Within Him, Now Without Him

The legendary Ravi Shankar has passed away at 92.  Here is with his most famous fan, George Harrison. Still amazing that he is Norah Jones&...

Shooting at Mall in Oregon

At least two dead as gunman walks around shooting, in usual camouflage outfit and bulletproof vest, before offing himself.  How only two kil...

Old Bald Drummer Dies

Well, that's what he was known as for some of us of a certain age, without knowing his name.  He was Ed Cassidy, who has died at age 89,...

The Return of Upton Sinclair!

Jonathan Chait just now at New York magazine suggests that a Politico piece, accidentally, reads like something my hero Uppie might have w...

'Zero Dark' Dirty?

UPDATE #3  Now security analyst Peter Bergen, writing at CNN site,   joins those questioning movie on torture .  "The compelling story...

Jesus: Putting the 'Mass' in Christmas

Let's think of him like this, this time around.   U2 does Woody Guthrie's "Jesus Christ."

Holiday Cheer and Love Notes

Hi everyone, Hope the week has gotten off to a good start for all. Wonder if anyone else was crazy enough to go to a Toys R Us on a Saturday...

When Many Heard the News That Day, Oh Boy

Another night of Monday night football reminds me that 32 years ago, back when these TV games had a huge audience, many in the U.S. heard th...

Krugman: Mary's Quite Contrary

You may have read about, or perhaps even viewed, Mary Matalin hitting Paul Krugman as a mere "polemicist" on a Sunday yack show ye...

New Poll: Grin and Colbert It in South Carolina

UPDATE  On this show tonight, Colbert milked the attention and poll result, citing Atlantic calling him "overqualified" and NBC s...

'Polymath' Rosen Passes Away

The great pianist and author (best known for "The Classical Style") Charles Rosen has passed away at age 85.  His writings and le...

Biggest Story of 2012 Campaign?

Over the weekend, at The Nation , I reviewed  Dan Froomkin's extensive and valuable interviews with the conservative/liberal pair Norm...

Oh My, Bradley

My new piece at The Nation on NYT public editor again hitting paper for weak coverage of Bradley Manning hearing.

My Books and Photos Here

I recently set up separate pages at this blog for 1) details about most of my books and 2) a portfoliio of my photographs from recent years,...

After The Last Waltz

Rick Danko of The Band passed away 13 years ago up the river a bit near Woodstock.  Never met Rick first saw him play in 1965--in backing Dy...

Correction of the Day

From today's NYT :  "An obituary on Wednesday about Eileen Moran, a visual effects producer, misstated the name of a character sh...

'NYT' Puts in an Appearance at Manning Hearing

UPDATE #3 Sunday  Manning has easily won --with 70% of the vote against other finalists such as Nate Silver and Pussy Riot--a reader poll as...

Portrait of Dylan As Young Man

I've seen parts of this before but didn't know about full show: a half-hour special on Canadian TV in 1964 that's all Dylan, liv...

Another Major Lift for 'Hallelujah'

Another page in Leonard Cohen's remarkable comeback--he's playing two packed arenas in NYC this month, e.g.--is the arrival of a pai...

'Beasts' Burdened--With New Awards

L.A. Film Critics giving out its award, one by one today, and already has made two great picks:  Dwight Henry, a non-professional in Beasts ...

Sunday Morning in the Church of Beethoven

My weekly feature, this time with the great Paul Lewis and the slow movement of piano concerto no. 3.   And my Beethoven book , with Kerry C...

My Photo of The Day

"Lily Pads, Bronx Botanical Garden."

Just Gimme Some Truth

For our usual Saturday night music pick we'll be posting some not-obvious John Lennon offerings, marking the 32nd anniversary of his tra...

End of the GOP?

Maureen Dowd in her Sunday column predicts it (not many days after her withering attacks on Obama, so go figure) although it's at least...

Another NFL (Criminal?) Death

Exactly one week after the murder-suicide in Kansas City, we have a Dallas Cowboys linebacker dead in car crash today and his teammate, a l...

Chase, Miami Steve, Return to Jersey

NYT has just posted a piece coming tomorrow in print on the front page of the Arts section, on the upcoming David Chase flick Not Fade Awa...

John Lennon: 32 Years On

Yes, he was assasinated on this day (night) in 1980.  I was among those who first heard about via TV bulletin in NYC about 11 p.m. Went upto...

Krugman Goes Off the Cliff

The NYT columnist just now with urgent blog post raising alarms by rumored Obama deal on fiscal cliff (as reported by Ezra Klein).  He can&...

Photo of the Day for Friday

Continuing my Photo of the Day selections from my portfolio...see more here . "St. Francis Church, Taos, New Mexico" (made famous ...

