tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-254757402012-02-15T22:10:50.498-08:00Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.comBlogger1021100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-25035256042681479582008-05-30T08:59:00.000-07:002008-05-30T09:07:25.022-07:00

People on the street are coming up to me all the time now and asking me if I have some weird McSweeney's fixation. The press are calling, Good Day Live wants me on the show to talk about it. I have been writing a lot about the publishing imprint lately, but it's only because they happen to be publishing a lot of provocative books.  I reviewed the Chabon book of essays, Maps and Legends, and It

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-47850289243693072022008-05-14T09:52:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:28.957-08:00

Larry Levine is dead. Do you recognize? Levine was an engineer of genius, and he was behind the board when Phil Spector was making all of those amazing records at Gold Star and elsewhere in swinging L.A.  Not enough people know about Larry Levine, and that's just plain wrong. The auteur theory of all art must die! Those records weren't made in a vacuum - Spector was the visionary, yes, but

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-28302953746772998512008-05-13T15:32:00.001-07:002008-12-09T09:23:29.163-08:00

Damn, that Coldplay band done stole our bestest producer ever, Eno, to do their new record, "Radiohead Is so 2003." Thing is, I heard the single, and brother, it's pretty, prett-ay, prett-ay good.  Is is possible that my least favorite band EVER will now grace us with something that we can all enjoy and respect? Has Eno done gone his magic, and given this band the musical gravitas to go with it's

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com268tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-49488468126684356992008-05-11T11:01:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:29.361-08:00

We all love them technologies, right? I mean, I think TiVo is the bestest. Even if I don't have it, I still love it.  But here's what I don't like about it: It's screwing with my communal sports experience. In the olden days,  we would all tune into the Knicks game together and then we would all call each other and talk smack about the action we were witnessing as a group. Now, I have one friend,

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-75206098244030615172008-05-09T09:27:00.000-07:002008-05-09T09:30:23.283-07:00

The Spurs look old, but they're wily...I'm scared of the Hornets...Is Jared Weaver the real deal, or has the AL figured him out?....Joe Saunders is my hero.....next to Kobe....and Pao.....Celts are tougher than you think....Dwight Howard is like some man-child superhero....Cassell must be loving life right now....

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-74402993329249758552008-05-08T06:22:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:29.542-08:00

Whenever work is slow, or work is too much, or I don't feel like thinking about it, I turn to another kind of fake work. That's the business of shrinking down my magazine pile. Strangely, there are times when getting this pile down to a manageable size feels like an accomplishment, as if I've achieved something meaningful.  I can't even shake this feeling if I tried.  Because the periodicals in

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-80082799512180909382008-05-07T08:44:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:29.931-08:00

Our passions are deeply personal things.  We love something because we love it; it might be a horrible TV sitcom, or a banal Japanese pop record. We don't have to justify it to anyone. It simply gets us off, and that's that. But sometimes one runs the risk of sharing a deeply-held passion with an outsider, and worlds collide.  Case in point: Albert Brook's Modern Romance.Do you understand how

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com337tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-64604902744751962492008-05-05T07:44:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:30.006-08:00

I was re-thinking my last post over the weekend, and I've come to the conclusion that blogs can be a healthy corrective to critical corruption (sorry about the alliteration) -but that's assuming blogs and print existed on a level playing field. Instead, blog monster is tipping over the game board and sending all the print players into the trash.    Regardless: professional criticism does have its

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-83176248945139301782008-05-01T12:33:00.000-07:002008-12-09T09:23:30.290-08:00

 What's to become of us? I'm hearing ominous things, and storm clouds are gathering. They are telling us our skills aren't needed anymore, that in a webocracy, every one's a critic.  Book publications are suffering and missing their publication deadlines.  Others are folding like a tent in a lashing wind (hear that giant sucking sound? It's all of those servers processing arm-chair bloviating

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-34253198114921916012008-04-30T10:02:00.000-07:002008-04-30T10:16:21.352-07:00

Hot damn, Bob Costas is good.  I wish he was doing the color for every single major network sporting event - for some reason , he seems to be limited to The Olympics, and I say huzzah and hurray for that - but at least HBO gives him his head. Costas Now is the single best sports show on television.  It makes me wish I had Tivo, because I have no idea when it's on, or even if it's been picked up

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-400391801339633772008-04-29T17:13:00.000-07:002008-04-29T17:29:01.453-07:00

Today, as I sifted through the lame pile of trash that is my daily mail, I came across what appeared to be a grocery flyer.  But then I noticed that Bernard Malamud's picture was on the flyer, and surely Ralph's isn't hip to the man who wrote about a miserable, guilt-ridden grocery clerk in The Assistant.  It was actually a freebie tease from a web site called Nextbook.org. I'm sorry to say that

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-22480750268621936262008-04-29T08:43:00.001-07:002008-04-29T08:43:43.262-07:00

Prince covered RADIOhead, not PORTIShead....

