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The shooting
Excellent piece of reporting by Serge Kovaleski and Sarah Kershaw in this morning’s NYT, about David Garvin, the lunatic who went on a shooting rampage in the West Village last Wednesday night. I know the area around Houston and MacDougal very well, from my earliest days in New York in the late ’80s. I still find myself down there sometimes,
Quote for the day
“We are not afraid of being named terrorists … But I want to ask, is someone who detonates one kilogram a terrorist while someone who detonates tons in Arab and Islamic cities not a terrorist?”— Shakir al-Abssi, leader of the Lebanese-based Fatah al Islam, an al-Qaeda offshoot This is a standard trope not only of the Islamist far-right but also
On Pat Martino
I have a short feature on guitarist Pat Martino in the current edition of the Philadelphia Weekly.
Cheney at AIPAC
Dick Cheney has the unmitigated gall to accuse war opponents of “undermining” the troops, with the Walter Reed revelations still in the news. And after all Cheney and Bush have put these troops through. Even more ridiculous when you consider what Peter Pace has just said, not only about the gay men and women under his command, but also about
Choose a side
Morgan Tsvangirai (pictured at left), leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, has been savagely beaten by Robert Mugabe’s thugs; thankfully he is up and walking and was able to appear in court. His crime? Opposing a regime that has reduced Zimbabweans to hunting mice for food, and that has managed to halve the country’s average life expectancy since 1990.
Pace’s remarks
General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is being called on to apologize for his public condemnation of homosexuality. Andrew Sullivan is raising a gratifying ruckus — here, here and here. My immediate reaction, aside from disgust at Pace’s remarks, is that he shouldn’t apologize. His view should be challenged and condemned on the merits. But the
The Atzmon-Duke convergence
It’s been a while since I’ve commented on the jazz saxophonist and rabid antisemite — sorry, “critic of Israel” — Gilad Atzmon. But I thought I’d link to this colorful spread on the website of the avowed neo-Nazi David Duke. Normally I’d hesitate to link to a racist site, but I feel we should all have a look at Atzmon’s
Six Picks: March 2007
My monthly list of recommended CDs, as published in All About Jazz-New York, March 2007: Don Aliquo, Jazz Folk (Young Warrior Records) Richie Barshay, Homework (AYVA Music) Steve Kuhn, Live at Birdland (Blue Note) Wolfgang Muthspiel & Brian Blade, Friendly Travelers (Material) Dave Stryker & Steve Slagle, Latest Outlook (Zoho) Gebhard Ullmann/Chris Dahlgren/Art Lande, Die Blaue Nixe (Challenge)