Miscellaneous

To the Lou Donaldson Quartet at

Posted on November 22, 2009
To the Lou Donaldson Quartet at the Albright-Knox last night, the second concert in the Hunt Real Estate Art of Jazz series. Bruce Eaton has been producing these shows for eleven years, and we haven't been disappointed yet. Donaldson is 82, looks 20 years younger, and plays even younger than that, in a blues-funk mode informed by both swing and bebop...

I'm very sad to learn that Jeanne-Claude,

Posted on November 20, 2009
I'm very sad to learn that Jeanne-Claude, Christo's partner and collaborator, has died. The Central Park Gates was perhaps the happiest public art project I have ever witnessed. She and Christo created an afternoon for our family that I think we will always recall fondly...

New York's Court of Appeals got

Posted on November 19, 2009
New York's Court of Appeals got it right, I think, by holding that the State must recognize marriages that are legal where performed, including same-sex unions, and I am pleased that Western New York's own Judge Eugene Pigott wrote the majority opinion...

Every week the Village Voice posts

Posted on November 16, 2009
Every week the Village Voice posts a list of the top selling records at a Village music shop. Greenwich Village is one of the few places left that even has record stores, and the feature is as much about the stores and what they feature as anything else, so it is something that I always turn to with some interest...

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When I compiled my list for Lawyers

Posted on November 15, 2009
When I compiled my list for Lawyers in Movies I left "Philadelphia" (1993) off. Now it turns out to be the movie that a surprising number of the students in the class want to write about. There may be several explanations for this-- one that occurs to me is that its comparatively recent vintage may mean that it is a movie that they are familiar with-- but I'm looking forward to reading the papers they turn in.

I felt pretty good about the decision

Posted on November 14, 2009
I felt pretty good about the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in federal district court. My feeling has always been that the United States justice system has a long history of being up to the biggest challenge, and that if it isn't than there is no point to pretending that the United States is any different than the worst sort of totalitarian government...

For some reason I'd missed this:

Posted on November 14, 2009
For some reason I'd missed this: a Bob Dylan interview by Jonathan Lethem. (Actually, I know why I missed it: it was in Rolling Stone.)"Let me take a moment and reintroduce myself, your interviewer and guide here. I'm a forty-two-year-old moonlighting novelist, and a lifelong Dylan fan, but one who, it must be emphasized, doesn't remember the Sixties...

We've had the live album discussion

Posted on November 13, 2009
We've had the live album discussion here before, but the reissue of "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" has me thinking about the subject again. As a pure consumer item this seems like a poor investment- "Midnight Rambler" is the only real standout track from the original album, I'd say...

I took a deposition yesterday in

Posted on November 12, 2009
I took a deposition yesterday in a case where we represent the plaintiff, and it reminded me of my early days in this glamor profession. One of the things that is tough when you are starting out is how lonely it is, particularly if you are plaintiff's counsel...

"My Cousin Vinny" is number 3 on

Posted on November 11, 2009
"My Cousin Vinny" is number 3 on the ABA list of Top 25 Legal Movies, behind "Mockingbird" and "12 Angry Men". On its face this seems like a peculiar choice for the ABA, which isn't really known for its sense of humor, but I think if you dig into it a little it makes sense...

What with having a philosophy student

Posted on November 10, 2009
What with having a philosophy student in the house we find that we have been spending quite a bit of time in the realm of reason. This list of quips ("The ungainly attempt to tackle questions that come naturally to children, using methods that come naturally to lawyers...

Donald Barthelme's Syllabus. A

Posted on November 05, 2009
Donald Barthelme's Syllabus. A list of 81 books that Barthelme recommended to his students. As it happens, thanks largely to Clay Lewis and William Ruckert I've read 34 of these. One semester they team-taught a four credit course called "Contemporary Literature" or some such...

It was after seven when I voted

Posted on November 03, 2009
It was after seven when I voted this evening. I was number 195-- not much of a turnout.

Walking into the San Antonio Airport

Posted on October 30, 2009
Walking into the San Antonio Airport this afternoon I noticed that there was a decal next to the door that said "Threat Level: Orange". What the hell does it mean that this is apparently a sufficiently permanent state of affairs to merit a sticker on the door?I've been on a few planes these past couple of weeks, and I am so sick of the Security Theater I could scream...

The people who somehow come to

Posted on October 27, 2009
The people who somehow come to speak for their generation don't seem to relish it much, but at any given moment there's no shortage of people who would really, really like the job. There's been a surfeit of memoirs written over the course of the years since the Baby Boom generation started writing, and even the fiction produced by people more or less my age often seems excessively self-referential...

Under ordinary circumstances I

Posted on October 01, 2009
Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't much care to comment on Taylor Branch's book about his conversations with Bill Clinton, much less Joe Klein's review of it, but like a blind pig Klein comes up with a truffle: the 'great theme' of the book, he says, is "the struggle of a president mostly interested in policy against an opposition party obsessed with regaining power...

