Monday, December 25, 2006
Long live the Godfather: the inside story of Jame Brown's first big break. The Blog | Art Levine: What James Brown Showed Us, Live and In Person | The Huffington Post
Saturday, December 23, 2006
How do Jews --and Bob Dylan -- feel about Christmas? Some Jewish humorists (including me) take a look at the topic. Here's Lewis Black's take on the topic: YouTube - Lewis Black Christmas
Here's "Christmastime for the Jews," written by a Jewish animator, Robert Smigel, on Saturday Night Live. And here's my view, "Chanukka vs. Christmas: Which is Better?", as reprinted in beliefnet.com.
Update: The best Christmas music shows of the year, including Bob Dylan's already legendary 2-hour Christmas marathon (sample it here), will air on WFUV-FM, Fordham U. public radio. I'm not sure if Dylan's show included it, but the best Christmast song since Jewish composer Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," is the very non-Jewish "A Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, a hardbitten Irish couple's melancholic look at Christmas past in New York.
For other great songs, you can hear Dylan's show again on WFUV on Monday between 7-9 p.m.
Here's the press release describing the original XM broadcast:
Dylan is one Jewish guy who likes the best Christmas has to offer, at least when it comes to music. You can hear the show when it's repeated in encores for free at the new aol.com music site.
All the Dylan shows will be repeated in a non-stop marathon starting Dec. 31:
Happy holidays!
Here's "Christmastime for the Jews," written by a Jewish animator, Robert Smigel, on Saturday Night Live. And here's my view, "Chanukka vs. Christmas: Which is Better?", as reprinted in beliefnet.com.
Update: The best Christmas music shows of the year, including Bob Dylan's already legendary 2-hour Christmas marathon (sample it here), will air on WFUV-FM, Fordham U. public radio. I'm not sure if Dylan's show included it, but the best Christmast song since Jewish composer Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," is the very non-Jewish "A Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues, a hardbitten Irish couple's melancholic look at Christmas past in New York.
For other great songs, you can hear Dylan's show again on WFUV on Monday between 7-9 p.m.
Here's the press release describing the original XM broadcast:
XM will air a special holiday episode of Bob Dylan's hugely popular and award winning weekly program, "Theme Time Radio Hour," on December 20, it was announced today. In addition to music, the two-hour show will also feature a complete reading by Dylan of the classic poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," as well as his recitations of other holiday-themed anecdotes and insightful commentary on holiday traditions around the world.
This special episode of "Theme Time Radio Hour" will be devoted to the theme of "Christmas and New Year's," with a song list that spans the decades, including "Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas" by The Staples Singers, "Sock It To Me Santa" by Bob Seger, "Jingle Bells" by Johnny Paycheck and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" by Nancy Wilson, among many others. The two-hour holiday episode of "Theme Time" will debut on Wednesday, December 20 at 10 a.m. ET on XM's Deep Tracks channel (XM 40), with additional encores airing on XM through the end of the month.
Dylan is one Jewish guy who likes the best Christmas has to offer, at least when it comes to music. You can hear the show when it's repeated in encores for free at the new aol.com music site.
All the Dylan shows will be repeated in a non-stop marathon starting Dec. 31:
In addition, XM will ring in the New Year with a "Theme Time Radio Hour" marathon, broadcasting every episode of Dylan's "Theme Time Radio Hour" back- to-back, beginning December 31 at 12 noon ET on The Village (XM 15), continuing through New Year's Day.
Happy holidays!
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Wofgang's Vault, part of the late Bill Graham's music empire, features 300 live concerts. Type in the name of an artist you admire, and he's likely to be here, in the live concert archive. Here is a sample of Van Morrison live in the 70s. (Note: If you put your mouse over the speaker icon, and click once or twice, an audio player image should appear, then click on that.) Here's a tentative but still overwhelmingly intense young Laura Nyro performing in the early 70's. And the site also features a legendary concert at Winterland by the Boss, excerpted here. You can stream hundreds of other concerts at the website. For now, it's legal....
Sunday, December 10, 2006
The hidden mesage in Mel's new movie. "SNL's" Gibson Movie Trailer -- Hilarious!! - TMZ.com
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Dylan on WBAI's all night radio with hosst Bob Fass: the way it really was in the '60sThe New Yorker : online : content
Saturday, December 02, 2006
The best overview on how we got into the mess in Iraq. The New York Review of Books: Iraq: The War of the Imagination
The best overview on how we get out of the mess in Iraq.The Blog | Art Levine: The Best Thinking on How to Exit Iraq | The Huffington Post
Friday, December 01, 2006
The country's smartest journalist on Iraq offers the least-worst exit-strategy options when there are no good choices left. The Blog | James Fallows: Getting Out of Iraq: What's the Right Idea When All Ideas Are Bad? | The Huffington Post
