read more...]