dev

14
Sep

Hitchens versus Galloway

Debating tonight at Baruch College, 7 p.m. I’m sure today’s bombing in Baghdad will be discussed. Over 100 have been killed, including at least 80 Shia day laborers lured to a car bomb by a man who promised them jobs. Here is what Galloway has said about the Iraqi “resistance”: These poor Iraqis – ragged people, with their sandals, with

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13
Sep

Relief efforts…

Via my friend Anastasia T. at Cafe Aman, a helpful page of listings on the Katrina Music Response. More info from Vijay Iyer, plus an e-invite to this Sunday’s (9/18) Harlem Relief Response, Aaron Davis Hall at 3 pm.

12
Sep

New Orleans, jazz and politics

In response to Katrina, a New Orleans Jazz Funeral Procession was held this past weekend, on September 11 in the West Village (NYC). A number of jazz community events were being announced last week, but I received the press release for this march from at least four different jazz publicists. Unlike the benefit concerts and myriad other events being talked

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12
Sep

Grizzly Man

Run and see this incredible documentary. It’s Werner Herzog’s poem on the human condition. Sure, Timothy Treadwell was damaged goods, a narcissist, a reckless nut with delusions of grandeur, obsessed with the idea of his own death at the hands (paws) of a Grizzly (although I do not believe he was suicidal). But what makes his story compelling? Above all

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11
Sep

I woke to “Amazing Grace”…

…heard from two blocks away, at the NYC Firefighters Memorial, where a 9/11 ceremony was winding down. Bagpipes played “America the Beautiful.” I leapt out of bed, threw on clothes and ran out the door so I could stand among a throng of firefighters in uniform, milling about as the gathering broke up, firm handshakes, hugging, greeting one another as

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11
Sep

Where I Stand

I wrote this for my other site, Adlermusic.com, a couple of weeks ago. I reprint it here today, our fourth 9/11 milepost.___ A supportive and brilliant friend has challenged my recent political writings as follows: I’m struck by a reactionary strain in your choice of material…it’s as though you have self-consciously taken on the job of thought-policing the left…. I

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11
Sep

New Orleans — The Aftermath

A post from my homepage of September 5, ’05:Andrew Sullivan destroys Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina in the Sunday Times of London. And continues to do so on his blog.

10
Sep

A strange resemblance…

While listening to “Work Song,” as sung by the late Oscar Brown, Jr. on his 1960 debut Sin & Soul, I found myself humming another tune I couldn’t pinpoint. Slowly, uncertainly, I figured out what it was: Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath.” Check it out. There’s a similar melodic arc, I swear.