http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:38:35 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/20/083835.php OC hairballI'm sad about Leonard. Sweet Leonard. I've been sad since I finished reading My Friend Leonard, by James Frey. Leonard lived so close to me. He spent part of the year living in a big house that overlooked the ocean in Laguna Beach. He downsized, sold his house. Sweet Leonard. I'm not going to give too much away. That would be easy to do. But I will tell you Leonard loves art and he loves food and cigars. He's a gangster. He's a man trying to please his dead father. He's got an enormous heart. He's a former addict. He's got a oodles of money. He's always there for Frey.The funniest part of the book has to do with Speedos, which are always funny anyway. That's all I'll say. If you are a smoker, a coffee drinker or love to eat, you will be craving these things as you read. The book is full of instances where Leonard and company indulge in yummy food at fancy restaurants. Leonard always pays. I can't decide which book I liked better, Frey's A Million Little Pieces or My Friend Leonard. I read Million over a series of days. I devoured Leonard in one sitting. I took so long to read Million because I wanted to savor it. Like any good book, finishing is like a tiny death. But finishing Leonard was something I needed to do. If you're not familiar with Frey, his first book is a memoir of his life as an addict. He spends the book in Hazelden, a rehab clinic in Minnesota. He leaves the book a changed man and picks up with where he left off - with Lilly - in My Friend Leonard. It starts right away with tragedy. Frey moves through tragedy the whole book. He keeps a bottle of Rose close by. He even goes to bars. That's all I'll say. Frey writes in much the same way as he did with his first book - he has little use for punctuation, he writes run-ons (don't we all want to write a run on sentence that goes on and on just to prove our English teachers wrong that you don't really have to write all proper and stuff because sometimes it's fun to express yourself in another way and how many writers have made a name for themselves by writing proper?)Most of all, Frey has a great story to tell and that's the basis of any good book. Books38190@blogcritics.org Thu, 20 Oct 2005 08:38:35 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/14/082205.php OC hairballWhen I read about author James Frey in Poets and Writers July/August magazine, I marked in red the part where Frey said: Alcohol is not a disease. It is a choice. I have always believed that. I was surprised to hear someone say it. I was more surprised because Frey was an alcoholic. To say "I'm an addict and I'll always be an addict" seems self-fulfilling. What else could you be? I say this without being ever having experienced drug or alcohol addiction. But Frey proved the philosophy works. He proved it by staying sober. Then when I read Frey was a fan of Charles Bukowski, I knew I had to read his book, A Million Little Pieces. Bukowski writes like no other, sparingly and raw and raunchy. He curses. He writes a lot about alcohol and sex. In Frey's memoir, recently picked for Oprah's book club, Frey winds up in Hazelden, a well-known drug and alcohol rehab clinic in Minnesota. He gets there after a long and viscious spree that should've left him dead. He gets there at age 23 in the worst physical shape, from his decaying teeth to his rotting insides. He spends much of the beginning of the book violently vomiting, describing the toilet as a familiar friend, and describing the contents of his stomach. Frey uses literary devices such as repetition of a word or a phrase. He writes sparingly, never uses quotation marks and disposes of proper punctuation. He gives the Fury in himself life by capitalizing the Fury. He curses plenty. Hazelden uses Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-step program, and Frey fights it all the way. Instead he leans on a book his brother gave him, Tao Teh Ching, which offers simple wisdom such as: "There is simply what is and that is it," "Detach and become," and "Let go of all and you will be full." Eventually he passes the book along to Miles, one of his friends at the clinic, an addicted clarinet player and judge. Miles, like all the men at the clinic, is looking for hope. Frey also rejects the notion of God or a Higher Power, one of the tenets of the 12-step program. But when you finish the book, you could conclude that Higher Powers were on the job&#8212and I wonder if he now believes in a Higher Power. Frey gives and receives more love in the clinic than some see in a lifetime. He meets friend for