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A word on Ani DiFranco
I had harsh words for Ani DiFranco’s 9/11 poem “self evident” in my statement supporting the Unite Against Terror petition. There I cited her description of 9/11 as “the day that america/fell to its knees/after strutting around for a century/without saying thank you/or please.” On my Adlermusic.com website [scroll down] I wrote the following: [T]he trope is familiar: 9/11 was
Muhal bails
At the Katrina benefit held by the avant-jazz Vision Fest last night, I eagerly awaited a solo piano set by the great Muhal Richard Abrams. After taking to the bench, Abrams played three or four notes, got up and told the audience, “I don’t play out-of-tune pianos. It’s not fair to me and it’s not fair to you.” Dismay and
The Next Abu Ghraib
That’s what blogger Eric Muller is calling this demented amateur porn site [warning: porn/depraved gore]. Apparently U.S. soldiers get free access to the porn if they send in photos of dead Iraqis. Some of the photo captions include: “What every Iraqi should look like” and “DIE, HAJI, DIE.” Andrew Sullivan opines: I would think this violates the Geneva Conventions, not
“Toxic certainty”
Good piece by Ginia Bellafante in the Sunday NY Times (9/18; reg. required), on choreographer/dancer Bill T. Jones and his latest work, “Blind Date”: The last presidential election brought [Jones’s] relatively vague ideas about civil malaise into sharp focus. “I’d really thought that the values of the counterculture were moving more into the mainstream of American life,” Mr. Jones said
Bold, original thought
I’m not being sarcastic. Nicholas Powers, writing in New York’s free Indymedia paper, takes apart the warped psychology fueling 9/11 conspiracy theories. With droll, idiosyncratic references to “Airplane,” “Fahrenheit 9/11” and even “Scooby-Doo,” Powers asserts that conspiracy nuts fall back on “the repeated hope that power can rescue us from random chance and human error.” Money quotes (the piece seems
Terence Blanchard
I’d been meaning to go hear Blanchard’s band with Aaron Parks, Lionel Loueke, Brice Winston, Derrick Hodge and Kendrick Scott. Last night at Joe’s Pub I finally did, and I was floored. I knew that Blanchard’s last two Blue Notes, Bounce and Flow, were strong, but live the material was absolutely enormous — full of drama, sonic exploration, harmonic depth,
Beautifully done, JALC
I was taken aback by the beauty of last night’s Higher Ground Hurricane Relief concert, broadcast live from Jazz at Lincoln Center. I tuned in via WNYC-FM for the first couple of hours, then switched to PBS and remained there until the event ended at 1 a.m. One great artist after another kept me glued to the screen. Laurence Fishburne’s
Palast strikes again
Another much-needed anti-Galloway hit from Greg Palast, who will speak at the 9/24 antiwar rally in D.C. (Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)