Thursday , March 28 2024

Tag Archives: Entertainment

Jandek “Orgy”

Jandek is a mysterious Houston “recording artist” who has been self-releasing albums since 1978. Some call him a genius, many more call him a psychically dyslexic agoraphobic with no discernable musical talent beyond an uncanny ability to irritate. Demonstrating that not all radio is geared toward the masses, Harvard’s WHRB …

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The Boulevard of Broken Dreams

The beaming cartoon cat on the front cover of Kim Deitch’s aptly titled The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Pantheon) looks innocent enough. But turn the volume over and the same ‘toon head leers at you salaciously: innocence & experience in one four-fingered figure. Largely set in the early days of …

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Mama’s Girl

It’s lonely at the top: that’s the message of the new Britney Spears book and DVD, Stages, a behind-the-scenes view of life on the road: She eats alone. She paces her hotel suites alone at night. While other stars surround themselves with helpers, Spears packs her own suitcases and puts …

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Bill Wyman Stones Book Out Today

PW Daily on the lavish new Stones memoir: Bill Wyman has been a great pack rat. In some 40 years touring with the Rolling Stones, he amassed a treasure trove of material, including rare photographs, tour posters and ticket stubs, letters and telegrams. These objects–combined with his surprisingly crystal-clear recollections …

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No Real “Nirvana” for Cobain

The Observer has an ongoing series on Kurt Cobain’s diaries, including images of the actual journals, and Barney Hoskyns’ essay on his importance: “There’s something wrong with that boy…” noted William Burroughs when, in 1993, Kurt Cobain dropped in to pay his respects in Lawrence, Kansas. ‘He frowns for no …

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Open Sky: Sonny Rollins and His World of Improvisation

Every biographer of a musical figure, indeed every writer about music, must deal with the issue of conveying the essence of one medium through the use of another: the “writing about music is like dancing about architecture” conundrum. While we seem to have no trouble feeling the abstracted meaning of …

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The Byrds and Their Hatchlings

John Mallon discusses the Byrds and their progeny in NRO: I am in the land of giants!” Chris Hillman exclaimed as he stepped onstage at the Double Stop Music Hall in Guthrie, Okla. Hillman should know something about giants – despite his unassuming presence, he is a giant in the …

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