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Amitav Ghosh weighs in, on today’s NY Times op-ed page.

Steve Coll has an amazing story about traveling in earthquake-stricken Kashmir on the pontoon boats of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is very likely the force behind the Mumbai attacks. The question, Coll suggests, is whether Jamat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar’s “legitimate” charity arm, had advance knowledge as well.

My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, December 2008: Bad Touch, Like a Magic Kiss (ind.) Bill Carrothers, Home Row (Pirouet) Sean Conly, Re:Action (Clean Feed) James Moody/Hank Jones Quartet, Our Delight (IPO) William Parker Quartet, Petit Oiseau (Aum Fidelity) Angelica Sanchez, Life Between (Clean Feed)

Given that William Dalrymple has told us the Mumbai attackers were “angry and well-educated, middle-class kids furious at the gross injustice they perceive being done to Muslims by Israel, the US, the UK and India in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir respectively,” it’s more than refreshing to see The Daily Show make the needed point: that perpetrators of appalling injustice

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My feature on Sci Fi Philly, the Sunday night avant-jazz series at Gojjo, in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Knit is closing but the musicians carry on. And so will Adam Schatz’s Search & Restore series, in other venues. Meanwhile, go to this multistage blowout and it’s doubtful you’ll regret it.

…is its bloggers. And the answer to demonization of Iran by the right is not to excuse the regime from the left. It’s to stand with the regime’s brave internal critics. Iran: A nation of bloggers from Mr.Aaron on Vimeo.

My favorite writing project of the year was the Philadelphia Weekly cover story on guitarist Matt Davis and his 11-piece ensemble Aerial Photograph. His unique monthly recording and gigging series, “Philadelphia 2008,” draws to a close at Tritone at 10pm on December 18. Matt just sent out a promo email, the text of which is worth circulating more widely. So here’s

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