Archives for 2008

"We're all Jesus and we're all Hitler," John Lennon Any links between this, this and this? … [Read more...]

Are there any other journalists out there offended by the oppressive praise smothering the final season of The Wire, especially with this season's bizarrely fatuous depiction of a Baltimore Sun newsroom? In the opening episode we were insulted by a grammar lesson on the use of the term "evacuate," … [Read more...]

War profiteers stole two elections and screwed Iraq's pooch, but at least string theory's on track to explain physical reality... … [Read more...]

"In the film [Lust, Caution] moderately scrutable orientals play inscrutable orientals pretending to be inscrutable orientals..."--Michael Wood in the London Review of Books … [Read more...]

[it's been THAT KIND of week...] from The Human Stain, by Philip Roth 312-13 [Adagio from Third Symphony to close Coleman Silk's funeral...] That was it. They pulled out all the stops. They played Mahler. Well, you can't listen to Mahler sometimes. When he picks you up to shake you, he doesn't stop. … [Read more...]

from The Human Stain, by Philip Roth pp. 209-210 Then Bronfman appears. Bronfman the brontosaur! Mr. Fortissimo! Enter Bronfman to play Prokofiev at such a pace and with such bravado as to knock my morbidity clear out of the ring. He is conscpiuously massive through the upper torso, a force of … [Read more...]

My review of Levon Helm's Dirt Farmer aired this week on NPR's Here and Now. … [Read more...]

Part 3 (part one, two) EP: Do I get paid for these gems? If so, I charge by the word!!! TR: You sound like a writer. EP: In my estimation Horowitz recorded better due to his being a more sound oriented pianist. Also his virtuosity was more electrifying than Serkin's. I heard Horowitz live only … [Read more...]