Considering what I wrote in the Christian Science Monitor last month, I consider myself quoted by Hillary Clinton as she wonders about the realities of the "politics of hope." I still think, as the chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party said to Chris Matthews yesterday, that a strong, partisan Democrat in the White House and a stronger Democratic majority with skilled leaders like my old college classmate Rahm Emanuel is a stronger formula for success, but hey, I read the papers and watch TV too and am prepared to rock with Barack just like every other Hillary voter I know.
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What's on my ipod
Los Straitjackets: Rock En Español, Vol. 1
I saw this band a few weeks ago open for Los Lobos at a transcendent free concert by the river in Albany. They're Anglo musicians who wear Mexican wrestling masks, and have made this album of Spanish language versions of 60s pop songs. "Hang on Sloopy" becomes "Hey Lupe" etc... also including "Loco te patina el Coco" (Wild Thing) and "El Microscopicio bikini" (Dizzy Miss Lizzie). Featuring the best instrumentalists you've never heard before, plus the vocal stylings of Big Sandy. An essential purchase, and then check out the segment Terry Gross did with them onon Fresh Air.
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Passe em Casa
Tribalistas: Tribalistas
This is the most infectious, melodic, emotional music I've heard in years, by three giants of Brazilian pop music: Maria Montes, Arnaldo Antunes and Carlhinos Brown. The DVD of these sessions is even better. A total delight. Give one to all your friends.
Levi Stubbs' Tears
Billy Bragg: Talking with the Taxman
Let us now praise Billy Bragg. "Mixing pop and politics, he asks me what the use is," the Bard of Barking once wrote about an interviewer. "I offered him apologies and my usual excuses." None necessary, Bill. All his early albums are handsomely repackaged and loaded with extra goodies. Start with this album, and this heartbreakingly beautiful song, then if you really want some fun, buy the box set, it comes with a DVD. Go see David at RebelRebel on Bleecker Street, and tell him I sent you.
Rebel Rebel
Seu Jorge: The Life Aquatic
Rebel Rebel: A great David Bowie song. Also the name of my favorite CD store in the village at 319 Bleecker. And now part of a delightful album of acoustic versions of David Bowie song sung in Portugeuese. Indescribably delicious.
Living Proof
Cat Power: The Greatest
She has a voice like syrup, she recorded this album with Al Green's band, she's a gifted songwriter...why is this the first Cat Power album I've ever heard? It won't be the last.
Waltz for Debby
Bill Evans: complete village vanguard recordings
My day goes like this: I make a pot of Darjeeling tea. I read two, maybe three newspapers. I start working on the computer and start listening to Bill Evans. I do both all day. If you love jazz, if you've never listened to jazz, you'll love Bill's records from the 1960s. This set captures his most famous trio at their most famous gig.
Great Big Kiss
Johnny Thunders: So Alone
I used to hear this song on the great, still going strong Vin Scelsa's show on WNEW-FM, and now the New York proto-punk album to beat the band is out on CD. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory indeed.
Come On/Let's Go
Paul Weller: As Is Now
The Modfather is back, although he does look unhealthily like a Gallagher brother in the video... I liked the Jam, didn't care for the Style Council, loved Paul Weller's first two solo albums, been disappointed with some of his product since then --but the new one's a grower.
walter reed
michael penn: Mr. Hollywood, Jr. 1947
A return to form from one half of one of rock's greatest couples. This is the first song from an album of stunners, a song cycle every bit as brainy as Aimee's.
Redwing
Hem: Eveningland
I could have chosen any song by this wonderful new band. See my post over there on the right column about a recent enchanted evening for more about Hem.
Recommended Reading List
Tom Holt: The Portable Door
A good introduction to a writer who also wrote a wonderful book about Snow White and the Seven Samurai. Not quite as wonderful as Terry Pratchett, but in the same class and almost as prolific. Bet you can't read just one.
Jane and Michael Stern: Two for the Road
I still have my first edition, much stained and dog-eared, of the Sterns' 1975 classic Roadfood but now I'm happy to share my affection for my heroes with their growing audience of readers and fellow travelers at www.roadfood.com. This memoir with recipes is great fun and inspirational too, as in the classic chapter What Would Jesus Eat?
Joe Jackson: a cure for gravity
Joe Jackson is smart, a great writer, and insightful about his life leading up to success in music. Growing up in Portsmouth, going to musical college, playing for drunks, traveling in grotty vans; Jackson paid his dues and here's the proof.
The Vesuvius Club
A naughty pleasure, a James Bond movie written by Oscar Wilde, a shocking example of loose morals in Edwardian England. Lucifer Box is a painter/secret agent whose service to the Crown takes him on wild, pulse-quickening adventures. More please!
