blog riley

Andras Schiff finished his Beethoven sonata cycle last fall. Here's my NPR story that ran yesterday, with quotes from his Guardian master class podcasts. … [Read more...]

Geezers and used record hounds gathered at this Center for Arts at the Armory benefit Saturday night, featuring the Neighborhoods and Burma. Most impressive opener: Faces on Film, cross between David Byrne, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, backed by Pavement, if Pavement was a really good version of The Band, … [Read more...]

I performed at one of the inaugural balls in 1993, at the first Clinton inauguration. I was invited because Al Gore was a family friend, and because I had played at a few events for him when he was doing environmental work as a senator. I was thrilled. I got a beautiful dress, lent to me by the … [Read more...]

or, Guthrie Wrote a Column for the Daily Worker Blacks far outclassed whites aesthetically yesterday, typically. At least MOST whites on that stage realized it as it was happening (perhaps not Bono, or Bon Jovi). My kids made two piercing requests: "Long Walk Home" by Bruce, and "We Shall Overcome" … [Read more...]

Editors of magazines and newspapers really, really want writers to say that something is dead. Partly because it's a dogmatic position that makes people's blood boil, but partly because they don't want to think any longer about whatever it is that they're saying is dead. They want to cross off that … [Read more...]

...Using sound-wave analysis based on the 1820s work of French scientist Joseph Fourier, Dalhousie University's Jason Brown deconstructed the opening chord with the help of basic audio-editing software. Brown found that it isn't purely guitar and bass, as previously assumed; he theorizes that … [Read more...]

Have You Seen...? A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films by David Thomson (Alfred A. Knopf, 1024 pp) For a thinker with writerly titles (Warren Beatty And Desert Eyes), this literalism goes kerplunk. And the organizing conceit (1,000 films sequenced alphabetically by title, 1200 thoughtful words … [Read more...]

Tim DeChristopher (best header: LAST AUCTION HERO, Grist magazine) now represented by former Better Land Management lawyer Patrick Shea. … [Read more...]

I have two new obsessions: twitter, and all its flotsam, and I forget the other one. This NYTimes article ran WITHOUT LINKS, making it that all-too typical "norm" in newsprint "web coverage," good reporting that doesn't get you where you want to … [Read more...]

"Something very vital indeed, something revolutionary happened to American culture during the 1930s..."--Francis O'Connor … [Read more...]

First, a comment: Does anybody really think the economy would be in this much trouble if we HADN'T been spending $10b/month in Iraq? How come nobody's asking THAT question? ARTICLES OF THE WEEK Ed Ward reviews Ted Gioia's Delta Blues in Truthdig Anil Dash on music industry, Dylan Tom Carson on Veep … [Read more...]

"In his adivce to the players Hamlet says that the purpose of playing is to hold 'the mirror up to nature' (3.2.20). But the metadrama of modernity does, in a way, the opposite. It holds nature up to a mirror, and it believes the mirror. Never more than when it juxtaposes stage death and real death … [Read more...]

True, the damage wrought by the Weatherpeople is trivial compared with the war itself and has arguably been more thoroughly denounced. After all, John McCain most likely killed civilians while bombing Vietnam, and he got to run for president as a war hero. Henry Kissinger is fawned upon wherever he … [Read more...]

Sasha Frere-Jones Culture Bully's Top Ten Music Vids … [Read more...]

I. Greil Marcus returns Real Life Top Ten to The Believer, where it originated in its imaginary early issues. (Trail of broken dreams: Village Voice, artforum, Salon, City Pages.) Snake in the grass. B. notes on The Shield finale: Chiklis as skilled actor who takes on a magnificent character and … [Read more...]