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Penn’s sanctimony, Maher’s frivolity
Bill Maher’s HBO program this past Friday was excruciating. Garry Shandling, his brain scattered and his face full of botox, contributed nothing. Harold Ford, Jr., head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, was not there for a fight, and so yielded far too readily to the insufferable demagogue Sean Penn. Unable to get over himself for a fraction of a
Turkey in crisis
My friend Yigal Schleifer has a report at the Eurasianet website on Turkey’s current political crisis. Protesters clashed with police today in Taksim Square and the unrest spread to Istiklal Cadessi, where Yigal lives, and where I stayed during my visit last year. His neighborhood was unaffected, but he “got a good whiff of pepper gas” while watching events unfold
Six Picks: May 2007
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, May 2007: David Binney/Edward Simon, Océanos (Criss Cross) Aydin Esen, Light Years (Extinction) Human Feel, Galore (Skirl) James Falzone, The Sign and the Thing Signified (Allos) Lionel Loueke, Virgin Forest (Obliqsound) Mike Reed’s Loose Assembly, Last Year’s Ghost (482 Music)
Zanzibar Blue, etc.
My review of vocalist Melissa Walker with Christian McBride’s trio, in today’s Inquirer. This was the final big engagement at Zanzibar Blue, one of Philly’s top clubs. I have to add a word about Ari Hoenig’s unbelievably tight group “Punk Bop,” which played Chris’s Jazz Cafe the same night. Hoenig on drums, Joel Frahm on tenor, Gilad Hekselman on guitar
Strained metaphor dept.
This is a few days old, but Edward Wong’s NYT analysis of the political machinations of Moktada Al-Sadr builds up to the following line: He has become a great improviser, the Miles Davis of the war. Wong in no way means to glorify Sadr or validate his positions. But coming on the heels of Gilad Atzmon’s latest call to jihad,
Gere’s “offense”
As you’ve heard, a warrant for Richard Gere’s arrest was served in India, in response to his public kissing of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. Seeking to defuse the controversy, Gere has apologized for giving offense. Too bad — his initial response, that this was a publicity-seeking move by a fringe group of Hindu fundamentalists, was the correct one. On NPR
Rosenwinkel in Philly
Guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel is playing two nights in Philly at Chris’s Jazz Cafe. Last night’s two sets were marvelous — he’s got Mark Turner on tenor, Aaron Parks on piano, Joe Martin on bass and Rodney Green on drums. Plenty of new material, plus heated renditions of “Zhivago,” “Use of Light,” “A Life Unfolds” and others. Kurt is no longer
Our hopeless war debate, cont.
The only thing more frustrating than the debate between Congress and the White House on this war funding bill is the mainstream media’s complete ineptitude in reporting about it. Andrew Sullivan points us to this comprehensive post by Marty Lederman. The background: In budget request after budget request over the past few years, the President has failed to ask Congress