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 Tue, 26 Jul 2005 09:07:25 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/2005/07/26/090725.php Roland AllenLast night I had dinner at Restaurant Habana, a Cuban restaurant in Costa Mesa. The restaurant is located in a counter-culture "mall" called The Lab. Locals, however, call it the Anti-Mall because it is a collection of eclectic shops and galleries and is not your usual Orange County, California strip mall. It draws the funky "art-crowd" usually expected in Venice Beach or found in the San Francisco area, around Berkeley or the Marin County town of Bolinas. Take for example the mall's public art, like this smashed car on the side of a Sushi restaurant:Or, this fountain, which is made of 55 gallon oil drums. The mall hosts outdoor open mic poetry slams. And it's important not to overlook the location. The Anti-Mall is on the north side of John Wayne Airport and near Orange County's largest shopping mall, South Coast Plaza, which I've heard referred to as Sodom and Gomorrah Plaza because of its opulence.Regardless of your take on eclecticism, Restaurant Habana is a wonderful find. Inside is a bar with seating for about a dozen and the main restaurants seats maybe 40 to 50 people. And there is an outside area that held a private event last evening.Habana's staff is attentive, friendly, informed and unobtrusive. The decor is rich and lit with "trees" of votive candles, not unlike what you would expect in a village church in Cuba, if it were on a movie set. The main event at Habana is the food. Each of the 14 or so menu items grabs your attention; and, since you can only have one, calls you back to Habana for a revisit to try something new. Culture33145@blogcritics.org Tue, 26 Jul 2005 09:07:25 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/07/19/013439.php Roland AllenCome on feel the IllinoiseThe El Rey Theater in Los Angeles was stop #2 for Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise Tour. I had considered going to the opening show in Solano Beach, which was the night before, but my friend, Owen, who works for MTV in Santa Monica, suggested that I come up to Los Angeles and we'd go together. I'm glad that I went to the L.A. show.Owen found out on Friday that MTV had scheduled to shoot this concert and I was able to tag along with him and the crew. There were two video cameramen, a summer intern and Owen - and me. "Tagging along" with the crew meant that I got a striped orange wrist band that allowed me to get around the venue and really see the show. It ended up that the two digital cameras that I brought with me were put to use to capture still shots, so I actually got put to work. I enjoyed getting pretty good shots, despite the low light and the fact that I'm not a photographer! The doors were scheduled to open at 8. We got in early and met Daniel Gill, who is the publicist for Sufjan and Liz Janes who also performed tonight. Bunky also played, but I don't know if Daniel is their publicist. He told me that he handles other bands that were not there tonight including The Danielson Famile. Daniel spent some time teaching Owen and me how to properly pronounce Sufjan's name. It is pronouned in three syllables: Suf (pronounced like Sufi - with the "i" pronounced as a hard "e") and jan, which is pronounced similar to the word "yawn." (That's a close approximation.)I have a lot of impressions about Sufjan and the show, which was awesome. The first impression is that they are not "performers" - in the LA "rock star" sense of the word. Let me explain. Each is an exceptionally talented musician. Whew! The talent is incredible and versatile. That was very clear throughout the show. Sufjan's music is demanding, in the singing and in the playing.I was impressed that the musicians appeared to be a community and not merely a collective of musicians. They are friends and it was clear that they enjoyed being together. It was apparent that the relationships with each other mattered a great deal. And, perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but there was a certain "shyness" to each of the musicians, including Sufjan. Also, having access to the entire venue allowed me to meet some of the friends who came along with the band. They had the same intentionally personable quality.When I took the photo of Sufjan just before he went on stage, I asked him if it was ok to do so because I was standing so to him, and I didn't want to assume that it was ok. He was very cool about me taking the photo, but it was clear that he wasn't looking to be photographed. I had a great vantage point being along side the stage. The music wasn't as loud because I was behind the speakers, which allowed me to actually hear the music. Also, I saw a lot. Sufjan appeared to be a bit nervous. His legs shook a lot throughout the show. But he was great. He had total command of his voice and of the