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On Anthony Braxton
My pre-concert profile of Anthony Braxton is online at Philadelphia Weekly.
Who’s the real John McCain?
George Packer: The problem with a campaign based on relentless message discipline, repeated falsehoods, and the habitual perversion of language is that none of it stops after election day. You can’t be indifferent to truth for months on end and then suddenly return to straight talk. If McCain should win, Steve Schmidt won’t be in charge of the new Administration,
The week on disc (28)
In case you missed the last one… Mark O’Leary, Ellipses (FMR) Michael Bates, Clockwise (Greenleaf) Joe Lovano, Symphonica (Blue Note) Michael Felberbaum, Sweetsalt (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2006) Richard Boulger, Blues Twilight (B-1) Dave Holland Sextet, Pass It On (Dare 2/EmArcy)
Two pieces
I’m fiddling around with this new scanner and finally able to get these two things online: first a festival brochure piece [pdf] on Guillermo Klein and Los Guachos; and second, a travel column [also pdf] for Jazziz magazine on Philadelphia jazz.
The Ayers issue at a glance
Sarah Palin, unable to make the case for her own fitness to hold high office, has kicked off the widely expected, 11th-hour smear campaign against Obama as a friend of terrorists, namely ex-Weather Underground leader William Ayers. On the trail Palin mentioned this NY Times piece by Scott Shane, ignoring of course Shane’s main conclusion: that the Obama-Ayers connection is tenuous
Palin in denial PS
Perhaps Sarah Palin would like to lash out at Nader Nadery and Haseeb Humayoon for their carefully considered op-ed piece, which makes exactly the same argument Barack Obama has made about Afghanistan: too many civilians are dying under American and NATO bombs, and it’s alienating the populace. Virtually everyone who follows the Afghan conflict agrees on this point. So Palin’s jibe
Swinging Barack Home
As a New Yorker, I’ve witnessed some pretty moving examples of public-spirited jazz, including the 9/11 memorial concert at Town Hall in November 2001. The sight of Dianne Reeves — not just a fine singer but an imposing musician — taking wing with an inspired rendition of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” has never left me. At the October 1
Palin in denial
During her debate with Joe Biden tonight, Sarah Palin leveled a most curious charge against Barack Obama on the subject of Afghanistan: Now, Barack Obama had said that all we’re doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians. And such a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment, again, hurts our cause. That would be an odd thing for Obama,