David Adler
Six Picks: August 2006
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, August 2006: Chris Byars Octet, Night Owls (Smalls Records) Bob Gallo, Wake-Up Call (self-released) Wayne Horvitz Gravitas Quartet, Way Out East (Songlines) Houston Person with Bill Charlap, You Taught My Heart to Sing (HighNote) Reuben Rogers, The Things I Am (Renwick Entertainment) Helen Sung, Helenistique (FSNT)
Kurdistan makes The Daily Show
“Honey, grab the kids and pack up the Passat, we’re going to Iraqi Kurdistan!” That was Jon Stewart’s sarcastic line on The Daily Show last night, after airing a clip from the Kurdistan Development Corporation’s promo film, “The Other Iraq.” Gordon at Harry’s Place linked to the promo a few days ago. Iraqi Kurdistan deserves lots of credit for its
A call for moderation
A letter appears in today’s NY Times, calling for moderation, sanity and an end to the violence currently engulfing the Middle East. It is signed by Daniel Barenboim, Tony Kushner, Nadine Gordimer, Costa-Gavras, Lakhdar Brahimi and many more. I think it’s a necessary statement — in stark contrast to the weasely, irresponsible broadside from Chomsky and friends in yesterday’s Guardian.
MERIP corrects
In this post I noted that Lara Deeb’s account of how the Israel/Lebanon conflict started was simply inaccurate. A reader has pointed out the following correction issued by MERIP: CORRECTION: Due to an editor’s error, the initial version of this article misleadingly implied that Hizballah did not fire any rockets at Israel in July 2006 prior to the Israeli bombardment
Music amid the bombs
A correspondent just forwarded me this: During an Israeli bombing raid on Beirut, a Lebanese trumpeter grabbed his instrument and pressed record. From his apartment, 2 miles from a target site, Mazen Kerbaj could hear and see bombs exploding in the distance. Mazen afraid for his life was inspired to make a statement using the explosion of the bombs and
A world gone mad
There have been incidents of anti-Jewish vandalism in Rome, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Vandals painted the word “Hizbollah” in large letters outside the gate of Glasgow’s Garnethill Synagogue. The Holocaust memorial in Brussels has been defaced with condoms and excrement. See Norm for more; watch the Engage weblog for updates. Andrew O’Hagan’s Daily Telegraph editorial on the Mel Gibson
Castro
The timing of Jon Lee Anderson’s article in last week’s New Yorker was uncanny. The focus of Anderson’s piece is the Castro regime’s succession strategy, a campaign it calls the Battle of Ideas (hint: it’s a battle against ideas). It will be interesting to see if the repression can be maintained without the Old Man. I support full democratic freedoms
Medved responds
The film critic, outspoken Jewish neoconservative and former Mel Gibson flack Michael Medved (was he paid too?) weighs in on Gibsongate. Get ready to cringe: At a time when Israel finds herself isolated as never before, imagine the impact of Gibson announcing a supportive trip to Jerusalem in the company of selected Jewish leaders — with a reverent, remorseful stop