. . .and a big meal! Here I am enjoying a celebratory dinner at McCormick & Schmick’s last Wednesday with Hugh Cook, the editor of Illinois Alumni magazine. We’re bodyguarding the coveted Eddie Award for Editorial Excellence, presented by Folio, which the magazine won for a profile I wrote last summer of the sportswriter Will …
Like a political Punxatawny Phil seeing his shadow, George Will has seen the president re-elected, Democrats returned to their majority in the Senate and Republicans to theirs in the House, and proclaimed four more years of winter, or at least gridlock. “A nation vocally disgusted with the status quo has reinforced it by ratifying existing …
Thank goodness this crap campaign is over. It turned out to be a bit of nail-biter, but it should never had been so close. Obama should have walloped Romney, who was a man with no rational to his candidacy other than that he wasn’t the incumbent. In some other era this might have been enough, …
What the hell happened to the levers?
Nobody ever said it better than John F. Kennedy, speaking before a rally in Boston Garden on November 7, 1960, the day before the national elections: “This is an important campaign, because it involves a high and distinguished office, an office which is given great responsibilities and great powers by the Constitution, and also by …
We hosted Sandy, the Storm of the Century here this past week, and frankly, we pretty much missed it. Oh, we had impressively high winds that we could see thrashing the trees across the street all day. And yes, we lost phone/cable/internet service for three whole days. But in terms of personal impact, we’ve had …
Why isn’t President Obama running harder against Congress? The president was effective in Tuesday’s debate, but he won only narrowly, even though Mitt Romney revealed an ugly side of himself that fits all the stereotypes about bullying bosses. Everything about the way he handled himself underscored the old “I love firing people” image. When he …
(from newyorker.com) Leave it to Lucinda Williams, whose astringent lyrics have proven her capable of leaving no romantic notion unexamined, to ask the question of the hour. Sitting backstage at the Izod Center, in East Rutherford, before doing her turn at “Love for Levon,” the all-star tribute concert for Levon Helm, who died last April …
IZOD CENTER, EAST RUTHERFORD NJ, WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3RD, 8:00 PM Read More »
Meeting the media before the Love for Levon concert. Counter-clockwise from above: Allan Toussaint; My Morning Jacket; Dierks Bentley; the Clown Prince of Rock Joe Walsh, and the Dowager Princess; Ray LaMontagne; David Bromberg schmoozes, Johns Hiatt and Prine Fuse News; Lucinda Williams is fascinated by me; the great Garth Hudson.