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Recommended Reading List

  • Norman Lindsay: The Magic Pudding
    Norman Lindsay: The Magic Pudding
    Noman Lindsay was a great Australian artist, writer and free thinker. His children's classic is virtually unknown in the U.S. Fun fact: The movie Sirens with Elle McPherson is about Lindsay, and for a fleeting second a toy Puddin' appears on screen. I'm surely the only man in America who went to see that movie to catch a glimpse of a stuffed toy.
  • David Corn: The Lies of George W. Bush
    David Corn: The Lies of George W. Bush
    Washington writer for the Nation, corrrespondent for TomPaine.com, blogger, mystery writer and Fox TV pundit, David has been a friend since we both slogged with Mark Green through his 1986 Senate campaign. This book tells the tale on Bush -- check DavidCorn.com for regular updates.
  • Michael Waldman: My Fellow Americans
    Michael Waldman: My Fellow Americans
    Written by a good friend (also the author of POTUS Speaks, about his years as chief speechwriter for President Clinton) this collection of great presidential speeches reminds us that words not only matter but that they can help presidents matter more--and less. A CD is included.
  • Kinky Friedman: A Case of Lone Star
    Kinky Friedman: A Case of Lone Star
    In his first career, Kinky Friedman led a band called the Texas Jewboys and recorded classics like "They don't make Jews like Jesus anymore." Much sex, drugs and rock and roll later, Kinky started writing comic detective novels starring himself and populated with real people and events. I'm stealing his formula for my novel, Murder in the Propaganda Factory, but my hat's off to the Kinkster. News Flash: Kinky's hat is finally in the ring --he's a candidate for Texas Governor. More at www.kinkyfriedman.com!!
  • Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair: A Novel
    Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair: A Novel
    In another 1985, in the London suburb of Croydon, lliterary detective Thursday Next is after arch-villain Archeron Hades, who's been kidnapping characters like Jane Eyre and threatening to undo great fiction. Are the (five so far) Thursday Next novels the funniest, most interesting and intelligent series of books now being written? With all apologies to Terry Pratchett (a close #2), I'd have to say yes.
  • MARION MEADE: Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin : Writers Running Wild in the Twenties
    MARION MEADE: Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin : Writers Running Wild in the Twenties
    Marion Meade has just published an exuberent, fresh glimpse of Zelda Fitzgerald, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dortothy Parker and Edna Ferber. Marion was a good friend of my late mother, biographer Carole Klein (look for her book about Gramercy Park).
  • Bob Kuska: Hot Potato: How Washington and New York Gave Birth to Black Basketball and Changed America's Game Forever
    Bob Kuska: Hot Potato: How Washington and New York Gave Birth to Black Basketball and Changed America's Game Forever
    Another book by a friend (why else have a bog?)Not even the most die-hard basketball fans know the story of how Washington and New York gave birth to Black Basketball and changed America's game forever. It's a story of African American heroes, great players and coaches, and the American spirit.

What's on my ipod

  • The Beautiful South - Lovin You
    Lovin You
    The Beautiful South: Gold Diggas Head Nodders & Pholk Songs
    When was the last time you thought about the Lovin' Spoonful? Well go find a greatest hits album, and then try and find this B-side of the John Sebastian classic by the U.K. band known for its three lead singers, two great songwriters, and a wicked sense of humor. Then get their first album, "Welcome to the Beautiful South." There will be a quiz on Friday.
  • Shack - Comedy
    Comedy
    Shack: H.M.S. Fable
    "Well the awful title belies the quality Of this unusual comedy, It's the same for you and me." From this great beginning jangles an irresistably great song. I love this band so much I planned a trip to London just to see them, and wrote about it in

    this article

    for the Washington Post travel section.
  • Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater
    Autumn Sweater
    Yo La Tengo: I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
    I'm proud to say I went to college with Ira Kaplan, one of the three great hearts of this great band. Ira turned me on to the Flamin Groovies, the Kinks and Philadelphia cheese steaks. Go see YLT when they come to your town. Maybe they'll play their version of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War." Or "Love Power" from the "Producers" movie (which is much better than the play).
  • Eddi Reader - Dolphins
    Dolphins
    Eddi Reader: Mirmama
    My favorite singer's version of the beautiful song by American folksinger Fred Neil. Her new album is a collection of Robert Burns songs. Eddi Reader is Scotland's greatest export since single malt.
  • Fried - When You Get Out of Jail
    When You Get Out of Jail
    Fried: Fried
    (Erratum: correct link) The bass player from Fine Young Cannibals and the English Beat spent two years searching the U.S. for a soul singer to produce. He found 25-year old Jonte Short in New Orleans, and the result is the best soul album since Al Green met Willie Mitchell. Only available as a U.K. import. For now.
  • Teenage Fanclub - Sparky's Dream
    Sparky's Dream
    Teenage Fanclub: Grand Prix
    The perfect summer single on my favourite album by one of the best bands you've never heard of. There's a good recent Greatest Hits album called Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Six Seconds: A Short Cut to Teenage Fanclub. Four great big Glasgow stars.

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Welcome to the Spin Machine

What's inside the spin machine? In this blog I'll take apart news stories line by line to show how professional interests influence the news you consume.  Along the way I'll include blog links -- "blinks"-- to pertinent, instructive or whimsical detours. Don't feel obliged to read all the linked articles, but if you surf my commentary in boldface and click on the keywords  , it's like a standup comedy routine, only with links.   How do people like me influence the media?  Read between the lines of today's paper, and you can see for yourself.

February 07, 2024 | Permalink

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