Tony Hawks: Round Ireland with a Fridge
It's about just what the title says. A very funny man made a very drunk bet and found himself having to hitch-hike around Ireland with a (small) refrigerator. Mayhem ensues. All Ireland rallies to his cause, well, not all Ireland...
Barometer's Shadow
This great novel is, in part, about one of my favorite subjects, crabs. It's also about a search for identity in the 1970s, and it's written by my cousin, OK? Buy this book and find out something you didn't know about Alaska.
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.
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
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.
October 2008
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OK, so I'm obsessed with Richard Nixon. Lots of people, well three at least, share my mania, and some of them are big time media stars. (You know who you are, Al Franken and Harry Shearer). This is about the night I had dinner with some of the team from the Senate Watergate committee. I brought some of my favorite artifacts, like my life size inflatable Nixon. (What, you've never seen one?)
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My complete oeuvre. Moi, I prefer my oeuvres over easy... - Don't Listen to Consultants (like me)
The Washington Post called it "career arson" when I wrote this expose of how political consultants can be bad for democracy. Bob Shrum still isn't talking to me. Well, to be perfectly truthful, that's probably because I've never met him. - Faking the voice of the people | csmonitor.com
My most widely read column, according to Google. My views on "astroturf" letters to the editor have been reprinted in a textbook, mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and discussed in an online journalism review. That doesn't make me right, of course. - Murder in the Propaganda Factory
Read the first chapter of my novel in progress. Washingtonians will recognize the scenery. - Paul Simon went to Graceland. You Don't Have To
I went to Graceland, was bored and alienated (what else is new) and wrote about it for the Christian Science Monitor. I got some lovely hate mail, the best of which I can't publish on my website, but if you write to me I'll share it on the q.t. - Shocked
My first published punditry, in the Christian Science Monitor. Practically all the dialogue is quoted verbatim from a meeting I once attended. I made up the bit about Alec Baldwin. - Unpublished Punditry
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I am not William Klein. I mean, of course, I am William Klein, but I'm not the William Klein more people have heard of, who is a famous photographer and film maker. What does this have to do with my friend Matt Weber? Well, he also has a unique eye and a great talent. Check out his new book of New York photos called the Urban Prisoner. - Inspector Collector
Man of a milllion collections, from Mr. T memorablia to phonograph tone arms to a museum-quality archive of Chinese restaurant menus, Inspector Collector is on a mission to put paid to those silly antique roadshow clowns and explain to kids and adults why collecting is so cool. - Goddard College | Come to Goddard as you are. Leave the way you want to be.
Believe it or not, I'm a member of the Board of Trustees of Goddard. A vi tal part of Vermont for two centuries, Goddard pioneered the concepts of external degrees and distance learning for working adults. And it has one of the best free-form radio stations in the country, WGDR.org. - Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate
If I were a college professor, graduate student, or genuine intulekchewul, I would understand more of these articles. As it is, I'm grateful for these links and listings of other great publications. - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: The National Media Watch Group
Of all the groups I've ever worked with, I think FAIR is the most on-target. Back in the days of the first Bush, we created a Media Bias Detector to give viewers a chance to take apart the news and see how the spin machinery worked. Sound familiar? - Roadfood.com
The original Roadfood books were essential guides to the best regional food within driving distance of highway exits, so the serious eater need never go to a Howard Johnson's. So many of my greatest food "discoveries" really came from Jane and Michael Stern. Now they're sharing their delectable knowledge on the web, along with a busy community of acolytes eager to share the kind of news Calvin Trillin (another hero) would have put in his "tummy trilogy." - Dads & Daughters: resources & support for fathers of girls
I'm a supporter of this great group for fathers, daughters and the people who care about them. If you've wanted to help girls grow up healthy, confident and able to stand up to pressure from advertisers, media and entertainers--like the messages even 8 year old girls get about being thin--DADs has some great news for you. - Robbie Conal's Art Attack!
A great artist, activist and all around cool guy. Robbie's friends all over the country look forward to his visits to their city, when he leads us on midnight postering raids, armed with protest art, glue pots and speedy getaway cars. Some of the best fun you can have fully dressed, to paraphrase Woody Allen.
Political Links
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Now exclusively online, Politicos used to have a London store in the shadow of Parliament where I loved to stock up on Labour party memorabilia and refrigerator-sized diaries that only British politicians know how to churn out. - David Corn
You read him in the Nation, you see hiim on TV. He blogs, he tells the truth, he's a witty writer and we used to share a laugh about my very left wing clients, the Christic Institute (oooo, scary). - Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
If you can't read all the news about politics, you can find the day's most important links here.
News sites
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