Granted, “chihuahua” is a difficult word of many of us to decode. Excuse me for not reading Inca! Or Aztec, or Mayan, or whatever. So it’s not too surprising that advertisements for Beverly Hills Chihuahua offer a phonetic spelling—“cheé-wow-wä,” to be precise—along with two pictures of the damn critters. But why do they put an…
At the Movies
The Bright Lights Film Journal has a couple of pieces by me in their latest issue, Cast Away and Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows), plus a brief take on Iron Man, from a few months back. The whole issue, not terribly safe for work, is here. Cast Away, the Tom Hanks/Robert Zemeckis study…
Krugman, the gift that keeps on giving
Big Paul waxes bitchy in his blog today. “On my way to teach, this morning: ‘Vote for the hero and the hottie.’ Yes, it was on a pickup truck.” Yes, it was on a pickup truck and, yes, the driver was a massive douchebag with a beard, with a Nobel prize duct-taped to the dashboard….
The Apostasy of Anne, the Sadness of Sarah
Anne Applebaum’s slapdown of John McCain, which I heartily praised here, is causing some heartburn on the Right. “There have been a number of absurd reasons given recently by self-described conservatives who are endorsing the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate in his bid for the presidency, but none are quite as unconvincing as…
Vote for McCain, or Greg Mankiw Will Shoot His Dog
Can’t be that bad? Actually, it’s worse! If Obama is elected, Greg says, well, he just might not feel like writing as many articles as he used to. I don’t know about you, but living in a world that contains significantly fewer Greg Mankiw articles than the current one gives me the damn fantods. Here’s…
Anne Hits a Winner, Cohen Goes For the Jugular
I’ve been fairly hard on Anne Applebaum over the past few years, finding her if not actually neo-con then certainly neo-con-ish, tending to treat all foreign policy issues as a matter of toughness and will. “If we just stand up to the Russians/Taliban/Iranians/etc. then we’ll win!” The question of whether it’s worth traveling half-way around…
James Carter vs. Joshua Redman, Monk vs. Parker “Straight No Chaser”/ “Now’s the Time”
They both get a bit squeaky at times, in the tedious tradition of sax “battles,” but still this isn’t bad stuff.
The Revenge of Krugman
Paul Krugman is apparently tired of being called “shrill” while wearing his “columnist” hat, particularly, so it would seem, when the label is applied by the Washington Post’s own David S. “Massively Boring” Broder. Since I read Dave’s column on a fitful basis, I’ve never caught him in the act of dissing Paul, but presumably…
Moral Obtusities in Collision
That smacking sound you may have heard this morning was the thick head of John R. “Funny Moustache” Bolton crashing into the combined thick heads of Henry “Moral Bankruptcy” Kissinger and George “I thought he knew better” Shultz. A couple of weeks back Henry and George combined for a stunning exercise in moral evasion in…
Bob Belden Big Band plays Miles Davis’s “Milestones”
BOB BELDEN BIG BAND “Birdland” May 26, 2004 Jeremy Pelt-trumpet soloist, Joe Lovano-tenor sax soloist Seneca Black, Tony Kadleck, Ray Vega, Lew Glucken-trumpets Dave Gibson, Andre Hayward-trombones John Clark-french horn Howard Johnson-tuba Tim Ries, Charles Pillow, Mike Migliore, Ronnie Cuber, Gary Smulyan(winds) Kevin Hays-piano Derek Neyvergeld-bass Tommy Crane-drums