Archive for October, 2007
- Billy Bragg on the Late Late Show
Billy Bragg is my hero. In an ideal world, he, Bruce Cockburn, Bruce Springsteen and the Clash would all appear on stage together. “And I don’t believe we can defeat no axis of evil by putting smart bombs in the hands of dumb people….” Amen, Billy. Tell the truth, brother. Preach.
27 October 2007- Clapton, Boyd Provide Pop Life Insights
Stephen King, whose novels often have rock music at their core, is the perfect choice to review Clapton: The Autobiography for the New York Times. Not only is he a rabid fan of the genre in general and of Eric Clapton in particular, but his history as a recovering alcoholic parallels Clapton’s. He calls the […]
27 October 2007- Finster’s Finest Work May Fall into Ruin
Despite all its faults, there is a wonderful tradition in the South of celebrating its eccentrics and reveling in its oddities. For that reason, I knew about folk artist Howard Finster long before the Little Creatures album cover he created for Talking Heads brought him into the public eye. He was the best-kept open secret […]
25 October 2007- California Fires Force Massive Evacuations
Without a doubt, the biggest story in the nation today has all eyes focused on wildfires in California that have left 6 dead (two in the fires and four during evacuation), destroyed more than 200,000 acres and forced the evacuation of an estimated 700,000 people, according to the Los Angeles Times. Covering the event is […]
23 October 2007- Woman Stabs Lover To Drink His Blood
Just in time for Halloween comes a story from Mesa, Arizona about a woman sentenced to 10 years in prison for aggravated assault after she repeatedly stabbed her bound lover so she could drink his blood. Note to the sexually adventurous: Don’t let your partner tie you to the bed if s/he casts no reflection […]
23 October 2007- Couple Keeps Killer Cat
I don’t read Russian, but after seeing these photos of what looks like a cross between a house cat and an ocelot in all its domestic glory (including sitting on the commode, dismembering a chicken and trolling for catfish and women in the bathtub), I’m pretty certain the headline reads, “Full Goose Bozo Couple Keeps […]
23 October 2007- Hillary Clinton: Arms Makers’ Darling
Hillary Clinton portrays herself as an antiwar candidate, though she has consistently voted to support George W. Bush’s war on the people of Iraq. In fact, much of her recent rhetoric suggests, as president, she might not be able to withdraw troops from the conflict for years.
She also claims opposition to war with Iran; yet, […]
22 October 2007- Walt Whitman in Boston
Before they died, both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman saw the “general use” of the electric light in Boston, as Sylvester Baxter describes it in an absorbing article from the August 1892 edition of The New England Magazine entitled “Walt Whitman in Boston.” It is the best of a trio of stories about Mr. […]
21 October 2007- Dissecting Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins’ books always pissed me off. Not that they were important enough to matter, really. For me, his novels fell into a category reserved for people like Jacqueline Suzanne and Joan Collins’ sister (I can never remember her name): highbrow trailer trash. They weren’t exactly pornographic — my mother would have never read porn — but they walked […]
15 October 2007- Washington Post Interviews Ron Paul
Sane? In this Washington Post video, Ron Paul appears to be the sanest man on the planet. In my lifetime, I’ve never heard a Republican more staunchly defend civil liberties. No wonder he raised $5 million in the third quarter.
14 October 2007
