What with the mess surrounding the Pioneer 563a's ability to play certain DVD-A titles (and KEY titles at that: GAUCHO, PET SOUNDS), I've been gravitating towards the SACD/CD format for both sound and convenience. The backwards compatibility factor weighs heavily, as many of the CD mixes surpass … [Read more...]

Our man Devin McKinney gets high praise for MAGIC CIRCLES from novelist Andrew O'Hagan in the NYRB: The Beatles are the super-boomers' house band. Even people who don't care about popular music—especially those, one might argue—are conscious of how these English songwriters may have harnessed the … [Read more...]

Bill Murray's induced a couple double-takes since his Oscar nod and one of the funniest Golden Globe acceptance speeches in its history ("Often we forget about our brothers on the other side of the aisle -- the DRAMATIC actors..."). He referred to the director who baked his souffle (LOST IN … [Read more...]

STATE OF PLAY (BBC America). You may watch this for Kelly McDonald (from Gosford Park), your brother may watch it for Polly Walker (of Enchanted April), either way it's instructive how the Brits use beauty not merely to sell a story but advance a plot. It is unimaginable the MP Stephen Collins would … [Read more...]

What album is John Lennon carrying into Abbey Road studios for PEPPER sessions, 1967? (From I Love Music.)Jane Dark has good stuff on Critical Karaoke, the latest teeny-bopper craze out of the EMP, including Greil Marcus doing Roxy Music's "More Than This" by way of Bill Murray. And this is a … [Read more...]

The front page of Sunday's Seattle Times featured a photo of coffins containing bodies of US soldiers being secured inside a cargo plane at Kuwait International Airport. Tami Silicio, a contractor who took the photo, was subsequently fired from her job. Here's a simple litmus test: papers that run … [Read more...]

...My feeling is that Deadwood will be an examination of morality. About men with an untouched world at their feet, with the power to turn it in the direction they wish. Some men, like Swearengen, want to spoil the land for their own gain. Law and order is a threat to his violent, corrupt existence. … [Read more...]

Sat 10 Apr 2004 John and Yoko. Her supporters are critical of lingering British dislike for the women they think stole their Beatle. by TIM CORNWELL, ARTS CORRESPONDENT, THE SCOTSMAN IF HE were alive today, he might well have approved. As Yoko Ono prepares to bring the most complete collection of … [Read more...]

Lotta traveling, lotta sleep disruption, good to be back. Britain was grand, especially the Elgar and the "adorable" little Fawlty Towers hotel I stayed at in Liverpool. Spencer Leigh invited me to appear on his Merseyside Radio show Saturday night with CP Lee, a very funny Dylan author from … [Read more...]

4 April 2004, 7.30pm Barbican Hall, London ELGAR: The Apostles LSO, Richard Hickox, conductor  John Mark Ainsley, St John  Alastair Miles, Judas  Alice Coote, Mary Magdalene Claire Rutter, Blessed Virgin/Angel  Teddy Tahu Rhodes, St Peter  James Rutherford, Jesus (Brian) London Symphony … [Read more...]

So I arrive in London last night after an interminable British Airways flight after watching SHATTERED GLASS, that movie about the NEW REPUBLIC fiction scandal, which I stuck with only because people like Chloe Sevigny and Steve Zahn were in it. Lead performance was pretty decent, it was the writing … [Read more...]

Q: But didn't hobnobbing with the glitterati and playing before the royal families of Europe feel uncomfortable? Even John Entwistle commented in 1970 that The Who had become "snob rock," and "the kind of band that Jackie Onassis would come and see"? Townshend: "I don't know if I was uncomfortable … [Read more...]

Eliza Gilkyson LAND OF MILK AND HONEY (Red House Records) Topical songs from white folk are even more rare than they are successful, especially in a day and age when outrage is so commonplace. But rolling through a stack of CDs today in the car as I took my kids to school, I came across the lead … [Read more...]

This was easily the best thing I read all week, and easily the best thing ever on Joan Didion (don't think the AJ "access" password works, though): She has admitted coming of age in the time of male novels - 'big fish, Africa, Paris, no second acts' - and of feeling disconcerted at the scant space … [Read more...]

Edo de Waarta, conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano DVORAK Piano Concerto IVES Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day JANACEK Sinfonietta In person, de Waart reminds me of Bernard Haitink, a fellow Dutchman, although his conducting manner is less stodgy. This came out a lot in the Dvorak, which had … [Read more...]