Since seeing "It Might Get Loud"

Posted on September 30, 2009
Since seeing "It Might Get Loud" I've been trying to remember when it was that I saw U2. I recalled the circumstances-- it was at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, Downing Stadium, Randall's Island-- but I couldn't remember what album U2 was supporting then...

A KRAC outing to "It Might Get

Posted on September 29, 2009
A KRAC outing to "It Might Get Loud" last night, a movie I recommend to anyone who likes electric guitar. My problem with both Led Zeppelin and U2 is really with the singers (and the lyrical content)-- this was straight-on guitar, and that was great...

Robert J. McCarthy and Michael

Posted on September 27, 2009
Robert J. McCarthy and Michael Beebe's front page story in today's Buffalo News is as good an illustration of the importance of a local press as you are likely to find, and a fine example of what makes the Buffalo News a better than average paper. It may well be that the ADA who is accusing District Attorney Frank A...

This year's nominees for the Rock'n'Roll

Posted on September 25, 2009
This year's nominees for the Rock'n'Roll HOF once again illustrate how the institution is flawed: ABBA, Darlene Love, Donna Summer, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, KISS, Laura Nyro, LL Cool J, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Chantels, The Hollies and The Stooges. What kind of a list is this? Is there anyone on it that deserves to be enshrined in a Hall of Fame? ABBA sold a ton of records, and remain a force...

I tell clients who are going to

Posted on September 25, 2009
I tell clients who are going to be deposed or appear in court to dress as though they are going to church, and that pretty much gets me the result I'm hoping for, although not always. Years ago I was picking a jury in a big products liability case and one of the other lawyers spent a peremptory challenge-- no small coin-- to excuse a juror who was wearing a baseball cap...

Here's the Ladbrokes line on the

Posted on September 24, 2009
Here's the Ladbrokes line on the Noble Prize for Literature. Philip Roth at 7-1 is tempting, but a 25-1 tingle on Margaret Atwood is really hard to resist. I'd lay off Joyce Carol Oates, though. (Via Expecting Rain, which wants you to know that Bob Dylan is 25-1 too...

Is "Dave Matthews at Our Wedding"

Posted on September 22, 2009
Is "Dave Matthews at Our Wedding" the new "Hiking the Appalachian Trail"? Both are good, but the Edwards story strikes me as somewhat less hilarious, maybe because Edwards has been done like breakfast for longer than anybody really thinks. I was surprised to see the story on the front page of the Sunday NYTimes, actually-- who cares? Democrats sleeping around isn't news, is it? (It is only news when Republicans do it because they make such a big deal about not sleeping around...

I don't know what David Paterson

Posted on September 22, 2009
I don't know what David Paterson did to Obama, but it sure is weird seeing the President of the United States pushing to have him step away. What could be motivating this? A possible clue is in this NYTimes piece-- I have a hunch Rahm Emanuel is settling a lot of scores: "The intense involvement reflects the tactics and style of the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who helped Democrats win the House three years ago as chairman of the Congressional campaign committee...

The problem with all the hand-wringing

Posted on September 21, 2009
The problem with all the hand-wringing about the Republican back-bencher with the bad manners is that the discussion has shifted focus away from where it ought to be. Maybe Joe Wilson is a bigot, and I hope his mom called him and told him she was embarrassed, but lost in the uproar was the fact that his assertion-- that the proposed health care bill would guarantee health insurance coverage for persons in the country out of status-- is factually false...

Robert Christgau's quip ("Patti

Posted on September 16, 2009
Robert Christgau's quip ("Patti Smith is a better poet. And Lou Reed was a better junkie.") will forever sum up Jim Carroll for me, but it isn't really a fair assessment. "People Who Died" is a terrific song; "The Basketball Diaries" is an excellent memoir (and a good movie)...

Number 79 at 8:30 voting this morning--

Posted on September 15, 2009
Number 79 at 8:30 voting this morning-- Kearns was outside canvasing, which makes a certain kind of sense. The Delaware District is probably a swing district, and he will need to carry it if he is going to win.

Last night I thought that this

Posted on September 14, 2009
Last night I thought that this waiting room time might be well spent writing about this whole damn thing. I still will, at some point, but for now I will merely report that the surgery went well, and that the pathologist's initial assessment is that there is only normal breast tissue present...

For some reason I don't read fiction

Posted on September 12, 2009
For some reason I don't read fiction on the web, perhaps because I don't read all that much fiction these days. Nevertheless, this short story, "Mr. Penumbra's Twenty-Four Hour Bookstore" really grabbed me. I recommend it. "BACK AT SUPPLY AND DEMAND...

One more Beatles post, because

Posted on September 10, 2009
One more Beatles post, because the wealth of writing accompanying the re-mastered reissues has been so rich. From Pitchfork's review of "Abbey Road":"The Beatles' run in the 1960s is good fodder for thought experiments. For example, Abbey Road came out in late September 1969...

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