Monthly Archives: June 2012

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert rounds up the anthropological evidence in her quest to find out why American kids are over-indulged: In the L.A. families observed, no child routinely performed household chores without being instructed to. Often, the kids had … Continue reading →

Caetano Veloso and David Byrne’s Carnegie Hall album — recorded back in 2004, but only released a few weeks ago, for some reason — gets a plug on the venue’s blog, along with their video from the compilation “Onda Sonora: … Continue reading →

Unlike David Brooks, Jack Shafer doesn’t appear to be a fan: At times like these we must remember what the man from NME once wrote: A Springsteen concert is OK if you like 3 hours of hog calling. And Scott … Continue reading →

The Economist reviews a biography of the much-travelled, sharp-eyed Ryszard Kapuscinski, author of that amazing account of Haile Selassie’s last days, “The Emperor”.  He saw a lot, but how reliable was he? Kapuscinski was not a typical foreign correspondent: he … Continue reading →

It’s hard to believe… After I finished my Sunday Times interview with the singer-songwriter and Renaissance Man he gave me a little tour of his offices and recording studio. The doors all bear suitably ironic titles taken from songs. This is … Continue reading →

And what difference will it make to the outcome of the presidential election? Lots of number-crunching and complex graphs in Tom Edsall’s dispatch. Take a deep breath and plunge in…

What’s the Italian for “I’ll sit this one out?” Continuing his Grand Tour of Europe, Woody Allen has now made a film set in the Eternal City. Can it be as dull as the mystifyingly over-rated “Midnight in Paris”? (How on … Continue reading →

I suspect that music lovers on both sides of the secular-vs-religious divide can enjoy this one. Steve Martin and his bluegrass band perform “Atheists Don’t Have No Songs”, one of the numbers on “Rare Bird Alert”, an album which also contains … Continue reading →

Never mind, I told myself, I must hold on: hold on and work on, even under this slab of lead. I made several copies of my manuscripts, and made an arrangement through the post with Romain Rolland to send him … Continue reading →

Struggling through another heatwave in the Deep South, Rod Dreher longs for an English summer. To which I can only add: be careful what you wish for. We’ve had about twenty minutes of sunshine all month.