December 2009
7 posts
4 tags
The sordid history of Christmas
Without too much additional comment, I wanted to pass along this excellent piece by Stephen Nissenbaum in the Sunday Boston Globe. Nissenbaum is a professor emeritus of history at UMass Amherst (additional academic credits excised) and author of The Battle For Christmas, which I’m now going to have to check out.
The piece details the history of Christmas in Puritan New England...
5 tags
ARTICLE: "Way Up High" (Erin McKeown)
“Finally inside, I devoured a generous slab of warm apple crumble by the fireside and encountered a series of resident pets, each named for someone associated with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Rubin “Hurricane” Carter—the dog, not the ex-boxer—licked my plate.”
My review of Erin McKeown’s Saturday night show at the Dreamaway Lodge in Becket, Mass. marks my debut in...
1 tag
"Don't the Berkshires look dreamlike..."
By the way, as of November I am the Visual Arts columnist for the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, which means I have a monthly piece on their flagship website—www.berkshires.org—and occasionally in their (large circulation) email newsletter. (There have been two pieces so far, one on a book by a local gem expert/gallerist, the other on a big, annual holiday event at the Berkshire Museum.)
Just so...
7 tags
"Lou Reed Launches iPhone App For Old People"
Lou Reed says: Give me back my reading glasses.
Incredibly, the above headline—”Lou Reed Launches iPhone App For Old People”—from Pitchfork’s news section is not a sample of that indie rock tastemaker’s snarkiness. It’s quite literal. Lou Reed has released a $1.99 iPhone app (the “Lou Zoom”) that enlarges the print in your Contacts list. No, this is not...
4 tags
"Where are your friends tonight?"
“You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan, and the next five years trying to be with your friends again.”
—LCD Soundsystem Tonight is one of those nights that reinforces for me: I’m doing something right with my life at the moment. No epiphany, no major event, just a soft, smiling observation. I caught Erin McKeown play an all-request set at the legendary...
3 tags
Sometimes it's the last place you look...
I’ve joined the charter group of folks contributing to the new blog.phish.net here on Tumblr. It’s all people who’ve been involved with The Phish Companion or www.phish.net, or both. Below is my first post. (Or check it out in its native environment.) I’m not sure it’s of much general interest beyond the Phish-obsessed among us, but I wanted to let you know about this...
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(ARTICLE) "With ghosts and all, Phish delivers...
Check out my review of Phish at Albany’s Times Union Center Saturday night, published in today’s Berkshire Eagle.
“The nature of the relationship between this band and its fans was crystallized by a moment deep into “Seven Below,” when Anastasio found himself leading the room into a swelling, guitar-heavy peak. The look of excited astonishment on his own face summed up the...
