Beltway white men know best

From the way Willie Geist and “Morning” Joe Scarborough said “identity politics” yesterday morning you’d think they’d recited a passage from Mein Kampf. Identity politics, they aver, prevent the Democratic Party from coalescing around “a single issue” or “one candidate”; instead, the party is associated with “the afflicted” and “victims.” After all, Scarborough reminded the panel,

Entertainment That Got Me Through 2017: #4, competitive fighting games (part 2 of 3: Street Fighter V)

“Fighting game…is something so great.”

Worst Songs Ever: Rupert Holmes’ ‘Him’

Like a good single, a terrible one reveals itself with airplay and forbearance. I don’t want to hate songs; to do so would shake ever-sensitive follicles, and styling gel is expensive. I promise my readers that my list will when possible eschew obvious selections. Songs beloved by colleagues and songs to which I’m supposed to

Worst Songs Ever: Kenny Loggins’ ‘Danger Zone’

Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” PEAK CHART POSITION: #2 in July 1986 Kenny Loggins, everyone agrees, could drive on a highway; everyone agrees he knows about “zones”; but “danger” is as foreign to him as One Direction is to Thomas Jefferson. Thanks to a proven record in the eighties of sending movie themes into the top

‘Black Panther’ a valentine to Afrofuturism

(WARNING: Spoilers included. Also, I’m unfamiliar with the comic). Although it hews closely to the expectations of the average Marvel property—secret identities, tortured villains, the scrappy sidekick, a final confrontation between the purported hero and the purported villain—Black Panther is a singular viewing experience. Its Afrofuturist sheen encompasses Grace Jones, Public Enemy, and Kendrick Lamar.

Stronger than the universe: A Bee Gees miscellany

Treating myself to a Bee Gees weekend I pretended it was spring 1979 and the party’s still going. 1. Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker 2. Al Green – How Can You Mend a Broken Heart 3. Barbra Streisand – Woman in Love 4. Andy Gibb – I Just Want to Be Your Everything 5. Kenny Rogers

Singles 2/3

A strong week — lots of 7s and 8s, one given to a British duo whose single sounds like Fever Ray re-imagined by giddy adolescents. Certainly I was more disposed to like Adam and the Levines’ attempt at restraint and the otherwise blah Kali Uchis and Daniel Caesar’s Tricky-and-Martine intertwining. Click on links for full

Worst Songs Ever: Lukas Graham’s ‘7 Years’

Like a good single, a terrible one reveals itself with airplay and forbearance. I don’t want to hate songs; to do so would shake ever-sensitive follicles, and styling gel is expensive. I promise my readers that my list will when possible eschew obvious selections. Songs beloved by colleagues and songs to which I’m supposed to

Entertainment That Got Me Through 2017: #4, competitive fighting games (part 1 of 3: Smash 4)

¡Sí se puede!

I keep straining my ears to hear a sound: The best of the Bee Gees

If you were too young to own Saturday Night Fever and its attendant singles, then Mickey Mouse Disco compensated. My fifth birthday present was the first album I owned, and I can still hum “Macho Duck” and “Welcome to Rio” and remember their Fisher Price rhythm section doing that four on the floor beat.

In it for life: Superchunk and Migos

Superchunk – What a Time to Be Alive Kicking off with a title track whose ironies zoom past on first listen because euphoria and irony make for strange bedfellows, the Chapel Hill quartet’s eleventh album dedicates its euphoric zoom to channeling the idealism and energy of youth into a fecund middle age. And what tempos!

The importance of seizing the moment

After watching the performances of the blocs of Marjory Stoneman Douglas students in the last several days, Dahlia Lithwick distills what she has learned: The Stoneman Douglas students don’t seem to be wasting their time debating or negotiating with the gun lovers on the other side. They are simply working to get gun legislation passed,