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-54853007866860971832008-04-29T08:33:00.000-07:002008-04-29T08:41:22.367-07:00

I'm a middle-aged man with a rock band. Groan, right? But fuck it - it's the most fun I get to have these days, and that's no small thing.  We've been playing for a couple of years, and no one has heard us. Well, a handful of friends and 'fake' groupies - female friends.  It's been a good wood-shedding time for us.  We started off rather stinky.  Nothing cohered, we sloughed off song structure,  

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-8343292953340138442008-04-29T08:24:00.000-07:002008-04-29T17:29:47.952-07:00

I know there are better sports announcers than Marv Albert. I know he's not the smartest, or wisest. But when I hear his voice on a TNT basketball broadcast, it pipelines me back to my childhood,  because Marv Albert is the soundtrack of my youth.  For decades, Albert was the voice of the New York Knicks (maybe he still is, I'm not sure) and given that I wasted my teenagery buying records and

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-87502651717724082732008-04-28T12:03:00.000-07:002008-04-28T12:11:25.056-07:00

I shook Tobias Wolff's hand on Sunday. He was signing books at the L.A. Times book festival. I didn't know that he would be signing books at the festival, but I happened by and there he was. Unlike those autograph freaks that traipse around ULCA schlepping their rolling suitcases full of first editions,  I didn't have a copy of Wolff's new anthology of stories OUR STORY BEGINS on hand. No matter.

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-33342044924314579192008-04-28T11:48:00.001-07:002008-04-28T11:59:55.811-07:00

Oh man! It's been a minute.  Thought it would be best if I got back on the Blog  - it's what the kids are doing these days. So much to discuss, can't discuss it all.  Did not go to Coachella. I don't think I will hereafter ever be present anywhere large numbers of people decide to take adult doses of Oxycontin and throw up in a giant dust bowl. It's not my scene, man. I heard that Prince did some

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1161716913210606682006-10-24T12:00:00.000-07:002006-10-24T20:32:55.266-07:00

So Kurt Anderson thinks the LA Times is irrelevant in its own city? What garbage. So he polls a few of his New York snob friends to determine that the LA Times is meagerly read by the educated class? And this is what passes for reporting? First of all, you need to live in a city in order to determine whether that city's paper is worthwhile or not. I'm wondering how assiduous Anderson's LA

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com59tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1160931014386105192006-10-15T09:45:00.000-07:002006-10-15T09:50:14.400-07:00

Yes! And it counts! Fox finally came to their senses and fired that racist moron Steve Lyons after he made one final thoughtless remark on the air. And better yet, they have replaced him with the superb Angels color man Jose Mota,who is everything that Lyons ain't - smart, insightful, classy. So it turns out Fox, whose coverage of the baseball playoffs is otherwise deplorably thoughtless and

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1160419658218888352006-10-09T11:41:00.000-07:002006-10-09T11:49:33.263-07:00

Among the many stratagems I have for avoiding work - and there are too many to list here - perhaps my favorite meaningless pastime is shopping for journals. I love blank journals almost as much as those literary quarterlies I was gushing about earlier. The pristine journal is a kind of promise, a mortgage on future writing. If I'm bogged down in my own bullshit, and can't seem to get any decent

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1160419267663052632006-10-09T11:37:00.000-07:002006-10-09T11:48:46.283-07:00

Nothing warms the cockles of a Yankee hater like the aftermath of a thorough post-season drubbing, when all of the NY tabloids are finger-pointing, the team dissembles, Steinbrenner seethes and the second-guessing ensues for four months. I for one have the solution to their problems - talk A-Rod into going to the Angels. I despise A-Rod as a Yankee - I would love him to be an Angel. Away from the

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1159817787203759062006-10-02T12:29:00.000-07:002006-10-02T12:36:27.226-07:00

I had my 'Boys of Summer' moment yesterday. My 10-year-old daughter was rifling thought what remains of my vinyl collection when she came across The Grateful Deads' 1970 double-live album. Actually, she could have cared less about the album - she just moved it to get to the techno 12 inches. But imagine my surprise when a skull-and-roses dead sticker popped out of the album, intact and ready to