life, Leonard, the subject of his second book, My Friend Leonard. Leonard is wise and caring, and teaches Frey one of the main themes of the book: Hold on. No matter, just hold on. Frey gives love and hope to Lilly, the vulnerable girl with the smile. Their love breaks the clinic's rules: Women and men aren't supposed to talk to each other. Frey gives and receives love from society's hardcore abusers. He shows the reader their humanity and ironically, their innocence. He shows the reader that the gangster and the boxer and the judge are the same. Frey never judges. He never blames. Some of his friends there are criminals and worse. Frey makes sure the reader knows that he was a criminal, too. He reminds us throughout the book. He pulls together his crimes and evil deeds near the end of the book. Then he drops a final bombshell.But it was his relationship with Lilly, perhaps the most desperate person at the clinic, that we hope for. At the same time, we hope they get caught. Lilly had been through enough heartbreak. Her life was brutal. How she lived through it is beyond comprehension. What Frey did for Lilly was remarkable. The book conveyed that when it all goes down, we're all the same. We're frail, we have our vices, we've done evil deeds and have had them done to us and we need each other. It also conveyed that addiction is brutal and your chances of surviving after once becoming an addict are slim. James Frey's Web site Books37860@blogcritics.org Fri, 14 Oct 2005 08:22:05 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/03/024718.php OC hairballI'll tell you what the disaster in New Orleans has taught me: To survive in this world today, you need to be rich. This world is no longer a place for the poor. No one listens to the poor. Funny, in New Orleans, the rich live on the high ground and the poor live near the water. Funny, in my very wealthy county, the rich live on the Coast, where there are no hurricanes, and the poor live inland. I've learned that in an emergency, if you're poor, there's no one to count on. The fact that people drowned in their own homes is society's sin. Sure, we can point fingers at George Bush, but we all elected him and we all let him be elected. America's philosophy isn't to take care of the poorest of the poor. It's to float the rich in hopes that they'll do the right thing. Well, the rich just keep getting richer and more of the middle class is falling into the poor category, aspiring to be rich. Household incomes haven't increased in five straight years. But hey, we want our stocks to go up, we want to continue to buy our $200 jeans, so we elect someone who's good for business. America needs a new attitude and a new backbone. America has Osteoporosis. Business does all right by itself. They don't need money, resources or education. They don't float anyone's boats except for their own. We need to start focusing on ways to lift the people who have the least not the people who have the most. But I suspect when it all blows over, we'll all just go shopping. ed: JH Culture35390@blogcritics.org Sat, 3 Sep 2005 02:47:18 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/22/053634.php OC hairballVH1's Rock 'n' Roll Fridays are truly rocking. Tommy Lee Goes to College is not quite reality TV. It is highly edited, focused in on Lee's reactions, but who cares, Tommy Lee is the hottest man alive, tattoos, piercings and all. Don't you just love to see a rock 'n' roller come through on a leaf-naming quiz? What's funny is the Motley Crue drummer is barely able to keep up in the drum line.What really tops off Rock 'n' Roll Fridays is the new Gene Simmons' Rock School. The Kiss guitarist -- the one with the serpentine tongue who's claimed to have slept with 4,000 or so women -- is precious in his new role as a music teacher at Christ's Hospital, a private London boarding school. The show starts out introducing us to a bunch of 13-year old classically trained musicians, who don't have any interest in being rock 'n' rollers. Simmons' mission is similar to that of Jack Black's in the School of Rock - to turn the proper British children into a rock 'n' roll band that can properly open for heavy metal rockers Motorhead. The kids don't know that yet. Of course, it's the contrast between growling rocker Simmons and the proper British children that makes the showIn the first episode, Simmons scares the wits out of the kids by entering the room screaming and getting in their faces. But he's really a sweet pussycat we come to find out when he chooses the band's lead singer. He doesn't choose the most popular guy or the best singer. Rather Simmons chooses the "Emperor," (all the kids give themselves a cool name) the