Woody Guthrie Woody Guthrie
When Bob Dylan took the stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, all leather and Ray-Bans and Beatle boots, and declared emphatically and (heaven forbid) electrically that he w...
Jul 2, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Steve Earle
Our Man in Jazz Our Man in Jazz
Not many people can say they changed the world and make it stick. In Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, George Wein does.
Jun 26, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Gene Santoro
The Unrepentant Modernist The Unrepentant Modernist
Near the end of Parallels and Paradoxes, a recent collection of dialogues on music and society between the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, music director of the Chicago...
May 29, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Russell Platt
Fight Club Fight Club
Writing may be fighting, as Ishmael Reed famously opined, but most writers know the difference. There are, of course, some who blur the line.
May 22, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Adam Shatz
Nina Simone: Lit by a Sacred Flame Nina Simone: Lit by a Sacred Flame
To listen to her voice was to be hijacked by its power.
May 1, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Adam Shatz
Hors de Combat Hors de Combat
She's the ultimate quick-change artist, with a style that can absorb any trend and an image to match. She's gone from material girl to S/M maitresse, from power diva to content...
Apr 9, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Richard Goldstein
‘Rules for Changing the World’ ‘Rules for Changing the World’
This was intended to be a sweet little prewar column about an artist I admire, Rosanne Cash.
Mar 6, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
Slumming Toward Academia Slumming Toward Academia
Only the joy of capitalist expectation could move a pre-Reagan-born American to utter the line "civil rights is dead," let alone write a book devoted to that proposition.
Feb 27, 2003 / Books & the Arts / Armond White
Holy Rock ‘n’ Rollers Holy Rock ‘n’ Rollers
In Hicksville, Long Island, on any given Sunday afternoon, pierced and tattooed teenagers in black clothing gather to listen and watch as groups of kids like themselves tear th...
Dec 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Lauren Sandler
Fear of a Punk Planet Fear of a Punk Planet
The Chicago-based magazine Punk Planet--nominated for the past two years in Utne Reader's Alternate Press Awards for "General Excellence," along with such better-heeled competi...
Dec 23, 2002 / Books & the Arts / Ivan Kreilkamp