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1159385642845802052006-09-27T12:17:00.000-07:002006-09-27T12:43:52.306-07:00

I love literary quarterlies. I mean, I just think they're swell - Black Clock, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Tin House, Glimmer Train, A Public Space. I love the care and passion that these editors and publishers put into their little magazines, working from tiny budgets with shoestring staffs. I remember when I interviewed George Plimpton a few years ago in his apartment, I was stunned to see

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1159214435938540322006-09-25T12:55:00.000-07:002006-09-25T13:00:35.986-07:00

The San Diego Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman broke the all-time saves record on Sunday with his 479th save. Wow, a remarkable achievement, made even more so by the fact that Hoffman was a shortstop in the minors! Apparently, Lee Smith, the man that Hoffman leaped frogged in the record book, was invited to attend the game, but missed it due to "prior commitments." Smith has been getting some

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1159111213286377682006-09-24T08:09:00.000-07:002006-09-24T08:20:43.476-07:00

Sorry for that interregnum...dealing with work and other paying matters. I was struck the other day by Andrew Sullivan's plight. His publisher had to recall the first print run of his new book after a portion of one chapter was inexplicably lumped in with another. I can relate, thought my situation was a bit milder, as it was a galley, not a first print run. My British publisher (which shall

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1158033307862281882006-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:002006-09-11T21:03:21.896-07:00

So, as I wrote earlier today, I spent three glorious days at the Sundance Resort in Utah this past weekend to talk about my book The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight. Most folks think only of Sundance in regard to film, and for good reason. But for the past four years, local bookstore owner Karen Dallett has organized a series of author forums grouped around specific themes. My talk was part of

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157990944745513012006-09-11T09:07:00.000-07:002006-09-11T09:09:04.760-07:00

Sorry for the delay - I was in Sundance over the weekend as part of their Authors on the Media series, and it was fab. More later, when I have the time to gather my thoughts and get it down here...

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157656272464072292006-09-07T12:03:00.000-07:002006-09-07T12:13:11.340-07:00

Here is something a lot of us have been waiting for - perhaps ten years, maybe longer? I've lost track. It's Neal Gabler's mammoth, definitive biography of Walt Disney, one of those long-gestating projects that never seem to materialize. Looking at the Amazon page for Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination however, it seems like this book is going to be a mind-blower, delving as it

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157562017395840882006-09-06T09:56:00.000-07:002006-09-06T10:01:36.270-07:00

Jesus, this is harder for me than I thought it would be - I can't let go of summer. Summer means I can be irresponsible and call it a well-deserved break, and for an adult that's called grace. Fall means hunkering down, a fresh start, and all that crap. I can't deal. Therefore, I'm running on empty, blog-wise - the tank needs to be filled up a little before anything decent appears in this space

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157138669602157272006-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:002006-09-01T12:25:16.760-07:00

As you might have already read elsewhere on the web, Robert Christgau, the self-proclaimed dean of rock critics and mentor to countless writers, was axed by the Village Voice yesterday. I had my issues with Christgau, as did many readers who had read his Consumer Guide of pocket record reviews for eons (Blue Oyster Cult is better than Black Sabbath? Nigga please...,) but the man did help me to

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157128239588114392006-09-01T09:27:00.000-07:002006-09-01T09:38:13.376-07:00

The end of the summer, already? Christ almighty, I am getting older by the minute. Very good things: Three more days of summer Alice Kaplan's "French Lessons"Tom Snyder's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Talk Show DVDFretboard JournalAllen Ginsberg's Howl (Happy 50th birthday)My Kids

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1157074305254984632006-08-31T18:17:00.000-07:002006-08-31T18:53:59.940-07:00

Oh, what an absolutely exquisite gag. I mean, no reality TV producer in his right mind could have come up with something as deliciously vengeful as this. You might have read about it in the NY Times today. The short version: A.N. Wilson, esteemed and insanely prolific British literary author, publishes a biography of John Betjeman, the late poet laureate who was as well-known and as beloved in

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156913302034669372006-08-29T21:35:00.000-07:002006-08-29T22:01:46.736-07:00

Feverishly rushed to my local Book-Record-stationary store today to grab the latest Dylan album, what with all of the critical hosannas. Halfway through the first song, I was asleep at the wheel; by track five, I was seething with anger and wondering what else my 13 bucks might have bought (the new Tortoise compilation?) It is time, fawning Dylan rock critics, to lay down your pens and prick up

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156872219429156922006-08-29T10:19:00.000-07:002006-08-29T10:26:27.520-07:00

