David Adler
Iraq: the oil issue
One of the posts in my Kurdistan travelogue concerned Iraq’s acute gasoline shortage. It baffled me then and still does. But this extensive piece in the NYT is the best treatment of the issue that I’ve seen. Once thought to be only a tool for insurgents to undermine the government, the pipeline attacks have evolved into a lucrative moneymaking scheme
Supporting pianist Hilton Ruiz
Via Jazz Promo Services. — New York, NY –June 1, 2006– Famed Puerto Rican/New York Composer, Pianist and Jazz musician Hilton Ruiz is in a coma at a New Orleans hospital Intensive Care Unit with severe trauma to the face and a fractured skull. The circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are under investigation by the New Orleans Police Department. In
Haditha
Reports about the atrocity carried out by U.S. Marines last November in Haditha appear to be accurate — and very late in coming, as Rep. John Murtha has stated quite bravely. I don’t believe in condemning all U.S. troops. But neither should this incident be viewed apart from the disastrous overall course of this war. We must face the possibility
More on “Loose Change”
A friend writes in about my dismissal of the 9/11 conspiracy film “Loose Change 9/11.” His comments deserve a reply: …the fact that your piece begins with “I haven’t seen either edition but…” takes some of the sting out of the argument that follows. Check out the video first and then let us know where you think the filmakers went
Turkey shooting update
So to speak… From this article it appears that details of the courthouse shootings on May 17 are murkier than previously thought. There’s some question as to whether the shooter actually made a religious pronouncement before firing his gun. This piece reports that prime minister Erdogan and the AKP are blaming the attack on “a shadowy far-right group.” Of course
Bedtime music
Try it, it works… John Cage (1912-1992), Early Piano Music (Herbert Henck, piano) (ECM New Series) Antony Pitts (b. 1969), Seven Letters and Other Sacred Choral Music (Hyperion) Thomas Tallis (c1505-1585), Gaude Gloriosa (Hyperion) Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), The Sacred Music 3 (Hyperion) Trio Mediaeval, Stella Maris (ECM New Series) Guillaume de Machaut (c1300-1377), Messe de Notre Dame (Hyperion) Charles Koechlin
Last laugh: Lionel
In a 1986 essay titled “Jazz Criticism and Its Effect on the Art Form,” Stanley Crouch described Lionel Richie as “a horse-faced Negro from the South… [who] pulls down millions for songs that contain so little melodic, harmonic and rhythmic character that even the most imaginative jazz musicians haven’t tried to use them as bridges to a larger audience in