OK, I can’t believe this! I have never, in the history of this blog, made fun of one of le plus noir of my many bêtes noirs, T. S. Eliot. Well, no time like the present to remedy this most grievous fault, because Princeton University has recently “made available” (though not to you)1 over a…
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26 Ways of Listening to Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight”
At least 26, starting off with Miles Davis, back in 1967, with earlier dates as far back as 1948, and as recently as last year, including several with Monk himself, along with vocals by Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn, and, well, a host of others, pulled together rather randomly by me over the past six…
When William Gladstone died, did something else die too?
Somewhere or other I remarked that my “hobbies” include reading books about dinosaurs and British prime ministers. Well, I do, and recently I read my third biography of one of the greatest, William Gladstone, a Victorian figure second only to Victoria herself, born in 1809 and entering Parliament at age 22, where he would serve…
Howard Zinn, apologist with nothing to apologize for, meets Ronald Radosh, former commie with no place to go
My head probably should be the other way around,1 because I’m bouncing off a piece by the living Ronald, “Howard Zinn: Fake Historian”, over at Law & Liberty, whatever and wherever that is, taking down poor old Howard, who died back in 2010. Radosh is, in turn, bouncing his piece off a new book by…
2020 startin’ off moist! “Conservatives” wet their pants with joy, liberals with fear, while only the hypocrites stay dry
Happy New Year, n’est-ce pas? Or, perhaps more appropriately, WTF? I’m getting too old for this shit, and I didn’t sign up for it in the first place. In the old days, like December 31, 2019, one of the harshest, and truest, charges against Vladimir Putin is that he carried out the assassination of people…
Old Man War Machine, he jes’ keep rollin’ along
(Editor’s Note: I wrote this piece to describe the military intellectual complex’s endless search for a new Cold War. But Donald Trump seems to be looking for a hot one.) The Washington Post’s recent release of the “Afghanistan Papers”, which reported at least a significant portion of the near-infinite number of lies told to justify…
How to enjoy “The Rise of Skywalker”: They can’t disappoint your expectations if you don’t have any!
That’s right. I enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker to a reasonable extent because I had bailed on the “saga” decades ago and never bothered to catch up. I didn’t know or care about any of the characters, so I wasn’t disappointed that it didn’t make sense. Sure, I had a lot of questions, but I…
The War in Afghanistan has been a total disaster, the Washington Post says. After “selling it” for more than a decade.
Who could have seen this coming? The Washington Post has released, with great fanfare, “The Afghanistan Papers”, a massive study documenting what a massive disaster the War in Afghanistan has been. It’s too bad, however, that the Post has “forgotten” how earnestly it pushed that misbegotten war, as recently as August of this year, something…
Samantha Power and the art of looking away
(Editor’s note. Sometimes I write ‘em short, and sometimes I can’t shut up. This is one of the latter occasions.) Several hundred news cycles ago, Samantha Power’s autobiography/memoir The Education of an Idealist was in the news. Well, I am nothing if not slow, so I am just getting caught up with Samantha, who really…
Eric Dolphy—“Round Midnight”
No video, but plenty of Eric, which more than makes up for it. From the 1961 album, Ezz-thetic, by George Russell. After some pseudo-intense, “far out” introductory noises, Eric takes over. Russell on piano, Don Ellis, trumpet, Dave Baker, trombone, Steve Swallow, bass. and Joe Hunt, drums. Posted by cooljazzr