Springsteen and the American Muse
Here’s the lead: Bruce Springsteen’s deep and nourishing Magic, released today, isn’t on a par with Born to Run or Darkness on the Edge of...
The Bronx is Burning, But It Lacks the High Heat
When I got there, the Bronx had already burned. In the mid-80s, I was a reporter for The Riverdale Press covering Bronx politics. The borough...
Richard Thompson’s Sweet Warrior: Battles Everywhere
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 –...
Watching for Keira – Almost Nightly
A pirate walked up to me in the mall this holiday weekend as I was loitering outside of Anthropologie, waiting with only moderatre patience for...
On The Road With America
In honor of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer, here’s a repost of a piece I wrote back in October, when The Road seemed like a metaphor for...
The Replacements Come to Monday Nights
I’m writing here about a television series I have never seen, but intend to, as my schedule allows. It’s a replacement series – your garden...
The Fabulous Iggy Pop
Watching Anthony Kiedis sleepwalk through the motions while the rest of the Red Hot Chili Peppers delivered a technically brilliant and emotionally spirited set last...
Swedish Cop, Timeless Murder
There’s a distinct darkness on the edge of the old towns along the coast of southern Sweden in the dangerous world created by Henning Mankell...
Richard Ford’s Jesus of Suburbia
A fortnight after I finished it, Richard Ford’s trilogy-ending novel The Lay of the Land was still with me. And yet, I cannot tell you...