Latest

"Etoile": Dancing Through High Culture's Extinction

"The arts are under siege," says Amy Sherman Palladino, and that sets the stage for an engaging romp that shows the battle up close   When Lou de Laage first appears before us as Cheyenne in “Etoile,”  she’s a whirling waterspout of eco-warrior wrath, railing against the crew

Can A TV Show Make Us Better?

"The Pitt" is a spinal tap into some very gnarly stuff. Why is it giving us such... joy?   The sheer watchability of “The Pitt” caught this cynicism-adjacent viewer unaware. Word had gone forth that that Sherri Crichton, who controls certain rights to late husband Michael’s commercial legacy,

"Warfare" Delivers Just What the Title Says

Ray Mendoza says if we shudder at the fright and noise, "That would be awesome." With thanks to IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio for the assignment and edit– and please go to IndieWire for more and updated coverage of the buzzed-about film– I spoke with the former SEAL,

Joe Cocker belongs in the Hall of Fame--with a little help from his friends

Paul McCartney and Billy Joel agree: Let's vote him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame In midsummer, 1982, I traveled to Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas, where Island Records founder Chris Blackwell was overseeing the sessions for a comeback record from Joe Cocker. If the

Corey Booker Made Me Cry; Now Let's Block the Coup

Yes, Cory Booker, you made me cry. I certainly hadn’t planned on that. As his marathon Monday-night speech before the Senate drove towards a record 25 hours, I was channel-flipping between such sports fare as Lakers versus Rockets and Dodger versus Braves, and also had the laptop open, second-screening

Growing Up Island--The Island Book of Records Will Take You There

There were three men came out of the West Their fortunes for to try And these three men made a solemn vow John Barleycorn must die…  Traditional, from the song (and album of the same name by) Traffic When the above song and album made the transatlantic move from being

"Adolescence" Hits Hard: “If My Dad Made Me, How Did I Make That?”

Let’s begin with a spoiler alert I’ll leave in lower case letters, although on paper it could seem a real doozy. That said, in in the bravely conceived and delivered dramatic foray that is “Adolescence,” it serves simply as prelude to a much more significant series of creative

"The White Lotus”: “Shit’s About to Get Crazy”?

Man, we really could have used a distractingly seductive streaming series right about now. If indeed our democracy is to be dismantled before our eyes, with only the court system to stem the DOGE tide, couldn’t Mike White have offered us a more enfolding respite with Season 3 of

"A Pair of Small Time Hoods"

Over the past few painful weeks it has  become clear to me that a lot of my friends, though they remain conversationally well-informed about our current hideous administration, have ducked most opportunities (if that's the word) to observe Donald J. Trump's gruesomely sneering piehole forming words

Gene Hackman, Dead at 95: "In Honest Fashion"

With thanks to IndieWire's Christina Blauvelt for the assignment and edit– and please go to IndieWirefor more and updated coverage of Hackman's life and demise– this obituary it's sad to see: Gene Hackman Dead at 95: An Actor of Unsurpassed Range, from Gritty Realism

The Muskrat Mess: Paul Rieckhoff Isn't Having It

This is not about tax cuts. This is about power. This is about seizing the levers of power. That's what they're doing right now. They're not concerned about the midterms. They're not concerned about re-election. They're concerned about grabbing the

David Johansen Could Use (Your) Protection from the Cold

You think I'm a whore But I got a heart of gold You're lockin' your doors You're leavin' me, out in the cold Well I've been bought and baby I've been sold and I Need protection from the

"The individuals seizing power have no right to it"

The individuals seizing power have no right to it. A coup is underway, against Americans as possessors of human rights and dignities, and against Americans as citizens of a democratic republic. Each hour this goes unrecognized makes the success of the coup more likely. Timothy Snyder, “Of Course It’s

The Biggest Fool That’s Ever Hit the Big Time

“Might win an Oscar, you can’t never tell…” Buck Owens, “Act Naturally” “In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true...mass propaganda discovered that its