Like many American households, mine was overrun with the Academy Awards yesterday, for much of the afternoon and evening. Our local ABC-TV affiliate aired a program, On the Red Carpet—a sort of pre-game show for the Oscars—that started in mid-afternoon, I think. My attention was in-and-out: I had papers to grade, things to attend to, [...]
I like to think I’m fairly sensitive to tone. Fascinated by irony, especially in its most unstable forms, I’m thrilled by cultural texts that walk the razor’s edge between sincerity and parody. Weirdly enough, I guess I’m most comfortable when slightly uncomfortable about what my reaction is supposed to be. But I just can’t seem [...]
It’s been pointed out to me that for folks not as toxically obsessed with Radiohead as I am, this might require a bit of explanation. When I decided to do a blog—which is to say, when my friend and editor Shannon told me I need to start a blog—I was visiting my daughter Audrey and [...]
Celebrity entertainers to play poker with? Where do I sign up? Or rather, how might one even start to think about this? I’m not a gambler, and so don’t fully understand the discrete charms of the table; but it’s hard for me to see why I’d want to play against a guy who looks vaguely like [...]
It has been said that an elegy is as much about those left behind as about those who have left us: The dangerous calculation of the form is always to pay tribute without calling too much attention to oneself. So too, it turns out, with the musical benefit, whether it’s a tribute like the Bob [...]
It Might Get Loud, Davis Guggenheim’s loving documentary about the guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White, was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on December 22 and proved the perfect stocking-stuffer for the 2009 holiday season. Families that had tired of playing plastic guitars badly on their new HDTVs, via Guitar Hero and Rock [...]
New blog: first post. Hope y’all will like it. In brief: Some joyous occasional observations on contemporary culture. Literature, music, the media. Guiltless pleasures. Pure pop for now people. More soon– Kevin Tweet This Post
