My review of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times is now up at Bright Lights Film Journal here. Full issue, not entirely safe for work, here.* In an excellent piece, Karin Luisa Badt explains why Roman Polanski is a total shit here. *I suppose the Updike triptych isn’t entirely safe for work either. Sorry! At least there…
Suitably Smoky—“Well, You Needn’t,” Parts IX and X
Featuring Hannibel Peterson on trumpet; Don Weller, tenor saxophone; Martin Blackwell, piano; Dave Green, bass; and Brian Spring, drums. Somewhere, and some time, in England.
Middle Stan, Early Bud—“Tempus Fugit”
Visually challenged, but musically impeccable. Stan, workin’ on a rainbow thing, somewhere in the ‘70’s, I would guess. With Jim McNealy on piano, Mark Johnson, bass, and Victor Lewis, drums. With two brief but annoying voice overs.
Well, You Needn’t, Part VIII
The Samir Fejzic band, as if you hadn’t already quessed: Yeah, it’s Ines Kazic handling the vocal, as only she can, with “ Dino” Kovacevic on the drums, Almir Nezic bass, and Samir on piano. Recorded live at ‘Bihacko ljeto 2008’.
George to Obama—“Back off, base pretender!”
George Will* has a scathing column about President Obama’s recent pitch to the Olympic Committee re his beloved Chicago, sneeringly accusing the President of being a narcissist. Since Obama is relatively new to DC, he may not be too familiar with Willspeak, so allow me to deconstruct. See, Mr. President, you may be the President…
“Well, You Needn’t,” Parts V & VI
Local TV at its finest! Hacienda Heights Big Dog Richard Duran and Foxy Tina Jimenez host the Lonnie Jordan WARtet, featuring Lonnie Jordan, piano, Sal Rodriguez, drums, Francisco “Pancho” Tomaselli, bass, and David Urquidi, sax. This is followed by a blast from the past, “Autour de Sophie,” featuring Sophie Kummer, vocal, Alex Alflatt, bass, Raoul…
Anne Applebaum, last seen posing as Euro-Trash
Readers of this blog, few though they may be, may recall my intermittent yet persistent nattering of Wash Post columnist Anne Applebaum, provoked by her endless efforts to talk the United States into another Cold War, a conflict necessary, so Ann believes, if the U.S. is to avoid the ugly fate of becoming another Europe,…
A Warhol Original? There aren’t any
Over at the New York Review of Books, Richard Dorment has an unintentionally hilarious piece on that most enigmatic of epistemological enigmas, the quest for a “genuine” Warhol. Dorment starts off smart, explaining that early Andy was pumped by silk-screen prints because they didn’t look hand-made. “I wanted something…that gave more of an assembly-line effect,”…
The Washington Post: When Cowards Get Pissy
Sunday’s Washington Post has a short—short, but not short enough—editorial making snide fun of civil libertarians. In “Obama Punts,” the Post sneeringly takes the President to task for not seeking legislation that would enshrine the current despicable Bush-Obama policy of “preventive detention.” According to the Post, “Passing new legislation would have been difficult, and the…