I don't want to go all "sports nut" on ya'll here, but was that Aggasi-Pavel match riveting stuff or what? Agassi pulled out one of his greatest late-career first round victories; down 0-4 in the third set, he refused to lose, and bent Pavel to his will. Aggasi is now playing the role that Jimmy Connors once played at the Open - the aging warrior who toughs it out for his adoring NY fan base one

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156696959971526502006-08-27T09:36:00.000-07:002006-08-27T09:43:40.320-07:00

Baseball fans, especially Dodger fans, know that Fox Sports color dude Steve Lyons is a dumb jock, but I had no idea that he was a dumb racist jock. On Sunday, while working the Angels-Yankees game, Lyons was talking about Yanks' catcher Sal Fasano, and the fact that he had to shave his Fu Manchu moustache to accommodate Steinbrenner's absurd Eisenhower-era grooming code. Then there was a

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156523382098281602006-08-25T09:28:00.000-07:002006-08-25T09:36:51.690-07:00

Am I becoming depressingly incurious in my dotage? I have no new records, movies, etc to report; the best I can do is Talladega Nights, which made me laugh out loud so often that my kids were embarrassed. No one else in the theatre was laughing, either, and granted, it's not THAT funny. But Will Ferrell can do no wrong in my book, and so I laughed at even the dumbest telegraphed gags, at all the

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156431290018532522006-08-24T07:42:00.000-07:002006-08-24T08:15:25.813-07:00

As Katie Couric prepares to take over at CBS, my thoughts have turned to William F. Buckley Jr. When I was a kid, Buckley was the most public intellectual in the country, not because of anything he had written (and he had written plenty by this time, including his notorious anti-left screed God and Man at Yale) but because he was on TV, of course. Firing Line, his public affairs program, aired

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156181742817382942006-08-21T10:22:00.000-07:002006-08-22T14:25:44.680-07:00

For every amateur musician who blesses the Gods of the Internet every time s/he downloads the tablature to a song s/he just HAS to figure out THAT VERY SECOND, the news that music publishers are going to crack down on illegal tab sites is mighty disturbing indeed. OK, I'll amend that sober third-person lead - what I meant to say was, shit, this is bad news for me! I love these tab sites, and so

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1156086768145928102006-08-20T08:11:00.000-07:002006-08-20T08:13:37.296-07:00

I reviewed Martha Gellhorn's letters for today's Washington Post. Here 'tis: Addicted to WarMarriage to Hemingway was just one episode in this journalist's rip-roaring life.Reviewed by Marc WeingartenSunday, August 20, 2006; BW15SELECTED LETTERS OF MARTHA GELLHORNEdited by Caroline MooreheadHenry Holt. 531 pp.$32.50Where is the Martha Gellhorn biopic? Why hasn't some enterprising movie producer

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155920413751131242006-08-18T09:41:00.000-07:002006-08-18T10:00:54.136-07:00

Not many good things to report on today - it just wasn't a "good things" kind of week. Let's see what we can drum up here, though...I like the new Viva Voce record Get Yr Blood Sucked Out. Aside from packing the best song titles of the year ("How to Nurse A Bruised Ego, "Bill Bixby, ""We Do Not Fuck Around"), the album has an appealingly trippy, drowsy, coming-down-from-a-Vicodin-high vibe. I

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155831141575003602006-08-17T09:09:00.000-07:002006-08-17T09:12:21.586-07:00

From today's Malibu Times: "Jamie Gold won the World Series of Poker's Main Event and a $12 Million Prize. Not needing the money, he says he will use it to help his friends and father, who is in the final stages of Lou Gehrig's disease." It's heartening to know that Gold cares about his friends and family, but..NOT NEEDING THE MONEY?! Who says the rich are getting richer?

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155827034204976132006-08-17T07:59:00.000-07:002006-08-17T08:03:54.233-07:00

This is a disturbing story: Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz was a nasty (and quite vocal, apparently) racist. Now here's a little game for you kids: match the characters of the Wizard of Oz with their racist archetypes. The Tin Man? Baum was obviously an anti-Tin-ite!

