Welcome to Jody Rosen, the magazine’s new music critic. Jody, whose article on Björk and Tom Waits appeared in the November 8 issue, has written for the New York Times, Slate, Salon and other publications. He is the author of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song. And many thanks to Gene Santoro, who is stepping down from the music critic’s post after seventeen years. The author of an acclaimed biography of Charles Mingus, Myself When I Am Real, and of several collections of essays, many of which first appeared in these pages, Gene has made a distinctive and lasting contribution to The Nation.