If you want to have a reason for refusing to join a book group, just read this article to discover how petty and strange people can be. Confession: I am a member of a book group. An all-female one, as … Continue reading →
Is the wildly successful avant garde artist Damien Hirst (about whom I wrote here, and who specializes in works that feature dead animals) finally feeling the pinch of the economic downturn? Well, at the very least, his employees are. He … Continue reading →
Or perhaps it’s just a sign that people have gone stark raving mad. What am I talking about? Back in mid-September, when the economy was already rather iffy, the “artist” (I use that word advisedly) Damien Hurst had a monster … Continue reading →
I just learned via American Digest that the folksinger Odetta has died at the age of seventy-seven. In my youth, I saw her perform at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village. Since that was quite some time ago, I suppose … Continue reading →
Theodore Dalyrmple mourns the decline of the practice of browsing in secondhand bookstores. Now that the internet allows us to zero in on exactly and precisely the used book we might be looking for, it is no longer necessary—nor do … Continue reading →
Okay, I tolerate a lot of dissent here. But some statements are simply unconscionable. Case in point, “Tom” on Richard Thompson: Why is it so many skilled musicians are considered “songwriters” when their lyrics are simply so stupid? I’d prefer … Continue reading →
So here’s some more, for your viewing and listening pleasure. For those of you who play guitar, you might want to study how it is that he makes the difficult seem so easy. Nice closeups of Thompson’s hands and face. … Continue reading →
This must be my day. Not only has Obama turned into a neo-neocon, but Google has decided to honor me. And it’s about time. Here’s the graphic you get when you do a Google search today: You say that perhaps … Continue reading →
I have said that Obama will show us soon enough how he intends to govern: from the Left or towards the middle. His first acts will reveal more than all the campaign “promises” in the world. Right now he’s engaged … Continue reading →
Alicia Alonso is a Cuban ballerina who has defied time. Her early career took place in this country, but she returned to Cuba after Castro came to power and he rewarded her by treating Alonso and her company very well. … Continue reading →
Orwell knew full well how important this sort of erasure of history by the Obama campaign is, although he didn’t envision the help of the internet’s wayback machine in reconstructing the vanished past. Do Obama’s scrubbers realize that such a … Continue reading →
Rudyard Kipling is one of those poets known by people who don’t ordinarily read poetry. But what he’s known for differs from person to person. Some are only familiar with his tribute to cool heads under fire, “If.” Others see … Continue reading →