David Adler
The Bad Plus revisited
Last year I penned a defense of the controversial jazz trio The Bad Plus for TNR Online. I’d like to take a moment to repeat and amplify that defense. Unexpectedly, I wound up at Carnegie Hall last night for a multi-artist tribute to Lorraine Gordon, owner and proprietor of the Village Vanguard. (This was under the auspices of the JVC
Happy Mornings
Sullivan links to this utterly insane TV ad for Folger’s coffee.
The 9/11 conspiracy thread
Since I took issue with the “9/11 Truth” movement in these two recent posts, I can’t let this pass without comment. Yvonne Ridley, the British former journalist, was taken hostage by the Taliban in 2001; she is now a Muslim fundamentalist and Al Qaeda apologist. Oh yes, and a member of George Galloway’s antiwar RESPECT party. Now Ridley has traveled
Gaza postscript
Now it seems that Human Rights Watch’s Marc Garlasco, who contradicted the IDF’s findings on the recent Gaza beach explosion, is backpedaling. According to this Jerusalem Post piece, HRW “could not contradict” the IDF’s finding that “unexploded ordnance” caused the blast. However, HRW continues to demand an independent inquiry, and rightly so. And Israel’s initial claim — that a Palestinian
JVC Jazz and beyond
Staying on top of New York’s jazz scene is a challenging task all year round. When the JVC Jazz Festival and the Vision Festival are happening at the same time, it’s just about impossible. The JVC festival, which lasts a week longer than the Vision, is of course better-funded, more visible and more mainstream, but it has its adventurous side.
Zahawie on Zionism
A while back, Slate published a C. Hitchens column alleging that an Iraqi official under Saddam, Wissam al-Zahawie, actually did scout out yellowcake uranium from Niger. I still find it dubious, but that’s not why I’m posting. The other day Slate posted a lengthy and apparently authentic reply from Zahawie himself. In the course of this reply, Zahawie defends himself
Beaumont on Medialens
Peter Beaumont of the Observer has harsh, well-chosen words for Medialens, the “watchdog” organization that targets liberal journalists who fail to parrot the ultra-left party line. Beaumont of course mentions Medialens’s nasty campaign against the antiwar site Iraq Body Count, for allegedly underestimating the toll of the war on Iraqi civilians. I won’t get into that debate here, but I’d
On that Gaza beach explosion…
Since there’s been some dispute about it in the comments, I wanted to make a note of this, from the London Times: Expert: Israeli Shell Caused DeathsA US-trained military expert has disputed an Israeli claim that it had nothing to do with an explosion that killed eight Palestinian beach-goers in the Gaza Strip. Last Friday’s incident has turned a critical