Outrage Over 'Bonnie & Clyde' Shootings in Cleveland

My new piece at The Nation on police firing 137 shots at unarmed couple.

Quick and easy gift card holder ornament

The best value for gift-giving these days seems to be a simple gift card. It allows the recipient to go to a store they like and choose an i...

When I Met Springsteen at Sing Sing

Forty years ago this week I got a phone call at my office at the legendary Crawdaddy , where I served as #2 editor, that would change my lif...

Soy Vey!

In honor of the Grammy nods announced today--which somehow missed Bob Dylan's highly-praised album--here's one of the classic Grammy...

Colbert for Senate?

UPDATE  Colbert pushing tonight.  Shows clip of Nikki Haley on show.  Reminds her he's conservative and has a Super Pac. And the Senate...

Bobby or Booby?

 UPDATE   Krugman in his Friday column elaborates on the below but also focuses on the U.S. facing not a fiscal cliff but a jobs cliff.   &...

Unusual Suspect

My neighbor--he lives one block over--Stephen Baldwin, the "actor,"  has been arrested by my county's D.A. for failing to pay...

The Little Dickens

Janet Maslin reviews the new Robert Gottlieb book about my man, Charles Dickens, and his many children.  Okay, not the greatest of Dads--the...

From 'Say Hey!' to 'Say What?'

I posed this question over at Twitter the other day:  If Mike Napoli (who hit .227 last year) and Shane Victorino (.254) get $39 million con...

Pro-Pot Kitty

High on pot...or just dreaming of spring, our Zoe.

'Psycho' Attack?

So, producer of mainly junk, Bret Easton Ellis, has caused a big stir with tweets hitting the merely "ok junk" movies of Kathryn B...

Costas Redux

I have a new piece at The Nation on the NBC sports host's debate on guns with the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Charles Barkley, plus ...

Author! Author!

At long last, I have a separate section at this blog collecting all of my books in one place, with links to details and videos and ordering...

Android Me

Of course this ain't no tech blog, though I am a geek, I dint bring my work home with me. but the blog is about android...  Hmm... not e...

Santorum Lives

Gail Collins in her Thursday column mocks and bashes the return of Rick Santorum--as a bad guy in torpedoing that Senate vote on the disabi...

"The Louvre, from Roof of Musee d'Orsay"

Third in series of my photos this week.

Costas, O'Reilly and Barkley

UPDATE:   Bob Costas on Bill O'Reilly show just now.  Repeats he is against "gun culture," not 2nd Amendment.  Costas says &qu...

Still 'The Boss'

Springsteen's Wrecking Ball is the best album of the year- -in Rolling Stone 's annual picking.  Dylan #4.  Others near the top: Fr...

Brubeck Taken

Jazz great Dave Brubeck has died at age 91 .  The pianist and composer had an incredible career and was active until very recently.  If you ...

Simpson-Gangham

This ought to kill this fad in a hurry:  former Sen. Alan Simpson goes "Gangham Style" in pushing deficit reducing.

137 Shots in Cleveland

Shocking story out of Cleveland today, as controversy rages over a car chase that ended with 13 local cops firing a total of 137 bullets int...

Jayson Blair, Redux

It's not the high-profile NYT, nor high-profile stories, such as Jessica Lynch, but the problem appears to be the same: a longtime repor...

What's Up, Docs?

We always look forward to the release of the list of 15 finalists for the five finalists for the Oscar for best documentary film, since they...

Woman Profiled By Newspaper Commits Suicide

UPDATE #2  Newspaper continues to defend story, says they held it for a few weeks, looked for signs of suicide, then got okay from the woman...

Venice, Midnight

My photo, midnight but no garden of angels.

Costas on MSNBC

Lawrence O'Donnell just hosted Bob Costas for first TV interview following giant blowout over his gun commentary (after murder-suicide i...

Morning Commute, Grand Central

One of my favorite NYC photos that I have somehow captured.

Tuesday Night Music Pick

Graham Parker, who I knew a bit back in the mid-'70s--after Crawdaddy wrote first big review and piece about him--is happily about to ...

Razed on Robbery

She apparently robbed bank in Waco, Neb. last week and posted video on YouTube, bragging about it, with Green Day soundtrack.  She wrote:  &...

GOPers Blame ACORN--And Want to Secede

It's always fun with pollsters actually do their job and let us in on what rank-and-file Republicans REALLY think when you drill down--n...

More Cold Blood in Cold Case?

Fascinating piece today at The Guardian on new suspicions that the two infamous In Cold Blood murderers may have gone on to kill again in ...

Gunning for Costas

My new piece at The Nation .

Snap Decision

UPDATE #3  Shocking report tonight that the dead man may have been on the tracks for as long as a minute or 90 seconds without getting help...