What we lost when we lost Merrick Garland

Thomas Geoghegan ponders what we lost when Clinton lost the election, didn’t flip the Senate, and couldn’t get Merrick Garland confirmed: By a five to four vote, gerrymandering of congressional districts would have been struck down. Even more than “money in politics,” gerrymandering decides who controls the House of Representatives. A center-left Court might have

WWI story ‘Frantz’ blooms beneath the queer gaze

As a camera object Pierre Niney is extraordinary, a china vase with an effete mildness. In Frantz, the star of Yves Saint Laurent plays a French veteran of the Great War who visits the family of the dead German soldier he’d befriended. What he meant to the unfortuante Frantz Hoffmeister and what happens when he interacts

Singles 3/31

I heard vibes on that Mountain Goats track but didn’t note the woodwinds, the song’s loveliest section. I was wrong. I couldn’t get the blurb corrected in time so I’ll leave it as it is until the change gets processed. “Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds” is a typically well-observed John Darnielle track, as

A certain time, a certain place: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tango in the Night’

A few years ago I found this story about the recording of Tango in the Night, Fleetwood Mac’s fifth with Lindsey Buckingham and first with Stevie Nicks as a triggered Fairlight sample. Press around the album centered on Buckingham’s exit after the band announced its world tour, replaced by the hapless Billy Burnette and Rick

Best singles of my life

1974: Elton John – The Bitch is Back 1975: The Isley Brothers – Fight the Power (Part 1) / Fight the Power (Part 2) 1976: David Bowie – Golden Years 1977: Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way 1978: Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) 1979: Chic – My Feet Keep Dancing 1980:

But Trump is not a typical Republican!

I know homosexuals who thought Donald Trump would a fairer than normal president when it came to LGBT rights. Remember this story? ““He will be the most gay-friendly Republican nominee for president ever,” cooed Gregory T. Angelo of the Log Cabin Republicans, the most lickspittle organization in American politics. Here’s the boom: Trump rescinded the

The motion: Madonna’s second singles

Most ranged from average to pretty good. First singles like “Vogue”, “Like a Prayer,” “Live to Tell,” and “Music” and third singles like “Dress You Up” and “Human Nature” rewarded committed listening pleasure. Here are Madonna’s second singles graded:

Took my icy freeze and thawed the cold: The best of Maxwell

After a tentative first album that approximated the sprawl of mid-seventies prog R&B, Maxwell has finessed his approach such that every album since 2001 has shown a litheness and lightness for which only Sade exists as a referent. I’m confident that 2016’s “Lake by the Ocean” is his best track, capturing in one track his

Best films of 1940

1. The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch) 2. His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks) 3. The Letter (William Wyler) 4. Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock) 5. The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin) 6. The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford) 7. Contraband (Michael Powell) 8. The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline) 9. The Great McGinty (Preston Sturges) 10. The

Now we’re full of energy: the best of Kraftwerk

“Radio-activity/is in the air for you and me” is a jingle that if he had a cerebral cortex unscarred by petrodollars Scott Pruitt would license for PSAs endorsing offshore drilling and polluting streams. Immobile emotionalists regarded initially with suspicion by Americans who think guitars aren’t electronic instruments, Kraftwerk became cool referents in 1977 and haven’t

Paul McCartney’s forgotten ‘Flowers in the Dirt’ gets the reissue

Released at the nadir of his commercial fortune, Flowers in the Dirt was Paul McCartney’s response to the Steve Winwoods, Moody Blues, Grateful Deads, Monkees, and other mummified contemporaries scoring MTV play and Michelob money.

Bathroom bill costing North Carolina billions

Businesses weren’t opening in North Carolina because of the availabiility of transgender bathrooms, but they certainly don’t wany part of a discriminatory policy – and it’s costing the state billions: Despite Republican assurances that North Carolina’s “bathroom bill” isn’t hurting the economy, the law limiting LGBT protections will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in