Jan 31 Weekly Poem: 'Ex Libris' By Tom LeGro Megan Harlan's first book of poems, "Mapmaking," won the 2009 John Ciardi Prize. Her poems have appeared in several journals, including American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, AGNI Online and elsewhere. Continue reading
Jan 31 Monday's Art Notes In today's arts and culture headlines, the only known film footage of the avant-garde dance group the Ballets Russes turns up in England. Continue reading
Jan 31 How Funny is the Chevy Volt? The Washington Post's Professional Skeptic Gives It a Going Over By Paul Solman As a preview to our Tool$ Tuesday feature (spoiler alert: we'll be looking at your car's carbon emissions), here's a truly surprising "review" of the Chevy Volt, the electric darling of the Detroit Auto Show earlier this month and… Continue reading
Jan 28 On Friday's NewsHour: Egypt Uprising, WikiLeaks, Shields and Brooks EGYPT'S PROTESTS SPREAD | Thousands of Egyptian protesters defied a nationwide curfew in Cairo and other cities, continuing clashes with police. Military forces were deployed, but some were greeted by protesters. Jonathan Rugman of Independent Television News reports on the… Continue reading
Jan 28 Conversation: Ed Ruscha By Molly Finnegan Now on show at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, "Ed Ruscha: Road Tested" is a collection of photographs, paintings and prints inspired by the artist's love of driving across America. Continue reading
Jan 28 Friday's Art Notes In today's arts and culture headlines, the late Dennis Oppenheim left public art projects in process. Continue reading
Jan 28 From the Pain in Spain to Taxes in Naxos: Merle Hazard's Euro-Serenades By Paul Solman All this week we've featured investment advisor Jon Shayne, aka Country-and-Western economist Merle Hazard, warbling his way through the European debt debacle. He started with the pain in Spain and moved on through Erin Go Broke… Continue reading
Jan 27 Conversation: Kevin MacDonald, Director of 'Life in a Day' By Tom LeGro For "Life in a Day," a 90-minute documentary film, Kevin MacDonald, with the help of a team of researchers, pieced together real-life footage selected from more than 80,000 YouTube submissions (which added up to over 4,500 hours of tape) all… Continue reading
Jan 27 Ode to Germany: Merle Hazard, Backed by Beethoven By Paul Solman Today's post introduces the fourth of country singer Merle Hazard's Euro-shanties, this one taking off on the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th. Merle (if not Beethoven) will do anything to educationally amuse. So will we. But given the gravity… Continue reading
Jan 27 Paul Solman on the Economics of the Union By Paul Solman What a relief: a SOTU address without the traditional partisan whack-a-mole standing ovations. "Date night's" civility - or, if you prefer, lack of passion - had the virtue of keeping Democrats and Republicans mostly in their seats. (… Continue reading