Amiri Baraka, Polarizing Poet and Playwright, Dies at 79. Margalit Fox, L.A. Times. His political awakening was soon manifest in his work. His first major book, “Blues People,” published in 1963, placed black music, from blues to free jazz, in a wider sociohistorical context. Writing in The New York Times Book Review, the folklorist Vance Randolph said, “The book is full of fascinating anecdotes, many … Continue reading Amiri Baraka
By Phil Dellio When film critic Stanley Kauffmann died a few weeks ago, Scott was in the midst of a series of posts devoted to rock critics who, at some point in their careers, expressed a declining interest in writing about music. Did Kauffmann ever experience something similar, I wondered? He began at The New Republic in 1957, and he was still at it when he … Continue reading Calmly Disagreeing: Stanley Kauffmann (1916-2013)
Still coming across a lot of interesting stuff re: Lou Reed, but rather than continue to jam the site with separate Lou Reed posts, I’ll just gather all the interesting ones I can find in this post. (And I’ll ‘bump’ it via the comments box if more get added.) There’s just too many good ones I don’t want to lose track of. If you come … Continue reading Reed Obits
“If there was nothing visible in Warhol’s sculpture to distinguish it from an ordinary object, Mr. Danto wondered, what made it art? At a time when more and more artists were creating works lacking traditional artistic qualities, this was an urgent question. “Leaving aside that Warhol’s sculpture was made of silk-screened plywood, not cardboard, the defining feature of the sculptural ‘Brillo Box’ was, in Mr. … Continue reading Arthur C. Danto
Frank Kogan: “Eventually, in New York, in the early ’80s, I finally went back and got on top of the ‘Sister Ray’ groove. Was the first groove I’d ever mastered, and it was actual power. But back in the ugly college ’70s I felt the guy more. He was a truth teller who didn’t like himself much, which brought out the wrong truths — he … Continue reading On New Dylans and Self-Dislike
I’m not embarrassed to say — and hardly alone, I suspect – that my first meaningful encounter with Lou Reed was via Lester Bangs. I had heard of Reed before then, was familiar with “Walk on the Wild Side,” which I thought was just a slightly more offbeat radio song than the dozens of offbeat radio songs then dominating the airwaves (though something or someone … Continue reading Lou Reed
Posted on The New Republic this morning: We are saddened to report that Stanley Kauffmann, our film critic of more than five decades, died early this morning at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York at age 97. We will be adding to this tribute throughout the day. The link above contains tributes by James Wolcott, David Denby, and David Thomson (with more to come). I’ve … Continue reading Stanley Kauffmann, 1916-2013
I can’t say I often make it through comments threads at Christgau’s Expert Witness blog, but this one’s a doozy for two reasons: 1) The Dean drops a bombshell: “Just woke up so I won’t go into too much detail at the moment, but now I can make it official. As rumored, Expert Witness will be no more at MSN as of October 1. As … Continue reading Big (Sad) Day at Expert Witness
One thing that has gotten lost, I suppose (though I know I have a copy — just not where the fuck it is) is Chet’s masters (if I remember right) dissertation for UT. It was allegedly a history of Rolling Stone but it was really the first expansive history of the rock music press ever written, and has a lot of really fundamental things in … Continue reading Dave Marsh on Chet Flippo
If you gotta go, go now… or else you got to stay all night. Mick Farren was a lifelong writer in a full spectrum of disciplines and a former political activist who became a living banner for the psychedelic left, but fundamentally he was a performer at heart. Late in life, he reunited his 60s cult band The Deviants and returned to the stage, as much his … Continue reading Mick Farren R.I.P.