quirky and outcast red-haired boy with flush cheeks who we can see early signs of having a rock 'n' roll heart. The kids are surprised by that and diss him to the camera. That leaves us rooting for the Emperor. Simmons explains that rock 'n' roll is made up of losers and outcasts. I knew I missed my calling! Simmons informs them that they don't even need to know how to play their instruments well. Rock 'n' roll, he says, is about being different, using AC DC's Angus Young as an example. Womanizer or not, Simmons plays a great role as a teacher. And behind every wild man is a gentle heart. Ain't it so. OCHairball Pub:NB Video34572@blogcritics.org Mon, 22 Aug 2005 05:36:34 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/19/030719.php OC hairballI've never played poker. You heard right. Never, despite living in Las Vegas for a decade, 3,649 days too many. So the chances of me watching poker are as likely as me turning on golf. Now, you know it's coming. No, I didn't play poker. Recently, flipping through the channels (there are a lot of them aren't there? And there's virtually nothing to watch), I came across the World Poker Tour on the Travel channel. I expected to see a bunch of dreary saps pushing chips, flipping cards and wasting thousands of dollars. Much to my surprise, the guys at the table were playful. One guy in particular stood out -- Phil Laak. What a nut. The spiky blonde Laak wore a gray hooded sweatshirt that he used as a prop. When the stakes were high, he'd suture up the jacket and all you'd see is a small hole. He'd stay that way until the cards were dealt. The announcers called him the unabomber. Sometimes he'd lay his head on the table or run around in back of the dealer so he could see the card just as it was being flipped. He'd alternate between taking his shoes off and putting them back on. The shoes apparently went back on when he thought he was headed out of the game. Then he'd do a dance on a good hand -- the announcers called it the dinosaur dance. Apparently, he's the boyfriend of another poker player and eccentric, Jennifer Tilly. Laak also is host of Hollywood Hold 'Em on E! The other players, less charismatic but interesting still, included "the Godfather" Humberto Bremes of Costa Rica. He stood up every now and then and egged on the audience. He was the only one who didn't wear dark sunglasses. John Juanda, the other player, was a quiet man but his facial expressions, or lack thereof, were telling.More recently, I tuned in again to World Poker only to find what I expected, a bunch of dreary saps sitting around a table, pushing chips, flipping card - otherwise motionless.This story has no moral, except if you get a chance to check out a game with Phil Laak, you'll see poker in a new light. Gaming34415@blogcritics.org Fri, 19 Aug 2005 03:07:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/08/214217.php OC hairballThe Marilyn Monroe transcript printed in the Los Angeles Times a few days ago leaves the impression that Marilyn had zero plans to commit suicide. In fact, she comes across as nothing more than one of those wacky wealthy celebrity types with not much to worry about except the science of the day, psychology, Freud in particular, orgasms or the lack of in her case, lesbian affairs, her dalliances with men, the joys of enemas, spankings, how she couldn't tell Bobby it was over, and the way she looked - "My breasts are beginning to sag a bit. ... My waist isn't bad. My ass is what it should be, the best there is. Legs, knees and ankles still shapely. And my feet are not too big. OK, Marilyn, you have it all there. It is decision time."She also was fond of the F-word, which was represented throughout the text with ellipses. She comes across as arrogant during her "free associating" session with a tape recorder. "Dear Doctor," she starts, addressing her psychologist, Ralph Greenson, whom she's obviously flirting with throughout. She thinks that her idea of free association (a Freudian technique for uncovering memories by letting the patient say whatever pops into their mind) into a recorder is such a good one that she "offers" it to her shrink as a revelation. "What can I give you. Not money. I know that from me that means nothing to you. Not my body. I know your professional ethics and faithfulness to your wonderful wife make that impossible. What I am going to give you is my idea that will revolutionize psychoanalysis."The funny and ironic part about the transcript is that the sexually-charged beauty that she was had to fake her own orgasms until the doctor told her how. You said there was an obstacle in my mind that prevented me from having an orgasm; that it was something that