February 2007 Archives
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Listening
Band Bashing and Guitar Smashing
That new Arcade Fire album sure does suck. Like you, I got it when it leaked, downloaded it while I was listening to other leaked music. (The next Arcade Fire...
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Birnbaum v.
Martin Amis
The Mick Jagger of British literature is out with another book slated to be a hit. A conversation about everything important under the sun: getting older, the differences between life in Uruguay and London, and the best ways to write fictional footnotes.
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Gallery
Legends in the Making
Originally from Harlem, James Spencer has lived a freelance photographer’s dream. He shot regularly at the Apollo during the ‘60s and ‘70s, rode around Manhattan with Muhammad Ali, and traveled as James Brown’s personal photographer.
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Reading
Book Digest: February 26, 2007
In order to reify my credentials as a bona fide journalist I feel that I must occasionally create some list or other and also exhibit some sense of timeliness and...
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Letters From Idaho
Garbage Night
Every night, another bag goes in the garbage, more waste goes in the landfill. A startling look at America’s capacity for garbage-making.
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Reader Letters
Before He Was “Formerly Known As” He Was Hot
Hi, Andrew, I enjoyed reading your “Top Ten Albums of 1980” (1979, too), and wanted to add a contender. I’m not flaming—but I remember some of those records and thought...
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Watching
Video Digest: February 23, 2007
No matter where you grew up, if you watched television, there was always that one commercial: the commercial that annoyed you so profoundly that at some crucial juncture, annoyance swerved...
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The Non-Expert
Fate of the Art
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help a young man, struggling with maturity, accept the garbage that’s otherwise known as most of contemporary art.
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Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1980
Because album lists shouldn’t happen only once a year. In this installment: The dawn of a new decade saw punk rock fading away, or at least saving up to buy a synthesizer.
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Listening
Dueling Instructions
I’m a sucker for dueling guitars—or any dueling instrument, for that matter. Whether it be Allman Brothers’ solos, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, or the soundtrack to an ‘80s...
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Spoofs & Satire
Is Chris Dodd White Enough?
The ‘08 Democratic nomination is turning into a hot ticket, and favorites are already being pegged. A concerned voter wonders if the senator from Connecticut has what it takes to be America’s next great white hope.
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Gallery
The Real Tinsel
Dwayne Moser creates backdrops of infamous scenes involving celebrities. Built by backdrop artists from photos Moser takes of the sites, these paintings ask whether public figures have private lives anymore, or are even their most personal moments up for grabs?
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The Rooster
Announcing TMN’s 2007 Tournament of Books
Ladies and gentlemen, book nerds and illiterates, here are this year’s candidates for the Rooster Award in the 2007 Tournament of Books, sponsored by Powells.com—and we need your help in setting up the brackets.
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Watching
Video Digest: February 16, 2007
Last year, I predicted that American Idol had peaked. I did this over a plate of cheese enchiladas, laying out the reasons why the phenomenon had undoubtedly run out of...
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Op-Ed
The Vice Squad
Just in time for President’s Day, a fun activity the entire family can enjoy: Who was the worst vice-president ever? We review history’s candidates who could reach for Cheney’s crown.
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Spoofs & Satire
Will You Watch My Computer for Me?
Good manners and solidarity require us to monitor each other’s things in a public library. But what happens when Iranian porn addicts get involved?
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Listening
Summer Jams for Winter Storms
It was one month ago to the day that I was wondering, “Why can’t it be colder?” Seventy degrees in January seemed excessive. I asked myself, “Where’s that...
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Profiles
Moody’s Mood for Bop
Jazz saxophone legend James Moody talks about how racism shaped his early career, what a “hot flute” can do for a repertoire, and encouraging budding musicians.
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Spoofs & Satire
My Bloodthirsty Valentine
What says true love better than ear-shattering shrieks interspersed with low, guttural growling? If you’re in the market for a uniquely thoughtful Valentine’s Day present, we have the perfect, possibly rabies-infected gift for you.
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Gallery
End of a New Dawn
Life would be dull, all greasy dishes, Dixie Chicks, and junk mail, were it not for the giant tuna balloons moored outside the house, waiting to fly us to excitements somewhere else.
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Reading
Book Digest: February 12, 2007
Cultural moments that seem to have gained weight and currency in recent years strike me as just so much noise and special effects—which does not augur well for the...
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Watching
Video Digest: February 9, 2007
What better way to start out our Valentine’s Video Digest than with an ode to the old ticker itself. Spanish-language comic singers Hard ‘N’ Phirm offer up an anatomically...
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The Non-Expert
The Mommy Wars
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we help a frustrated mother cope: how to deal with—nevermind survive—those overly nice mothers at play dates.
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Albums of the Year
The Top 10 Albums of 1979
Because album lists shouldn’t happen only once a year. In this installment, times were good: Every album came with a poster, disco was dying, and actors weren’t Presidents.
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Listening
Mood Music for the Old-Fashioned Set
I have a soft spot for mood music, particularly songs that can be played quietly and help me focus on work instead of on the sounds of two construction projects...
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Fight or Flight
Everyone’s Wild About Tami
After months of near-silence, bird flu is back on the West’s front pages. But where is government preparedness, now that the drug of choice in the virus war turns out to have spawned resistant strains?
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Gallery
Sweet Medicine
Drex Brooks photographs historical sites where conflict between Native Americans and white settlers occurred. The stillness of these overgrown or repopulated sites reminds us of what’s been forgotten and what’s missing.
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Reading
Book Digest: February 5, 2007
Last week was busy and productive wherein, prefatory to scheduled conversations with the authors, I read Naked Sleeper by Sigrid Nuñez, House of Meetings by Martin Amis, and Zoli...
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Spoofs & Satire
Fragments From Horse’s Mouth! the Musical
It wasn’t long into the nation’s mourning for Barbaro that Broadway’s top producers hatched a plan to preserve his fame. But who knew purgatory was meant for horses?
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Watching
Video Digest: February 2, 2007
My favorite piñata story—yes, I have one; you don’t?—involves a particularly murderous season on Days of Our Lives. It was Thanksgiving in Salem, and there was...
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The Non-Expert
The Contest for Total Idioms
Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything. This week we get sick of our colloquial phrases and thus a contest is born: Invent a bon mot for everlasting fame.
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Personal Essays
Run for the Hills
The world MTV depicts is anything but real. But we don’t watch to escape, we watch because we can’t look away.