Music Musings: Top 10 Albums of 2009
I have reviewed music for blogcritics.org and other cultural based web-sites, and I even here and there send out (not that I have strong demand, mind you) music and film review snippets on my Facebook...
View ArticlePhilip Roth and the Dangers of Acquiescence
I’m already behind. Deep into January and I’m about two books behind. Recently I wrote a piece for Blogcritics in which I discussed my 2010 resolution to read almost all of Philip Roth’s books....
View ArticleOn Luck: Bumper Sticker Profundity
Luck is not a lady, but when it's bad, it's a cruel mistress, no doubt. It is merciless and wanton, harsh and humbling-a figurative public scolding from your mother. It strikes at any time and yet its...
View ArticleMs. Alaska
Add this piece to the ravenous media fawn that it is itself decrying, that would be the obsessive and at times goofy media attention the former Governor from Alaska has racked up in the last two...
View ArticleMusic Review: The Year in Vibes: Best of 2010
In no order, my pick for the 10 best CDs issued in 2010: Arcade Fire, The Suburbs: Orchestral angst and ennui. Dread and desperation never sounded so good. Win Butler and company create finely crafted...
View ArticleLiterary New Year’s Resolutions: That’s Mt. Parnassus, Not Everest
Resolutions really should be grand, sweeping in scale. They need to embrace large scale effort, whether physical or psychic, and they need a point or purpose—even if the point is widely viewed as...
View ArticleRight Rage
There is no liberal equivalent to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or, certainly, to Ann Coulter. What national liberal media figure operates remotely in the style, and with the fury, of these...
View ArticleMusic Review: Class Actress – Rapproacher
Rapproacher is a highly polished piece of 1980’s-sounding synth pop from Brooklyn-based Class Actress. It’s a highly satisfying sophomore effort—the band’s first release is the EP Journal of...
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Music Review: Albert King – I’ll Play the Blues for You [Remastered & Expanded]
Cream made it popular, but bluesman Albert King originally recorded—though did not write—”Born Under a Bad Sign,” and it is rightfully the song most often associated with him. The blues classic was...
View ArticleMusic Review: James Luther Dickinson and North Mississippi Allstars – I’m...
The influential in our culture often die unrecognized and unacknowledged, or their once-prominent reputation wanes, depending on the latest scholarly or public consensus. For a classic example of this...
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