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"To acquire the cleverly named Book of Secrets, Ben plots to kidnap the current president (Bruce Greenwood) and blah, blah, blah purple monkey dishwasher..." --MATT ZOLLER SEITZ on National Treasure: Book of Secrets, NYTimes, 12/21/07 … [Read more...]

"As a drummer, I'm a really proficient thirteen-year-old..." --Rufus Sewell, star of Tom Stoppard's ROCK'N'ROLL on Broadway, in the New Yorker. … [Read more...]

TR: It sounds like you studied with both Serkin and Horsz at the same time? Was that typical, or did you take master classes from one or how did that work? It seems curious to me that MH was such cool as a teacher, through his playing I naturally assumed that he was effusive and passionate, and very … [Read more...]

For my money, the two heros of I'M NOT THERE are David Cross, in wickedly inspired casting as Allen Ginsberg, and Al Kooper, who oversaw the BLONDE ON BLONDE sessions to make the score a delight to hear on those large theatrical speakers. Otherwise, Haynes's movie is about as avant-garde as a game … [Read more...]

I recently corresponded with an old piano teacher about a pianist who's an inside figure, although there are still plenty of his recordings in print. More to come... TR: You list Mieczyslaw Horszowski in your bio, wasn't he at Curtis? I've admired his warm tone for years and years, and wish there … [Read more...]

ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: fifty-two years ago, a Canadian nobody named Glenn Gould made his big splash with a Goldberg Variations, which was not only left-field repertoire but virile, robust Bach playing that turned a lot of ears and launched an eccentric career. It was the kind of record you knew growing … [Read more...]

Dear Tim My own next project is going to be a biography of Professor Longhair. Having spent fifteen years writing about four of the most famous people on earth, I long for a subject about which virtually every prospective reader doesn't already have a set of preconceptions and opinions. Here again … [Read more...]

Bonus round: This juxtaposition is more insulting to a) classical audience b) comedy audience c) plumber's conventioneers … [Read more...]

This book finally compiles many of the images put out by Genesis in the 1990s, with candids from Harrison and Starr's apartment during the shooting of Hard Day's Night, the HDN set with Richard Lester and Pattie Boyd, and a fascinating trip to Liverpool where the Cavern is overrun by beat-bands such … [Read more...]

Dear Tim, I too have blown hot and cold with Max Weinberg - though mostly cold I'd have to say. And I would say the same about Springsteen himself. Come to think of it, this has been an ongoing thirty-year issue for me. When Springsteen first arrived on the scene in the 1970s as John Hammond's … [Read more...]

Dear Jonathan Gould, Yeah I was wondering if that was it: being a drummer you didn't want to come on TOO strong with Ringo... that's okay, it's subtextual, and I gushed a lot in my book. Every drummer I've ever talked to gushes about RIngo, at least the good ones do. I think he's a better drummer … [Read more...]

EDITORIAL TICS Why do we have editors? To save us all from those annoying TICS that infect language like ants on birthday cake. Couple years back there was an INFLUENZA of sentences that tried to sound, well, hip, by injecting "well"s into the most obvious places to INFORMALIZE the, well, "tone" of … [Read more...]

Dear Tim, ...Somewhat incredibly, I haven't read Magic Circles; it must have come out right around the time I finally stopped reading and researching and staying current on all things Beatle in order to focus all of my addled attention on finally finishing my book. But now, of course, I'm curious, … [Read more...]