audience. I also noticed that he was on his tip toes a lot during the concert. About the music: Sufjan played almost all of Illinoise. He coupled John Wayne Gacy, Jr. from Illinoise with A Good Man is Hard to Find, from Seven Swans. That worked well for me, particularly because of my passion for Flannery O'Connor.The music held together really well. This show also showed that the band isn't overly produced. The sound was true to the cd. I'm glad that I knew the cd so well because I was able to sing along to my favorite songs. I could see the audience doing the same. In fact, as I told my friend, Owen, I felt that people in the crowd were more than fans of Sufjan Stevens. At least in the front, there was devotion to Sufjan.One of the MTV crew members was a summer intern who had just graduated from college in Virginia. He commented on his surprise that the crowd (which was somewhere around 600 people or a bit more, I think) was so young. They appeared to be mostly undergraduate university students, although there were people who appeared to be in their late twenties, and some older - not many, though. I hope that you'll get to see Sufjan Stevens and the Illinoise Tour.I did take these photos. You may use them non-commercially and with attribution. Thanks! Music32806@blogcritics.org Tue, 19 Jul 2005 01:34:39 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/25/003048.php Roland AllenSince I'll be teaching a Philosophy class next year, I decided to start reading up on the subject and looking for appropriate texts. I went to my local Borders tonight to browse the Philosophy section. The experience was discouraging - not necessarily because of the selection of books. But, the location of Philosophy was between the much larger Erotica and Self-Help sections of the bookstore. In fact, Self-Help had over three times the shelf space of Philosophy. Oh well. Books30105@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 May 2005 00:30:48 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/08/161109.php Roland AllenI enjoy cooking. It's not as difficult of a task as most people think.I made a fabulous lunch this weekend that anyone can assemble and impress friends and family.While I was getting ready to start my day, I cooked a boneless leg of lamb that I picked up at Trader Joe's. Since it comes frozen, remember to defrost the lamb by removing it from the freezer and putting it in the refrigerator a day before you plan to use it.I stuffed the lamb with garlic and baked it on a bed of garlic and rosemary. ("Stuffing" just means poking holes in various parts of the meat and sticking an peeled garlic clove in the whole.) It took about 50 minutes to cook this particular leg of lamb at 350.After the lamb cooled, I wrapped it in foil and put it in the refrigerator. Then I left for the day to do my errands: change the oil, do the week's shopping, to the bank, and the like.When I returned home for lunch, I sliced the cold lamb, and made a sandwich on toasted bread spread with Boursin cheese, and included spring greens and sliced avocado.Serve this with a crisp white wine.You'll get lots of "wows" with this simple lunch. Culture29184@blogcritics.org Sun, 8 May 2005 16:11:09 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/26/093246.php Roland AllenThis is from The Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus Blog: E-mail is a threat to your IQ, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of London. The average computer user's IQ drops an average of 10 points during testing when he or she is interrupted regularly by incoming e-mail messages, the study found. It also concluded that women are better at such multitasking than men are. Wired Campus Blog: E-Mail vs. IntellectMaybe it's time to take a step back from being so connected. Culture28654@blogcritics.org Tue, 26 Apr 2005 09:32:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/02/072906.php Roland AllenI've just returned from a one-week vacation in Paris. I stayed outside of central Paris, on the Right Bank, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, which is a beautiful residential area just north of Porte Maillot and south of La Defense. To get there from Charles de Gaulle airport, I caught the Air France bus to Porte Maillot, which runs every 15 minutes and takes about 30 to 35 minutes to get to town. It was a 10 minute walk from Porte Maillot to my hotel. Getting to the sights in Paris from Neuilly-sur-Seine is very easy. For reference, I could walk from my hotel to l'Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysées, and the Eiffel Tower in about 30 minutes.Just east of Neuilly-sur-Seine is Levallois-Perret. Levallois has a more urban feel and is packed with restaurants. I went to a casual Italian restaurant one night for dinner and took an espresso one morning at a crêperie in Levallois. I liked Levallois because it "felt" more authentically French than other