happened early in my life about which I felt so guilty that I did not deserve to have the greatest pleasure there is; that it had to do with something sexual that was very wrong, but my getting pleasure from it caused my guilt That it was buried in my unconscious. Through analysis we would bring it to my conscious mind where we could get to the guilt and free me to be orgasmic. Well, we sure worked it and got nowhere. I'd go home and cry and vomit from the frustration. Then you said for the orgasm problem we'll try a different approach. That you would tell me how to stimulate myself, that when I did exactly what you told me to do I would have an orgasm and that after I did it to myself and felt what it was, I would have orgasms with lovers. What a difference a word makes. You said I would, not I could. Bless you, Doctor. What you say is gospel to me. By now I've had lots of orgasms. Not only one, but 2 and 3 with a man who takes his time.And later in the text: Speaking of Oscars, I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy. If he were alive I'd have Johnny Hyde be the presenter. ...Johnny Hyde was special. He wasn't a lot to look at. A little shrimp. Little shrimp, is that redundant or tautological. I always get them mixed up. Anyway, he only came up to my chin.But moreover, the transcript shows she had ambitions: I'll take a year of day and night study of Shakespeare with Lee Strasberg. I'll pay him to work only with me. He said I could do Shakespeare. I'll make him prove it. That will give me the basics Olivier wanted. Then I'll go to Olivier for the help he promised. And I'll pay whatever he wants. Then I'll produce and act in the Marilyn Monroe Shakespeare Film Festival which will put his major plays on film. I'll need you to keep me together for a year or more. I'll pay you to be your only patient. Oh, I made you another present. I have thrown all my ... pills in the toilet. You see how serious I am about this. I've read all of Shakespeare and practiced a lot of lines. I won't have to worry about the scripts. I'll have the greatest script writer who ever lived working for me and I don't have to pay him. Oh, Monroe will have her hand in. I am going to do Juliet first. Don't laugh. What with what make-up, costume and camera can do, my acting will create a Juliet who is 14, an innocent virgin, but whose budding womanhood is fantastically sexy. I've some wonderful ideas for Lady Macbeth and Queen Gertrude. I feel certain I'll win an Oscar for one or more of my Shakespearean women.She ends: "What is amazing is I solved my problem just through the free associating I did for you. ...Well, that's something for you to sleep on, Doctor.Good Night."Read the accompanying story here.OCHairball Culture33858@blogcritics.org Mon, 8 Aug 2005 21:42:17 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/06/081904.php OC hairballExcuse me. But a vote for George Bush was a vote for war. Don't act like you didn't know that. But it seems many Americans are changing their minds about the whole thing. Recent polls suggests that they've grown weary of Bush and the war in Iraq. What are you? A bunch of wimps?Bush told you flat out what was going to happen. Did you really think that no one would die? Did you think that terrorists-insurgents-Sadaam-whatever would cower? Ha! Stick with your president. The rest of us have been suffering because of your shortsightedness so the least you can do is support the one you elected. I don't want to see anyone getting wishy washy here. Buck up because frankly, I'm STILL disgusted that so many Americans - even my own mother - voted for Bush. So quit you whining and turn away from the TV news if you must. Put the horror out of your mind and finish the job you set in motion. Get it done. Oh, what was it exactly that you were trying to accomplish? Oh yeah. Um. Yeah... That's right: WIN THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM!!!! Now, it seems, that some folks in the Bush Administration have come to realize that Winning the Global War on Terrorism is sort of an impossible thing to do. So they've been toying with changing the Winning Phrase to: The "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! But the President apparently dashed that effort. He's not standing for some fancy new catch-phrase, according to a story in the New York Times. "We're at war with an enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001," Mr. Bush said in his address here, to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of state legislators. "We're at war against an enemy that, since that day, has continued to kill."So whatever you call the bloodshed, Bush hasn't wavered and neither should