‘France’s Downfall: The most comprehensive account of the most sordid period in French history’ by Eugen Weber In May of 1940, when the Germans attacked, the French didn’t know what had hit them. Eight months of phony war had dulled the vigilance of generals. In June the Germans
We had good seats tonight, seven rows from the stage at Town Hall, two seats on the orchestra’s Eastern aisle. Before it started we waited in a crowd on 43rd St. – mostly young, mostly white – guessing at different percentages for the crowd, such as: What percentage had attended college:
Writer George Saunders on Gogol, his current love for Hollywood cinema, and lots and lots of money.
Writer and political satirist Kevin Guilfoile answers five questions, laughing at the Coen Brothers, Tenacious D, and Pantone 3135 uncoated.
Blogger and book designer Dean Allen on watching people get bopped on the head.
There has been a band marching around Williamsburg this afternoon, eight or ten members strong, like a New Orleans funeral march. The music is jazz-like, samba-ish, led by a group of horns and kept in time by multiple percussionists, each on small, hand-held instruments. I counted a
Showing more maturity and self-assurance than the self-titled debut of last year, Plays & Sings Torch’d Songs… shows an overt sense of confidence: some tracks are multi-layered, with relaxed horns, vocal harmonies, extra keyboards or guitar; others are strong and simple, just bass, guitar and Lee&
Sadly, not much. I spent yesterday afternoon, as seen by my link progress below, reading as much as I could (and there were many things I read that I didn’t feel like linking: columns too short-sighted or venomous, or simply repetitive, academic papers too difficult and contextual to
In all the different things I wrote yesterday (and the day before), I remembered this note I’d meant to post: I’d just heard about the second plane crash when a woman approached me on the street, wearing pins for Vallone (one of the mayoral candidates), and asked me
I can’t tell you how sad it is to walk up from Union Square, see the whole length of 14th Street locked off from traffic, the same cloud of smoke I saw above Broadway two days ago still in position, hear the same sirens every few minutes, and then