parts of Paris I've been in. No one at the two restaurants I went to spoke English, which was great because it forced me to understand menus and to attempt to use French. Also, since Levallois is off the tourist path, eating there was less expensive.Speaking of cost, Americans will feel the impact of a weakened dollar. The buying power of the dollar is puny compared to other times I've been to Europe. Honestly, this is the first time that I've felt that Europe was exceptionally expensive. That being said, Paris is a wonderful place for holiday, and staying outside of central Paris is convenient because of the Metro which connects everything. The Paris Metro is easy to use and takes only minutes to figure out. However, it's important to keep alert for pickpockets.Even though it rained in Paris every day on this trip, I didn't feel inconvenienced or bothered by the weather. I had thought to bring an umbrella with me and I kept it with me everywhere I went. I think that part of the satisfaction I felt is that Paris is Paris. Take this as a hearty recommendation to visit Paris and to discover neighborhoods outside of the city center.Au revoir. Culture27653@blogcritics.org Sat, 2 Apr 2005 07:29:06 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/20/084352.php Roland AllenAlthough I've written about writer Harry Crews before, this is the first time I've read him.I bought Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader this afternoon. This book includes the autobiographical A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, The Gypsy's Curse, Car and a selection of essays.Crews is very readable. In a "down home" sort of way he turns phrases just the right way to make the reader "see" the action and place he's writing about. Harry Crews grew up in Georgia, the child of sharecroppers. He spent time as a Marine, a potpourri of other wandering arts and along the way attended the University of Florida and became a writer. I am a devoted reader of Flannery O'Connor. Crews writes about similar characters. (Truth be told, despite their complication, there isn't a whole lot of diversity in poor people in the rural Deep South when it comes to characters.) However, his characters aren't as funny as O'Connor's. Perhaps that's because he's not making his characters up. Crews writes about the real people who gave birth to his character and shaped his life. (Currently I'm reading Childhood, which is autobiographical. Perhaps I'll find his made up characters funny when I get to his fiction.)Here's the beginning of Childhood: The Biography of a Place: My first memory is of a time ten years before I was born, and the memory takes place where I have never been and involves my daddy whom I never knew. Books26991@blogcritics.org Sun, 20 Mar 2005 08:43:52 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/10/143745.php Roland AllenSan Juan Capistrano's most famous day of the year is March 19, St. Joseph's Day. This is the day the Swallows are slated to return from wintering in Argentina, according to local folklore. This year's Swallows Day Parade is coming up. The Great Church of Mission San Juan Capistrano was under renovation for well over a decade. The construction drove the Swallows to nearby hillsides and not to the Old Mission. This is the first St. Joseph's Day following the reconstruction of the remains of the Great Church. Hopefully, this year, the Swallows will return in large numbers to Mission San Juan. Here's more information on the Swallows' Festival. San Juan Capistrano is the heart of California history. What's left of Old Mission San Juan Capistrano is the oldest building in California, and Old San Juan Capistrano is California's oldest community. Culture26534@blogcritics.org Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:37:45 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/07/220852.php Roland Allen Flannery O'Connor's short story, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," is included in The Complete Stories. It's haunting, possibly because O'Connor freely borrows key images from a number of her other stories. For example, the image of the car as a vehicle of freedom and justification is used in Wise Blood (with its main character Hazel Motes noting that a man with a good car doesn't need salvation); and the notion of Catholicism as a dismissable unadvanced and "old" religion by a character who hasn't the patience to think deeply about spiritual things is used in The Displaced Person and other places. And, as is common, the story includes a widow with an invalid or idiot adult daughter who is unmarried. (It's interesting how often O'Connor uses this image since she was a physically afflicted, unmarried adult daughter living with a widowed mother. It's self-deprecating, perhaps, and brings recognition of her own need for grace to the forefront of her stories.)I'll try to explain my on-going response while reading