Blogcritics Editors’ Picks: June 21 through June 27

Welcome to another week of what we liked the best. As usual, the Music and Books sections are hopping with a variety of goodies, and the political pundits are out in force. Sports brings us a World Cup diary, and Sci/Tech ponders the number of ways in which you might be enjoying your favorite TV shows not too far into the future. Do your one-stop shopping right here for all the news and views you need throughout the day.

Let me remind those of you who are chosen that you are invited to submit your own pick for next week (due to space considerations, please limit it to one). Please feel free to email me your picks (including the URL) by next Tuesday.

MUSIC

From Music Editor Connie Phillips:

Meagan Giddings of Modern Pea Pod delivers with her CD Review: The Lovely Feathers – Hind Hind Legs explaining why the album is like a child with ADD.

In CD Review: Counting Crows – New Amsterdam Live, DJRadiohead takes a critical look at the Counting Crows and the album, flaws and all.

New to Blogcritics, Cliff Malloy rises to the top with Jimi Hendrix In A Tux During One Of The Greatest Soul Shows Ever, May 5, 1966. It's an informative must read.

From Executive Producer Eric Berlin:

Blogcritics.org Publisher Eric Olsen continues to wonderfully and tounge-in-cheekily slug it out in the celeb trenches. His latest, Gums and Roses: Axl Rose Bites Hotel Security Guard in Sweden yields yet again pop writing gems, such as, "Axl Rose — whose vocals were the worst thing about a pretty darn good, slashy, riffy, melodic, ambitious, Hollywood hard rock band about 20 years ago — was arrested by Swedish police early this morning for biting a security guard on the leg outside the Berns Hotel in Stockholm."

From Blogcritic Glen Boyd:

Eric Olsen's eulogy to legendary record producer Arif Mardin Leaves The Studio really opened my eyes as to just how many great recordings had this industry giant's fingerprints all over them. You could probably make a shorter list of artists Arif Mardin hasn't worked with. Besides being a fitting eulogy, Eric's article gives a great capsule of Mardin's accomplishments.

BOOKS

From Books Editor Natalie Bennett:

Brewer's has a disappointingly vague origin for the phrase "to walk the talk" as "an Americanism dating from the 1980s." Wherever it came from, it seems like an appropriate phrase to link to many articles on Blogcritics, in which people write about what they know, and often love (and sometimes hate).

So this week, when Rick Stilwell reviewed The Multi-Site Church Revolution he began by speaking about his own experiences with "something that stretches what it means to be a 'church' in today's cultural landscape." Who better to review the phenomenon than someone on the inside?

A different sort of insider account was provided by Elizabeth Bennett who explained the pleasures of mobile reading. How exciting – the thought of never being caught without a book again. And Elizabeth followed the old novelist's dictum of "show, don't tell" by providing an image of the text as an example.

From Culture Editor Diana Hartman:

Gordon Hauptfleisch's review of A Disorder Peculiar To The Country – Ken Kalfus is outstanding, intense, and vibrant. I hope the book was written just as seamlessly.

From Editor Gordon Hauptfleisch:

I love books like Hippo Eats Dwarf, an anthology of hoaxes, urban legends, "and other forms of b.s.” that you can randomly open and always “stumble upon something that tickles your brain or your funny bone.” Sujatha Bagal’s fun and breezy review perfectly captures that spirit, and also made me re-think my plans to travel to Holland and have small pieces of jewelry implanted into my eyeballs.

TV/FILM

From TV Editor Jackie:

CallmeMaddy absolutely rocked this week with not one, but two interviews! Author Julia DeVillers and actress Sarah Barrable-Tishauer from Degrassi up close and personal!

Sterfish offered a truly intriguing review of Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, delving into his own ideas about why Disney movies are such a success.

What's the frequency, Kenneth? Eric Olsen wrote an informative and well-written article about Dan Rather leaving CBS, Rathergate and more in Dan Rather Leaves CBS News.

From Sci/Tech Editor Lisa McKay:

Every now and then I recall seeing Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid way back when and wonder whatever happened to Charles Grodin's movie career. And then out of the blue comes Alan Dale with an insightful and absorbing look at this very entertaining film from the '70s that makes me want to pop this into my Netflix queue for another look. 

CULTURE

From Culture Editor Diana Hartman:

It's really something when a writer is able to create a short film within the reader's imagination. Expectations, literary arousal, and singed dignity are all woven within Mayank 'Austen' Singh's The Bookseller of Delhi.

POLITICS

From Asst. Politics Editor Mark Schannon:

Mom Says Listen by Paul Jordan, Sr. is an emotional but powerful plea for sanity in the war in Iraq.

Israel: It's Time To Give Victory a Chance by Ruvy in Jerusalem. Radical but understandable and perhaps the only solution to continuing attacks on Israel.

Islam Versus The West by Dr Politico. Poll results demonstrate that Muslims and the West live in completely different realities, making any attempt at reconciliation hard to imagine. A powerful and disturbing article.

Connecticut's 5th District: The Seemingly Insurmountable Incumbent by John Guilfoil is a solid political analysis of a key Congressional race including good quotes from sources inside the campaign.

From Telephone Calls to Bank Records by Sean Aqui is a reasonable and balanced assessment of the use of bank records while calling for a little more oversight.

From Editor Gordon Hauptfleisch:

With seamless structure, wit, and fervor, Rick Moran’s Beyond the Pale takes on the controversial SWIFT issue, characterizing the New York Times and others as having thrown “a body block against the Administration to spring al-Qaeda for an open field run at the United States.”

SPORTS

From Sports Editor Matthew T. Sussman:

No one article stands out in Q Bit's World Cup Diary. However, his collective ongoing  coverage deserves a warm round of applause.  Chapter IX is just a taste.

GAMING

From Gaming Editor Ken Edwards:

Game Sequels: While Innovation Stalls, Genre Blending Could Foot the Bill by Mark Buckingham. Game sequels on the whole just aren't selling. So try remixing it.

SCI/TECH

From Sci/Tech Editor Lisa McKay:

In an interesting article entitled TV Thinks Outside the Box, Diane Kristine talks about what's going on behind the scenes in TV-land as execs plunge into the murky waters of multi-platform content.