rakemag Midway Contemporary Art, through August 20 Hot stuff from both coasts. While lots of artists do cheeky or ironic or deadpan-cool takes on fashion models and magazine culture, New York painter Katherine Bernhardt has been getting acclaim for her caustic, expressionistic approach to these topics, which has a whiff of early eighties punk about it … Read more
These days, jazz is rarely performed on a truly large scale, but the eighteen-piece Count Basie Orchestra isn’t really about these days. Basie’s orchestra (sans Basie, who died in 1984, in case you didn’t know) still swings, loudly and enthusiastically, keeping the music hot. And there appears to be no slowing down–this outfit still wins … Read more
Paul Harstad is quoted [Red-Handed, July], “Egypt is a very interesting place… but why on Earth would they spend all that time, energy, and resources to build monuments to dead people?” To which a Rake editor has appended the comment “They should have built more libraries!” As a librarian myself, I applaud the sentiment, but … Read more
All I did was order a few pizzas. Really! Last week I was in a place with no TV news or newspapers, so it was a blissful time free of worry about bombings in London or the rattish morality of Karl Rove. I got back on Saturday, though, just in time to read about the … Read more
Tom Friedman, much revered St. Louis Park multiple Pulitzer winner has a pretty provocative column today in the NY Times entitled “If It’s a Muslim Problem, It Needs a Muslim Solution.” He states, “The Muslim village has been derelict in condemning the madness of jihadist attacks. When Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the … Read more
The War on Terror came home to roost again this morning, and reminded us that there is a price to be paid–and that the ones paying it are innocent civilians and volunteer soldiers from the countries Bush dragged with us into Iraq. But, it would be stupid to say this is Bush’s and Blair’s fault. … Read more
I’ve got a strategist named Rove and a press corps I call Rover Judith Miller of the NY Times reports today to a judge for sentencing for her refusal to reveal her source in the Plame matter. There are some who think she should be going to jail for her complete bullshit reporting on the … Read more
I want your property I happened to spend part of my Fourth of July with the former mayor of one of our most affluent suburbs…as if I needed reminding of why I don’t live out there. First I heard of all his suburb’s problems–high taxes, hard to park on main street, white kids into beer … Read more
If you Christians don’t quit worshipping golden calf statues, I’m gonna smash your laws. I was just listening to MPR’s Talk of the Nation, and they were discussing the Supreme Court’s recent rulings on the display of the Ten Commandments in public space. It was going along about as these things usually do (everyone treated … Read more
And after we bomb Cambodia, I’ve instructed the National Guard to shoot four students at an Ohio college… Michael Smith, the London Sunday Times reporter who broke the story of the Downing Street memo has followed up with two more pieces. It seems, in his piece from last Sunday, that the Americans were bombing Iraq … Read more