Waits: Guthrie’s Heir? Waits: Guthrie’s Heir?
Tom Waits is an imaginary hobo. He cruises the oddball corners of American pop culture, collecting the deft and moving and loopy short takes he sees and imagines there.
May 6, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro
Global Indigestion Global Indigestion
I coined the term "global brunch" several years ago after seeing a film of the Stravinsky-Cocteau Oedipus Rex as staged by Julie Taymor.
Apr 29, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The Way of All Flesh The Way of All Flesh
Hark! The squeal of the two-headed amphibian. Mating season must have begun.
Apr 21, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Accountant of Death Accountant of Death
After we admit that all historical circumstances are specific and all sufferings absolute--that Serbian "police" are not Nazis and ethnic Albanians not Jews (and NATO forces can...
Apr 15, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The End of Humanism The End of Humanism
Like a guest at a potlatch, laughing to see his host's worldly goods go up in flames, I roared at The Matrix--roared and at the same time was humbled, knowing Warner Bros.
Apr 8, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
The Jazz Singer The Jazz Singer
Most Americans don't like instrumental music.
Apr 1, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro
Better Ed Than Dead Better Ed Than Dead
Like the telephone before it, television has been an instrument for overcoming American loneliness.
Apr 1, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Stuart Klawans
Red Fox? Red Fox?
The contracts are signed, the treatment is being written and Fox Television plans to fast-track production on a ten- to twelve-hour miniseries based on lefty historian Howard Zin...
Mar 18, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Tom Gogola
When Worlds Collide When Worlds Collide
When those in my modest circle of acquaintances learned that I was editing a Hollywood issue of The Nation, they found it either risible or irritating.
Mar 18, 1999 / Books & the Arts / Peter Biskind