The death of Elia Kazan at 94 calls up memories of political controversy, along with some of Hollywood’s greatest movies and Broadway’s greatest plays: “On the Waterfront,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Death of a Salesman,” to cite just three. Kazan’s detractors despised him as a man for “naming names” of alleged Communists in testimony before […]

The only existing scale model of the original World Trade Center twin towers has been “painstakingly restored” and is “on view in a darkened chamber at the American Architectural Foundation’s Octagon Museum” in Washington, Benjamin Forgey reports. “The visitor turns a corner at the second-floor landing of the Octagon’s elegant 18th-century stairwell, enters the room […]

Unlike 85,000 of my fellow New Yorkers, I stayed home last night to watch television instead of going to Central Park for the free concert by the Dave Mathews Band (scroll down for a video clip). I also missed the live Webcast of the concert (here’s the setlist), because I was busy clicking between the season premiere of […]

Now I get it. George W. Bush had a secret speech writer to help him with yesterday’s address to the U.N. — none other than the infallible, ineffable Dr. Pangloss. The New York Times suggested as much this morning in its lead editorial, describing the address on the surface at least as “a Panglossian report on how well […]

Shush. A minute of silence, please. President Bush is speaking at this moment to the U.N. General Assembly about the so-called liberation of Iraq, known as Shrub’s Folly by many U.S. government officials who prefer to remain anonymous so as to not lose their jobs. Postscript: His speech has just ended. “Across Iraq,” he said, “life is being improved by liberty. … […]

Harold Bloom is still fuming over the National Book Foundation’s decision to bestow an award on horrormeister Stephen King for his “distinguished contribution” to letters. By that measure, Bloom harrumphs, J.K. Rowling ought to get the Nobel Prize. As far as he’s concerned, “there are four living American novelists” — and only four — “who […]

What can you say about awards shows that hasn’t already been said? After watching part of the Emmys last night, I decided the best way to enjoy my TV was to turn it off and open a book called “The Crystal Bucket,” a collection of British TV reviews of the 1970s by Clive James. You’d think […]

Here in Gotham City, this is the weekend of The New Yorker Festival. It’s been a lot of fun before, though you’d never know it from this not-very-engaging slide show of previous fests. Will somebody please clue The New Yorker folks into the technological wonders of the Web? They make the party look dull, like snapshots from a rumpus […]

The revised plans for “Memory Foundations” at Ground Zero are out. Architect Daniel Libeskind and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation made them public yesterday. Here’s a quick news summary, and here’s a more thorough report (free registration required). The plans still call for the world’s tallest structure but also for slimmer office buildings and boxier designs than the angular […]

By Jan Herman The bad news for anyone who followed it was that David Jiranek, founder of The Rwanda Project: Through the Eyes of Children, was only 45 when he died last month in a swimming accident. The good news has been that the Rwanda Project continues, thanks to a devoted tribe of friends and […]

By Jan Herman Your brain is hard wired in such a way as to recognize potential matches to familiar objects; this is how optical illusions work. But did you konw taht aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is […]

The life of David Hicks is nothing to write home about. He doesn’t get to write home much anyway. He’s been detained for 20 months at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the U.S. military. He used to be held in Camp X-Ray. But they closed that place down — something to do with inhumane conditions — […]

What is Arnold Schwarzenegger doing making bigger news than ever? This guy was yesteryear. For me, he has built-in nostalgia. I recall an interview I did with him in Chicago in 1982. It began: Arnold Schwarzenegger, budding film stars, puffs on his pipe like a banker on holiday and sends leisurely little clouds of smoke […]

So < FONT color=#003399>what about those acoustics? More verdicts are in, all tentative of course. “Clearly, the acoustics are excellent,” writes Howard Kissel of the New York Daily News. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times, following up his first piece, writes this morning that “the discretely amplified Kenny Barron Quintet, a jazz ensemble, sounded […]

I guess I don’t have to read Paul Krugman’s new book, “The Great Unraveling,” a selection of his op-ed columns, to know what he’s been writing. I’ve read him faithfully ever since his column began, and a morning doesn’t go by when I don’t wish he wrote daily instead of just twice a week. If his […]

The nation mourns. Gee Dubya Shrub exploits. That, in so many words, is the gist of a report in today’s Washington Post: In the past six weeks, Bush has cited “9/11” or Sept. 11, 2001, in arguing for his energy policy and in response to questions about campaign fundraising, tax cuts, unemployment, the deficit, airport […]

A bit of groundling music criticism seems in order. Even if it’s not a view from the Ivory Tower, it might be worth two-and-a-half cents. Frankly, Carnegie Hall’s spanking new venue, the 650-seat Zankel Hall, seems like a knockout to me. Maybe I should equivocate, as the Ivory Tower boys do, by pointing out that […]