YET URGED W. TO "STAY TOUGH" ON NSA WIRETAPPING... David Weigel on the Patriot Act (Reason): ...no senator who voted against the PATRIOT Act in 2001 or subsequently voted to amend it has ever lost a race; five congressmen who voted to reject or amend the act have lost their seats, but those losses … [Read more...]

When Tierney and Brooks replaced Safire, I made some crack about how that would be bad for the wordmeister's ego. Now it's not so funny: in today's column, Brooks misrepresents a half-century of cultural politics so lamely you'd think you were reading a Murdoch rag: But by the late 1960's, … [Read more...]

As a longtime ER fanatic, I come to praise its latest themes: Maura Tierney is getting BETTER, and their abortion episode last week, replete with "fundamentalists" (which they slyly equated with Catholicism), pushed a lot of over-familiar buttons in ingenious ways. John Leguizamo's so good he plays … [Read more...]

Ken Auletta on Judy Miller? Did you gulp hard after you bumped into "(A disclosure: My wife, a literary agent, represents both Keller and Miller.)" So did every other self-respecting journalist. Seth Mnookin's piece in Vanity Fair was superior. PREDICTION OF THE YEAR: Scooter Libby Gets Pardoned … [Read more...]

NOT ENOUGH TCHAIKOVSKY THE MEME OF FOUR: Four jobs you've had in your life: web site producer (x3), author, teacher, grocery sacker (Aspen 1981) Four movies you could watch over and over: WAKING LIFE (Linklater), GODFATHER 2 (Coppola), DRESSED TO KILL (Eddie Izzard), Let it Be (Lindsay-Hogg) Four … [Read more...]

Journalism Interns at a School of Rock: "Casting calls are going out on college campuses late next month for aspiring Rolling Stone writers who would also look good on MTV and want to become famous, or almost famous..." The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, … [Read more...]

BOOK OF THE WEEK from SWEDEN, recently featured at Liverpool's Beatles Days, not nearly obsessive enough... TOP TEN PODCASTS Beatlegs John Winn KCRW's Left, Right and Center le show Harry Shearer Media Matters from beautiful downtown Champagne Urbana Democracy Now Amy Goodman Soundcheck … [Read more...]

New podcast: Complete Motown Singles, broadcast yesterday here in Boston. … [Read more...]

AIN'T NO ONE FOR TO GIVE YOU NO PAIN From the iTunes Celebrity Playlists, this acute remark from the perennially underrated Jeff Daniels: "A great example of why Bonnie Raitt is one of the premiere blues guitarists. By the time she's done playing this song, every guy in the audience is wishing … [Read more...]

NOBODY TOLD ME Steve Knopper on John Lennon, telling my story that a cellist from the Eastman School once told me: "One guy told me this story: He was on the streets in New York City, a truck pulls off and a band is playing on the back of this flatbed truck. And it's John Lennon and his band." … [Read more...]

... to the tune of "Uncertain Times," by the Raveonettes. … [Read more...]

X FOR EYES Bradley's Alamanac has a Chris Brokaw live set from last month... Brokaw was also featured on Here and Now... it's almost like there's a BUZZ... HAWKEYE'S A REPUBLICAN???? Previews for West Wing, the Smits subtext: "Okay, I'll play your Democratic presidential candidate and go live … [Read more...]

COSMIC DANCER Every so often a song oozes up through shared cultural memories to suggest subcurrents of fate. Last year, Zep's "Goin' to California" bubbled up as though its time had come, even though the ZEP IV (ZOSO) track had never been a single, or even an FM fav. This year it's T Rex's … [Read more...]

Naturally, a music biopic with vivid and inspired concert sequences gets waylaid by its overwrought script: "Tortured pill freak redeemed by true love." There is so much more to Johnny cash than this, but Phoenix can only suggest. In yet another revelatory turn, Witherspoon is a marvel -- but is … [Read more...]

PROPS TO THE EXEC. PRODUCER The "word" on Capote was that Hoffman's invisible virtuosity was so compelling that he sucked the oxygen out of the rest of the film. I'm betting the word among actors is that vet Clifton Collins Jr. as Perry Smith nearly steals the show. After dubbing the podcasting … [Read more...]