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Trouble in Kurdistan
Iran is shelling suspected PKK (or PJAK) positions in northern Iraq. This NYT report describes it as “the second day of attacks,” but other reports of shelling date back to April 21. The region is on my mind because I was recently there. I voiced my misgivings about the PKK here. If anyone has more detailed damage/casualty reports, please share.
A startling resemblance
Here is the cover of The Independent’s Extra supplement, touting a piece by Robert Fisk on the U.S. pro-Israel lobby. Below it is an image produced by the neo-Nazi International Third Position. Now, some will accuse me of indulging in guilt by association, but it’s entirely fair to ask: Why doesn’t the anti-Zionist left take more care to distance itself
Tarik Shah column: a response
Margaret Davis, an avant-jazz promoter who heads the support campaign for jailed bassist Tarik Shah, has responded to my piece in Jazz Times [pdf] with an email to her subscriber list. In her missive she denounces my column and urges her recipients to respond to Jazz Times. She also includes my personal email address and invites people to contact me
Fish on Rushdie
During the height of the cartoon controversy I had this to say about academic-pundit Stanley Fish, who seemed to celebrate the moral, um, clarity of the anti-cartoon protestors. Here is Fish on his NYT “Think Again” blog disapproving of Nova Southeastern University’s decision to invite Salman Rushdie to give a commencement address. Mustn’t offend those few Muslim students who revile
An honor
I’m enormously grateful to be among four nominees for this year’s Helen Dance-Robert Palmer Award for Excellence in Newspaper, Magazine or Online Writing, an honor bestowed annually by the Jazz Journalists Association. My fellow nominees are Nate Chinen, Francis Davis and Mike Zwerin. Thank you, colleagues, for your support.
Roj TV
My good friend and colleague Yigal Schleifer has a piece on page 1 of the Monitor about Roj TV, the Kurdish TV station broadcasting from Denmark.
Deja Vu
Michael Totten has a great post about crossing from Iraqi Kurdistan back into Turkey by car. Brings back memories. We also had to avoid a driver’s scheme to smuggle cigarettes. And it seems that we encountered the same Turkish soldier from Melbourne, Australia. Totten’s post also reminded me of something I forgot to mention in my series — no ATMs
Blaming the artists
My friend Tad Hendrickson has a piece in the May 2006 Jazz Times about major jazz labels signing more and more non-jazz acts. He quotes Ron Goldstein of the Verve Music Group as follows: It’s not that we want to be out of the jazz business. It’s just that there is nothing that is coming along that is exciting. There