dev

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

Read more

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquerable whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. — Captain Ahab Thanks to long stretches spent once again on New York’s subways, I’m able to take on projects like Melville’s 1851 masterpiece, which I’d never

Read more

Having recently reviewed the work of Amitav Ghosh for Democratiya, I find myself haunted once again by this passage: The thickening crust of our awareness is both a sign and a reminder of our unwitting complicity in the evolution of violence: if that which mesmerized us yesterday ceases to interest us today, then it follows that the act which will

Read more

This Thanksgiving eve we should send thoughts and prayers to the city of Mumbai (Bombay), which has just been subjected to a savage multi-site terrorist attack. Some people’s idea of bravery includes attacking a hospital for women and children. Patients are being held hostage as I write this. [Update: Stratfor weighs in on the possible geopolitical fallout. Grim, grim, grim.]

There’s little I can say about Sean Penn’s fluff “interview” with Hugo Chávez and Raúl Castro that Marc Cooper hasn’t said. Some have suggested that I tend to overstate the influence of actor-activists like Penn. If anything, I’ve understated it. Penn’s “journalism” is now being published on the cover of The Nation, right at the moment when audiences are swooning

Read more