Archives for February 2004

It’s good to see The New York Times taking constructive note of the Vienna Philharmonic’s discrimination against women, which I harped on earlier this month. In a report on Sunday about Seiji Ozawa’s role in Vienna’s musical world, “He Got His Opera, Vienna Got Its Maestro,” Alan Riding noted: [Ozawa] hopes to exercise influence in […]

George Butler, who is making a documentary about Sen. John Kerry, says Kerry’s thoughtful younger brother Cameron “will have a very central role in any Kerry administration.” Provided, of course, that Kerry wins the Democratic presidential nomination and the general election. In honor of President’s Day, it’s time to point out that Cameron Kerry’s role […]

Full exposure: There’s nothing to deflate the self-regard of theater critics like comparing their notices. Here’s what they said about the Aquila Theatre Company’s staging of “Agamemnon,” which opened last night in New York. Notice, please, that the issue is not who’s right or who’s wrong, so much as why are all of them somehow […]

Postmodern stagings of ancient Greek plays have their work cut out for them. Consider the “Agamemnon” presented by New York’s Aquila Theatre Company, starring Olympia Dukakis. It opens tonight. In trenchcoats and snap-brim fedoras, the chorus of Argos elders looks like it stepped out of a Raymond Chandler novel. Seven variations on Philip Marlow mill about […]

I said, “Enough already!” But apropos Tuesday’s column by David Brooks, which claim’s our Maximum Leader is inarticulate “like most of us,” the staff believes you really should see these out of fairness to 290 million Americans (not including Donnie Boy): “The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country.” “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk […]

Who knew? The spirit of “American Idol” infected U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft back in 2002. Was it a retrovirus? Watch him perform his own song, “Let the Eagles Soar,” at a North Carolina seminary. It must be seen to be believed or, depending on your tolerance for the surreal, disbelieved. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

The news media’s pretense that the Maximum Leader actually said something of value Sunday in his interview on “Meet the Press” was one more confirmation that the United States is being turned into a Banana Republic. So said I as straight-faced news stories began pouring in with headlines like this from UPI: “Bush defends actions […]

Continuing our theme about irresponsible news media, here’s Paul Krugman on recent reporting of the Maximum Leader’s budget proposal: “You don’t want the news section to read like a partisan attack, but in the very first few paragraphs, you should say something like this is a budget that raised eyebrows around Washington, or something like […]

The mere thought of watching the Grammys Awards was puke-making. For a minute-by-minute wrap of Sunday night’s show, we left it to summa cum laude student of pop culture Ryan McGee, who traditionally records his impressions online in real time at Wading in the Velvet Sea: 8:02 pm: So lemmee get this straight: The producers figured the […]

This morning’s “Meet the Press” on NBC should have been called “Meet the President.” If only Tim Russert had said: “Yes, Mr. President, but you didn’t answer the question.” The first exchange set the tone for all the rest: Russert: On Friday, you announced a committee, commission to look into intelligence failures regarding the Iraq war […]

My staff of thousands is taking the day off. For your amusement, we recommend the recent oeuvre of Belle de Jour, the diary of our favorite London call girl, which reads increasingly like a serialized Proustian novel. (Scroll to the bottom entry –jeudi, janvier 29 — and read up. Also, we don’t really think of […]

Exhibit One: “The Passion of Christ,” Mel Gibson’s take on the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life, to be released nationwide later this month. It purports to be an accurate historical depiction, complete with bloody whippings, nine-inch nails, subtitled Aramaic dialogue and, let’s not forget, the actual soundtrack (dolorous music, portentous drums) that accompanied […]

My favorite Australian-born TV critic once wrote: “What the junk journalist doesn’t realise — or does realise, and waxes more aggressive so as to shout down his vestigial conscience — is that he’s not really a party to the star’s fame, which is based on solid appreciation and would still be there even if the […]

From the Maximum Leader’s bonkers budget to biochemical terrorism in Washington, the news is too depressing today. So here, for what they’re worth, are laughs from Lara. I don’t know who Lara is. She’s just a forwarding agent. But I do know she has a sense of humor, even though her women’s collection of photos […]

Ah, Vienna. Such a wedding cake. How gemütlich. So warm and cozy. But when you look closer, you discover the tarnish beneath the charm. Consider Austria’s major cultural export, the world-famous Vienna Philharmonic, which performs later this month at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. Seven years ago, after being criticized and pressured […]

We saw Janet Jackson’s breast-cum-starry-nipple bared by Justin Timberlake, reportedly an accident, then we saw a streaker. We saw the Budweiser donkey, the get-an-erection ads and the geriatric tug-of-war over a potato chip. We heard lots of noisy rock and crotch-grabbing rap. Did we see “Child’s Pay,” the moveon.org ad? Nope. Did we hear Willie […]