Howard Mandel’s Jazz Beyond Jazz, Blog of the Year, 2009 Jazz Awards. Congratulations, pres! Complete slate of winners.
Via Anastasia, a “cyberwar” guide — Twitter do’s and don’ts to follow when supporting the Iranian protesters from abroad. I don’t Twitter, so most of this is completely, um, foreign to me, but you can really see how solidarity is being reinvented and globalized … my favorite: Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is
Reminder: The JJA Jazz Awards are tomorrow. I’m up for Blog of the Year (thank you colleagues, readers). Incidentally, the Marsalises and Michelle Obama held a big jazz summit at the White House today. My colleague John Murph was there and should have a report up soon. Thought I’d link again to my recent Z Word piece on jazz and
Yeah, I’m bothered by gentrification and all, but I agree with Jody Rosen: The glorification of crime-ridden ’70s New York has gotten out of hand. Rosen slaps James Wolcott: Evoking the possibility of a “second go-round of the 70s” this time with “those spiky glass buildings that have gone up in recent years … reflecting our own overreaching folly back
In case it’s still not clear to Sean Penn and his fellow far-left cultists that Hugo Chavez is a foe of democracy and an ally of police-state thugs the world over: The man has now offered his congratulations to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and railed against those who would “besmirch” his “great victory.”
My good friend Nate Chinen has launched a new blog — a replacement of sorts for his now-defunct Jazz Times column. Must-read stuff there already, including an introductory post and some behind-the-scenes musings on his recent NYT Grizzly Bear feature.
My dear friend Andee Hinds, guitarist/songwriter/performer extraordinaire and helmsman of Black Sugar Transmission, has just released a new EP called Use It, featuring Vernon Reid and other serious guests. BST played a killing show last night at Arlene’s Grocery to celebrate the EP. Here’s a video on the making of Use It, followed by my personal BST favorite, “Nine Butterflies,”
Worthwhile reading from my colleagues Anastasia and Hussein.