Rod Dreher, here, wonders why Catholic novelist/windbag Walker Percy is “almost forgotten” and unwittingly supplies the answer by quoting from a speech Percy gave at Notre Dame (I’m guessing, the Indiana one, but, really, who knows) upon receipt of the “Laetare Medal”—whatever the fuck that is: “It’s no accident that I think that German science,…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Douglas Brinkley pops open a double case of Kiss-Ass
In Sunday’s LA Times, historian Douglas Brinkley describes The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, by “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist” David Remnick, as a “brilliantly constructed, flawlessly written biography.” I don’t know if I would have read The Bridge if I hadn’t read Doug’s review, but now that I have, I do: I’m not.
Love is all around, and so is evil
Over at the New York Times, Russian novelist Sergey Kuznetsov ruminates on the recent subway bombings in a column called “Moscow Under Attack.” If someone had detonated a couple of bombs in the DC Metro, I think I’d be as upset as Sergey, but his big line, “In the end, nobody knows who is responsible…
Louis Armstrong Jack Teagarden: “Jeepers Creepers”
Fuzzy picture, not bad sound, great performers, Louis playing some awfully sharp trumpet for a 58-year-old man.
The Obama doctrine: Shoot first and ask questions later. Sir, may I ask a question?
Now that President Obama has won a significant victory for improving the health of millions of Americans, he might feel secure enough politically to stop, you know, murdering innocent people in Afghanistan. So far this year, our current “Slaughter the Innocents” policy in the country we are fighting to prevent from having, someday, a government…
Highly selective outrage, Alan Vanneman health care edition
Over at Forbes, Shikha Dalmia works herself into a rage over the passage of ObamaCare via such parliamentary tricks as, you know, majority rule, and offers the following summation: “It is hardly surprising then that Americans are feeling a growing panic as they watch their constitutional republic descend into a banana republic.” Shikha, honey, the…
ICP Orchestra—“Criss-Cross”
Cookin’ in the Bimhuis, a concert hall in Amsterdam, with the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. 5 September 2009.
Dexter Gordon: “Loose Walk” (or is it “Blues Walk”?)
Dexter, looking very hip and very 1964. No info on the band, unfortunately, except the drummer, who is supposed to be Daniel Humair.
Charlie Mingus—“Goodbye Porkpie Hat”
Since I ran two versions of “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” some time back, it seems only fair to include one by the composer, Charlie Mingus. This set, recorded in Montreux back in 1975, catches Charlie with Don Pullen on piano, George Adams on tenor sax, Gerry Mulligan on baritone, Benny Bailey on trumpet, and Danny Richmond…
Bobby Broom plays Monk—“In Walked Bud”
Bobby on guitar with Dennis Carroll on bass and Kobie Watkins on drums. Poor picture, good sounds. For my brief review of his Monk album, go here. For more on Bobby, go here and here.