dev

1
Jul

On Steve Kuhn

My preview of Steve Kuhn at Birdland (Tues., July 7), in the current Time Out New York.

30
Jun

Jacko and the Jews…

A friend prompted me to remark on Michael Jackson’s apparent antisemitism. Nothing to say, except it’s deeply disturbing, and something to remember at a time when people like Sean Combs are lecturing TV networks that they mustn’t say anything bad about the departed legend.

28
Jun

Scahill’s million

On June 6, Jeremy Scahill appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher and stated that a million Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq. Maher was correct to greet the figure with skepticism. Scahill based his remarks on a much-discussed Johns Hopkins study published in The Lancet in 2006. The methodology of the study was promptly discredited by Iraq Body

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28
Jun

Rock With You

Just wanted to endorse the following remarks by Jody Rosen of Slate: Increasingly … [Michael] Jackson’s music was warped by megalomania: huge production budgets, Wagnerian ballads, songs that swung wildly between self-pity and grandiosity. “Heal the World,” he sang, but his own face, rent by plastic surgery, revealed the sickness within. At the 1995 Brit Awards (the U.K. equivalent of

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26
Jun

Go, Adam

Just one of many pop fingerstyle arrangements by my friend Adam Rafferty…

26
Jun

R.I.P. Steven Wells

My Philadelphia Weekly colleague Steven Wells has succumbed to cancer. His final column is here. I met him only once, when I stopped by PW’s offices and chatted about my “A-list” pitch on a Kimmel Center speaking engagement by Salman Rushdie. “So, what’s your take on Rushdie?” he asked, and before I could form two sentences, Steven gave me his

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26
Jun

King of Pop

Legendary Philly soul producers Gamble & Huff are mourning “a dear friend.” This is one of the songs they wrote and produced for him. Catch the rhythmic detail in the choreography at exactly 2:00. And the early hints of the moonwalk, 4:02. [P.S. – My colleague John Murph points out that Jeffrey Daniels of Shalamar was doing the moonwalk before

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24
Jun

Quote of the day

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.” — Richard Nixon [Via TNC.]