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The contrast is clear
In his nomination speech last week, Barack Obama concluded with remarks about rebuilding a sense of “common purpose” in America. You could brush this off as mushy noble talk, but in fact it’s one of the key strengths of the Obama campaign — the drive to frame old problems in new ways and move this country out of the tired
Eye-raq, Eye-ran
Sarah Palin cannot pronounce the names of the countries she wants to fight. She uses the term “death tax” and claims to represent small-town America. She warns that al-Qaeda continues to threaten and that Obama is “worried someone won’t read them their rights” — an astonishing thing to say after this administration has rendered, tortured and killed prisoners it has
Sarah Palin, extremist
It can’t go unremarked at Lerterland that vice presidential candidate — that is, potential President of the United States — Sarah Palin has her own preacher problem in Ed Kalnins, who has claimed that criticism of the president can get you sent to hell. (Let’s check in with him after Obama wins.) Palin herself believes that the war effort in
The current PW
New in Philadelphia Weekly: a preview of Todd Sickafoose’s Sept. 4 show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and a review of Appearing Nightly by the Carla Bley Big Band.
Detroit-Philly PS
W. Kim Heron, the moderator of our Coltrane panel in Detroit, has a nice piece in the Metro Times about the Detroit-Philly connection.
Detroit-Philly Summit
I returned yesterday from the Detroit International Jazz Festival, billed this year as a “Detroit-Philly Summit,” with artist-in-residence Christian McBride (Philly bassist extraordinaire). My business there was to speak about John Coltrane with fellow panelists Ashley Kahn, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson and local Detroit legend Faruq Z. Bey. It was a great time, though I was boxed into a pretty
New at Democratiya
My review of Kabir Sehgal’s Jazzocracy: Jazz, Democracy, and the Creation of a New American Mythology (Better World Books) is now online in the Autumn 2008 edition of Democratiya.