newcritics

The earnest thump-thump-thump of the bass drum on Dad’s Gonna Kill Me - the headline-grabbing anti-war single from Richard Thompson’s new Sweet Warrior album - creates a rhythm that doesn’t exactly match that of Baghdad, the song’s setting and the “‘Dad” of its title. The backing rhythm there, of course, is not so regular as [...]

Unexpectedly, the new retrospective of the artist Joseph Cornell (click for online gallery of Cornell’s work) — said to be the first in more than 26 years — questions the wisdom of mounting a retrospective of this artist’s work at all.
Originating at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and traveling later this year [...]

The Shamus was out waxing his board and almost missed the latest crest of the surfing wave in pop culture. This weekend begins a two-pronged assault, with the animated flick Surf’s Up and the HBO show about a surfing family, John From Cincinnati. Then next weekend comes a long rider from deepest space. Time for [...]

The world must have seemed a tantalizingly big place to John Edward Noble, because he fibbed his way into the military just to start seeing every bit of it he could as soon as possible. The misrepresentation of his actual sixteen years was, however, only one of two lies that made their way onto [...]

Well that was me
Royal Iris
On the river
MerseybeatinÂ’
With the band
That was me
There will come a time — distressingly soon, I have a feeling — that the only Beatle who isn’t dead is Paul McCartney. I don’t say this because I have some inside track on the state of Ringo Starr’s health — I fondly wish him [...]

Last weekend, various online elders celebrated the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, recalling their youthful joy upon first hearing the Mop Tops’ conceptual break-through. Very nice, I thought. Music is as good a marker as any, and Lord knows I have my own faves from Back When, though my Sgt. Pepper was Never Mind The [...]

Music has always been a big part of my life. Not only do I continue to be interested in music, there is always music on in the background and something different in heavy rotation each week. Music has always been a connection with people too.
Fred and I definitely connected with music. [...]

The French director and writer Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-1973) is mostly known for gangster movies: Bob le flambeur, Le Doulos, Le Samouraï, Le Cercle rouge, Un Flic, movies inspired by American film noir, so much so that sometimes the characters have American-sounding names (Bob, Jef, Corey), and in the case of Un Flic (A Cop), even [...]

Path to War was the last film in the topsy-turvy, up-and-down, but never dull career of director John Frankenheimer. He made it for HBO, which was the only outlet that could back a three-hour film of suits around desks discussing the buildup and bombing patterns of the Vietnam War. In a career of amazing highs [...]

Someday, when virtual reality rules, cgi of Gollum in Lord of the Rings quality comes standard with CorelDraw, and every home has a Holodeck, I will be able to perform the experiment I want to perform every time I see a movie I didn’t like—make a “model” alternative version.
I’m not thinking recuts or mash-ups.  I [...]

The television has recently been awash with the Ocean’s series, from the network premiere of Ocean’s 12 on CBS, to the 1960 Ocean’s 11 on AMC, and the 2001 on TBS, all leading up to June 8’s release of Ocean’s 13, which happens to be right between the last two Sopranos episodes.
This recent [...]

Ms. Allen-Yazzie’s debut novel, The Arc and the Sediment, gives us a woman’s answer to the classic men on the road going nowhere novel. Her protagonist and narrator, Gretta, struggles mightily with the same turbulent hallmarks of American literature’s bad boys: taking to the road, driving fast and drunk, and searching for the elusive center of his (her) being.

But as a mother, Gretta is never going to be as independent as a man. Her desires will always circle back to her children. She hesitates and worries as she drives an old Chevy truck in search of her children’s father, an American Indian (or Native American—the political preference being in flux). Her babies cry and call for her, long for her and she for them even as she indulges in pints of Gilbey’s gin, or roadside, midnight sex.

In her failing truck, Gretta’s trip, from Ponticello, Idaho to Fort Defiance, Arizona, should take a little more than twelve hours. There she plans to ask her children’s father, Lance Bitsilly, a Navaho, if he will return with her to resurrect their marriage and family. If Lance would rejoin her and they were to drive directly home—or even if she were to learn she must drive back alone—the trip—and her babysitter—should require a day and a night and perhaps a part of the following day.

One of the great voices of the shared Internet is gone: blogger Steve Gilliard (who blogged here at newcritics before his illness) died today at age 41.
I didn’t know Steve very well personally, but he was a brother in the virtual sense. His voice was entirely his - a true iconoclast with a strong, unyielding [...]

Gabby and the Gazelles were probably the most notorious of the rock groups that sprang up in Philadelphia’s sprawling and mysterious Olney section n the post-British invasion era of 1964-66. Gabrielle “Gabby” Dunne, the girlfriend of Tom Dooley of the popular band the Rear Ends had gotten increasingly annoyed at Tom getting all the attention, [...]

On the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Peppers…
It’s Friday. The end of a long week, with a buncha long weeks in the wings. Maybe YOU had Monday off, but I had to fly to Houston. I’ve been out of gas recently when it comes to blogging. Tom in a (I guess) Pirsig [...]

Reading the review a few weeks back about Dixie’s Tupperware Party sparked my interest. So, I bought 2 tickets for me and my Mom to go (a mothers day gift) and then have dinner afterwards. The play took place at Ars Nova on West 54th between 10th and 11th. Ars Nova consistently puts on [...]