the story. I read the story in two sittings: I started it in the morning and completed it the next evening. This story didn't settled easily with me: it took some thinking before it was "satisfying." But, back to the visceral response: As I began to read the story, I realized that I didn't know it, which was nice because I've re-read so many of Flannery O'Connor's short stories. As I got into it, I wanted the story to get along. I wanted it to make progress. I had the impatience common to her characters and I didn't care for the two main characters, Tom Shiftlet (which appropriately rhymes with Shiftless and he is a scoundrel) and Lucynell Carter, the widow-mother who owned the place that Shiftlet happened upon, who has her own selfish purposes as well. I didn't like Shiftlet and I didn't care for his long-windedness, although that's a usual characteristic of Flannery O'Connor characters - they cover their brokenness by talking a lot about their all-knowing perspective on the world. Sidenote: I think that I wanted the characters to be more humorous. Like the Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard To Find, I wanted characters that made me laugh. None of the five characters in this story entertained me. They were uncomfortably odd.Shiftlet is physically broken. Although he has skills, he is a carpenter and he fixes Lucynell's car later in the story, he is a one-armed man, who early on in the story stretches out both arms in a way that signals the redemptive nature of where the story is headed: "He swung out both his whole and his short arm up slowly so that they indicated an expanse of sky and his figure formed a crooked cross." But the image is lost on Lucynell and her daughter: "The old woman watched him with her arms folded across her chest as if she were the owner of the sun, and the daughter watched, her head thrust forward and her fat helpless hands hanging at the wrists."The story goes on with Shiftlet making references to deep things that disturb his thinking and that Lucynell thinks are plain foolish. For example, Shiftlet talks about a surgeon in Atlanta who had "taken a knife and cut the human heart" and "studied it like a day-old chicken." Shiftlet is correct in concluding that the motives of the heart are beyond science. And he makes a reference to European monks who sleep in coffins, a reference O'Connor borrows from a James Joyce story, "The Dead," but again the reference is lost on Lucynell who responds that "they wasn't as advanced as we are."Later Lucynell has Shiftlet marry her daughter in a civil ceremony. But, although it's "legal," it's not satisfying to Shiftlet even though it "satisfies the law" as Lucynell tells him. Shiftlet responds that "it's the law that doesn't satisfy" him - which expresses a deeper spiritual need that he is currently not aware of. There's so much more to the story that I won't cover here. Shiftlet immediately abandons his legally new wife in a café called The Hot Spot - where he feels more uncomfortable, and later he picks up a boy (note: good deed to cover up guilt and sin), a hitchhiker, who quickly recognizes Shiftlet as a moral liar and calls Shiftlet's bluff on his waxing and jumps out of Shiftlet's car in disgust. (Hint: The boy becomes the vehicle of grace in the story.)I hope that you'll read it. If so, let me know how you respond to The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Books26412@blogcritics.org Mon, 7 Mar 2005 22:08:52 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/05/173245.php Roland AllenI'm not sure how The Believer made it onto my Netflix queue. It was probably a recommendation from the stuff that I pick on my own. Regardless, I'm glad that I watched it.The Believer is a powerful portrait of a Jew who becomes a skinhead. It's part religious-psycho drama, part social-commentary. The main character's flashbacks to his childhood religious training are deep, and provide insight into his growth and development.The movie is a masterful adaptation of the true life and death story of Daniel Burros, a Jew who became a Ku Klux Klansman and committed suicide when the New York Times published a story that outed him as a Jew.Unlike the true story, this movie provides a distinctive redemptive moment of grace when Danny Balint, the main character, connects to his heritage. I think that I'm drawn to this movie/story because of its similarity to the characters drawn by Flannery O'Connor in her short stories. Danny Balint in The Believer lives life independent of a sense and memory of community, but connects with Truth remembered from the past at a significant, albeit tragic, point in life.If you watch this movie, be aware of very strong language. (It's probably not a good "general family" movie.)Danny Balint is a powerful character, not unlike the Nazi character played by Edward Norton in American History X. Video26341@blogcritics.org Sat, 5 Mar 2005 17:32:45 EST