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“Drobkin”
“Old Jews Telling Jokes,” a new website, was just covered in New York magazine and I was astonished to find that members of my extended family, and old college friends of my parents, are among the featured performers. Including this man, Malcolm Busch, who hasn’t aged a day since I met him when I was a kid. Wait for the payoff:
On Rebecca Martin
My preview of Rebecca Martin at Joe’s Pub (May 31), in the current Time Out New York.
Cheney: Supreme Court deliberations support terror
Not in so many words. But reading Jeffrey Toobin’s New Yorker piece on Chief Justice Roberts, I paused after this: Last year, Roberts dissented from Kennedy’s opinion for a five-to-four Court in Boumediene v. Bush, which held that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 violated the rights of Guantanamo detainees. And then I thought of this remarkable statement from Dick
The day in bigotry
From this NYT story on Coloradans who don’t want Guantanamo detainees moved to a nearby federal supermax prison: “People here are good Christian conservatives,” said Tom Baron, who described himself as a struggling small-business man, co-owner with his wife, Marie, of Donuts and Dogs, a coffee shop. Mr. Baron said he thought that large numbers of Muslims — the family
PMP magazine
I have a jazz survey piece, somewhat out of date, in the annual Philadelphia Music Project magazine. Go here for “Jazz Horizons: A Diverse Lineage in Context.” If you access the entire magazine via pdf and scroll to page 38, you can also find my report on Philly book lectures by Ben Ratliff and Alex Ross.
On the Sun Ra Arkestra
In the current Philadelphia Weekly: Sun Ra ArkestraSun., May 24, 8pm. $10. Johnny Brenda’s, 1201 N. Frankford Ave. 215.739.9684 www.johnnybrendas.com Pianist, bandleader and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial Sun Ra (Herman Poole Blount) died in 1993, but he remains an “Afrofuturist” black culture icon whose influence always extended beyond avant-garde jazz. His example looms particularly large in Philadelphia, where he lived from 1968
On Adam Rudolph
My preview of Adam Rudolph’s Go: Organic Orchestra (Roulette, May 25), in the current Time Out New York.
Sci Fi Philly Turns 1
This coming Sunday marks the first anniversary of Sci Fi Philly, the creative music series I wrote about here [pdf]. It’s going strong and celebrating with an all-day blowout on May 24. Click on the image to enlarge and peruse the amazing lineup.