you. pub:NB Politics33733@blogcritics.org Sat, 6 Aug 2005 08:19:04 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/01/015128.php OC hairballIf you're the type who likes to find good music before the rest of the crowd, better get to your favorite record shop for Razorlight's debut CD Up All Night. The London band is about to make a splash in the U.S., thanks to a car ad. The British hit "Golden Touch" is now prominently heard in a TV ad for the Honda Accord. But unlike the one-hit wonder of Dirty Vegas' "Days Go By" made popular by a commercial for Mitsubishi, "Golden Touch" isn't the only hit on this record. Other bona fide hits include the title "Up All Night," "Rip it Up," "To the Sea," "Rock and Roll Lies," "Dalston" and "Leave me Alone." A British friend introduced me to the band, already a smash in the U.K., by way of "Golden Touch" via email. The CD was released last October.The whole darned CD is a rollicking good time. It's been called "brash garage rock." I would call it my Pacific Coast Highway jam... windows down, music cranked, driving along the coast of Cali. Zen. The CD also will do quite well in your iPod for morning runs or workouts. This quartet of boyish-looking mates, all in their early 20s, also got some exposure at Live 8 and recently supported U2 in Sweden. Up All Night is not heavy by any means. It's Pop to the tenth. "Golden Touch," for example, is about a beautiful girl who's got some jealous friends: But then all they know is how to put you down When you're there, they're your friend But then when you're not around They say, "Oh, she's changed" Oh we know what that means Well it means they're just jealous But they'll never do the things That they wish that they could do so well "Rip it Up" simply commands: Get on the Dance Floor! Rip it up Girl. That's what it's there for! Yes Sir. On "Leave Me alone," the first track, lead singer Johnny Borrell strikes out - screaming Just Leave Me Alone. And you know he's getting sweaty. The song starts with a gentle piano and then leads into one beat, then another on top of that and another on top of that. Three driving beats on top of each other lead to a final question: "What part of that don't you understand?" Leave Me Alone! Rounding out the band is drummer Andy Burrows, who gets a major workout on the CD; Swede Björn Ågren on guitar and backing vocals and Carl Dalemo, bass and backing vocals, also from Sweden. Andy is the band's second drummer. The first one left for "health differences." Hope that's not a sign of a quick shot to stardom for this band. What's bad about this CD you ask? Nothing really. But if I was being picky I'd say Razorlight likes to spell out words such as L-O-N-D-O-N and L-O-V-E, which reminds me of the Bay City Rollers -- S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night. In my best English accent, "it's a bit corny, but it works for the CD." The band also ends virtually every song on a manic high but Johnny's charming English accent and fierce vocals are magnetic. On "To the Sea" Johnny gets himself so worked up that it's as though he's crawling along the desert toward the watering hole. He cries out: to .... the ....... Sea taking his last gasps of air. Give that man a drink!So soon, you might be hearing a catchy tune:I know a girl with the golden touch She's got enough, she's got too much But I know, you wouldn't mind You could have it all if you wanted You could have it all if it mattered so much When you do, you'll see. Music33443@blogcritics.org Mon, 1 Aug 2005 01:51:28 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/30/085445.php OC hairballSaving Carrick on Dateline NBC -- the story of how two "recovering" alcoholic parents struggled to save their daughter addicted to heroin -- was a testimony to bad parenting. The parents blamed their addictive genes. Good one. But when their daughter was growing up, dad chose the bottle over his daughter and mom spiraled into depression and was hospitalized when her daughter needed her most. Carrick had a hard time learning in school and said she felt stupid. But the parents chalked it up to the fact that they both drank before she was born, too. Then they went on to badger their adopted son by assuming he was always on the verge of becoming an addict.The bad parenting went on and on. They tried tough love. How about love? Love in the form of attention, sacrifice and dedication. Once the child becomes a teen, it's really too late. Mostly, why did they let Dateline follow their lives like a reality TV show? Some things aren't meant for reality TV. Their comments seemed so unnatural and contrived over Ann Curry's emotion-laden narration. Finally in the end, Carrick sat