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The Olympics story that matters
As the world celebrates its athletes I’d like to acknowledge the determination and bravery of all those, Chinese and foreign, who have stood up in protest against the Chinese regime during these Olympic Games. Censoring the Internet is the absolute least of it. The regime set up three designated areas where protests would be allowed and then started detaining people
Give us your poor, continued…
Following up on Matt Davis’s City of Arrivals, on the immigrant experience in Philadelphia, and this story about a Malian couple gunned down in their store in July… this is in today’s Inquirer: Yesterday morning, almost exactly seven years to the day that Fakhur Uddin came to America from Bangladesh, he was slain – bound with duct tape and string,
On S.M.V.
My review of S.M.V. (Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten) at the Keswick Theatre, in today’s Inquirer.
Heading back
[A shorter, modified version of this statement will appear in the Fall 2008 edition of Jazz Notes, the quarterly journal of the Jazz Journalists Association.] New York remains an unparalleled cultural mecca, but there’s really something to be said for getting out of town. In April 2007, for reasons pertaining to marriage, I moved to Philadelphia, immersing myself in another
McCain’s service
As is clear from Michael Goldfarb’s response, the right will seek to portray any questioning of McCain’s cross story as an attempt “to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement….” But that’s just the point: If McCain falsified this account, then it is he who disparaged his own memory of war. “[B]ut most Americans,”
Campaign dirt
“Swiftboating” has become an all-purpose term, a synonym for smearing, but its accurate meaning is to accuse a candidate of embroidering his (or her) military record for political gain. In 2004 a group of hacks tried this against John Kerry. It may not have caused his defeat but it certainly didn’t help. Now we have a very damning circumstantial case
Georgia: gaining perspective
Ok … Having sounded off on the failure of liberal pundits to express clear outrage at Russia’s incursion into Georgia, it’s time to note some parallel absurdities on the other side. Like John McCain declaring “We are all Georgians” to a room full of Middle Americans who haven’t the slightest clue what he’s talking about, but applaud anyway. Like George
The week on disc (24)
In case you missed the last one… George Colligan, Runaway (Sunnyside) Danilo Pérez, Across the Crystal Sea (EmArcy) Roy Hargrove Quintet, Earfood (EmArcy/Groovin’ High) Rebecca Martin, The Growing Season (Sunnyside) Uri Caine Ensemble, The Othello Syndrome (Winter & Winter) Wolfert Brederode Quartet, Currents (ECM)