down with Ann Curry and said her parents loved her enough and there was nothing they could've done. The words of a true addict. The good news is she's sober, eighteen months and counting. A girl fully exploited. Dad even has a blog, "an interactive memoir of addictions and recoveries".I'm sure they did the best they knew how but for starters, if you're addicted to drugs or alcohol, don't have children. It takes a sane mind to raise kids. Pub and Ed:LM Video33364@blogcritics.org Sat, 30 Jul 2005 08:54:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/29/080308.php OC hairballAfter reading this story about paparazzi hunting the "stars," it seems to me that celebs aren't innocent victims. They play to the paparazzi and they should stop whining.Sure, it's absolutely wrong to bang into someone's car to get a photo of a celeb meltdown and it's wrong to scare a baby (you have to read the story) but I think it's difficult for the general public to be sympathetic to people who live in houses big enough for a village, eat at f-A-n-c-Y restaurants, drive cars with bars and go on extravagant trips to exotic places some of us have never even heard of. When people look at the celebrity magazines, they want some reassurance that these so-called celebs are real. They want to know that whosiewhats actually eats or that Susie-celeb actually put out a baby or so-and-so really sits in the driver's seat. Here's what Courtney Cox had to say: It really bothers me that I bought this house in Malibu that cost a fortune, and I can't walk into my own backyard to build a sandcastle with Coco without photographers being there,' Cox says. 'It's brutal. I have to think about what I'm going to wear when I'm on the beach. They know what time you play tennis, so they wait there. And they're relentless on my friend Jennifer.Uh, yeah. Being homeless is brutal. So is having your leg shot off. Drew Barrymore says she can go out in public with few problems. Here's an excerpt of what she had to say:Drew Barrymore says she recently went to a Hollywood club where she crossed paths with an 'infamous famous person (who) came in with this giant entourage. The club ushered them through the kitchen. They must love it, because it caused so much more attention.' She and her girlfriends, meanwhile, 'just walked in through the front door. No one cared. No one noticed.'If celebrities really wanted to shut down the paparazzi, they'd stop making a big fuss over themselves. They'd stop doing so many publicity junkets. They'd stop appearing on every single magazine cover. They'd stay off Oprah's couch. They'd move to Idaho. They could just say "No!" They could spend more time hanging out with Coco rather than making it a point to be on every single magazine cover. Instead, we get bombarded with the star of the hour and they get incessantly stalked.Paparazzi are simply the symptom of a bigger problem - greed - "excessive or reprehensible acquisitiveness," according to Merriam-Webster. The acquisitiveness of more attention, more power, more money. Really, do celebs deserve the salaries they make? I know it's economics. The more demand, the higher the value. How can we stop the demand?Isn't anyone sick of the celebrity culture? ICK. I am for sure. (Here's a good definition of CC from Wikipedia: The fact that some people become better known than others has more to do with a desire for self-promotion or vanity than it does with personal worth or even contributions to humanity). Sometimes when I'm standing in the checkout lane, those magazine headlines are tempting. But I'd never open it... unless, of course, my favorite musician was on the cover. Aha! You say. But wait. It's not likely my favorite musician would be on the cover of a gossip mag. It's not his style. My point is: Celebrities who don't want to be stalked can actually groom their fans, by not over-publicizing themselves. They can communicate respect by projecting a certain amount of integrity (and I'd argue, attract a higher-quality fan). In turn, they diminish demand for some seedy photo of them, unshowered, with a no-foam, skim half-caf ducking out of Starbucks. Hilary Swank said she doesn't have any problems being in public. Says Swank, "I ride the subway. I walk around the city all the time."I am a fan. No doubt about that. My favorite musician's work inspires me and his music adds value to a number of people's lives. But the minute I start caring about what he's eating for breakfast, then I've crossed the line -- and I need to get a life.For more on the topic of celebrity culture, check out this site, which has a long bibliography. Edit:LM Published:NB Culture33303@blogcritics.org Fri, 29 Jul 2005 08:03:08 EDT