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155744062579580042006-08-16T08:56:00.000-07:002006-08-16T09:02:42.566-07:00

Leave it to Tom Wolfe to take the piss out of just about anything. This week's New York Magazine asks a number of prominent city folk "What if 9/11 never happened?" Amid all of the sanctimonious and self-serious commentary, there is this from the firebrand in the ice cream suit: The New York real-estate market would have become so hot, hot, hot that by now developers would be converting grand

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155673177157447412006-08-15T13:01:00.000-07:002006-08-15T19:34:03.596-07:00

Patrick Goldstein's article in today's LA Times about the diminished cultural currency of movie critics, and arts critics in general, is sad but true. However, I will not cry over my copy of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, nor will I blow my nose on Negative Space However much we want to believe that there was a golden era when critics called the shots and dictated the fortunes of films, the marginal

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155656596379737952006-08-15T08:31:00.000-07:002006-08-15T08:44:00.263-07:00

Amid all of the talk about how the blogosphere is crushing the media hegemony like a walnut, supplanting the fusty old paper-and-ink paradigm with many-to-many dispatches delivered at blinding light speed across the Web that deliver body blows to the powers that be,I thought it might be worthwhile to walk through my local Urban Outfitters yesterday to take the pulse of corporate hipster branding.

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155577649834025092006-08-14T10:41:00.000-07:002006-08-14T19:43:14.600-07:00

Back when I was exclusively writing about music, my rock-crit friends and I would often lament about the fact that no one reads books about music - I mean, like no one, not even the subjects of the books. The one exception was my friend Jim's Lester Bangs bio, which did in fact sell, but that had more to do with meta-musical interest - a book about a gonzo critic who wrote about gonzo musicians,

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155337378955144222006-08-11T15:46:00.000-07:002006-08-11T16:04:12.050-07:00

Ah, who can resist a chanteuse with a potty mouth? Among the new records I haven't tossed into the trash bin (er, I mean bequeathed to orphans) is something from Brisa Roche called The Chase. It's pretty wonderful; Roche sings in an affectless yet sultry voice that might work for chanson ( there are some chanson-esque tracks here from the French singer) but instead is put into the service of

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155233787008101192006-08-10T11:09:00.000-07:002006-08-10T18:45:51.410-07:00

Jerry Garcia died eleven years ago today. Feeling sorry for my adult self and wondering why I would never feel as good as I did as a dumb kid when I thought the Grateful Dead would save my pathetic soul, I went to San Francisco that day hoping to make a pilgrimage with fellow heads. But as it turned out, I got there a day early. Hasty shrines to Garcia had been erected around the city, but no

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155223637762084922006-08-10T08:16:00.000-07:002006-08-10T08:31:32.876-07:00

I will now prostrate myself before all of those aspiring short story writers and poets who must endure the bunko game of trying to get published in little magazines so they might, might, one day see a book in print that might, might sell 1,000 copies. It's a mighty honorable pursuit, considering that even if they get published in a respected University quarterly or some such, they will be paid

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155176134306103302006-08-09T19:03:00.000-07:002006-08-09T19:15:47.323-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about the use of new words within the context of historical writing. Specifically, the use of the word "morph" or "morphing," which in the last month or so has appeared in a book I've been reading about literary figures in the 50's and a historical novel whose story pre-dates the 20th century. In both instances, the word looked somewhat jarring; it felt like I was

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155091848040461782006-08-08T19:40:00.000-07:002006-08-09T19:02:51.810-07:00

If you're a freelance writer, graphic designer, pimp, whatever, perhaps the two most depressing essays you will read this month are to be found in Keith Gessen and Benjamin Kunkel's bi-yearly literary digest n+1. The first is Philip Connors' terrific piece about his dreary life as a low-level copywriter and stringer for the Wall Street Journal called My Life and Times in American Journalism. Dig

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1155014505196292482006-08-07T22:16:00.000-07:002006-08-08T09:26:35.803-07:00

My phone bills are bad enough. Now the phone company, in a nifty bit of sadist trickery, is making me work harder to pay up the nose. This new compulsory 310 prefix for local calls is sheer madness. Perhaps 'the powers that be bad' didn't take into account the fact that all of my friends and family members have blocked phone numbers. Which means that, in order to call up someone who might live

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154736545926248582006-08-04T16:59:00.000-07:002006-08-04T17:11:17.903-07:00

It's Arthur Lee on the line:A: "What do you want, man?"MW: "I was wondering if you might have any thoughts about Paul Rothschild. I'm writing an obit." A: "Fuck Paul Rothschild, man. That dude didn't do shit. I produced my records."MW: "Well, surely, he must have made some contribution?"A: "Listen, Jac Holzman, he ripped me off, man. And that Jim Morrison? He stole all my chicks! If I was a

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154642296770663352006-08-03T14:50:00.000-07:002006-08-03T14:58:16.786-07:00

In my never-ending quest to waste time and not get paid for it, I came across an unusual MySpace page today. It's Nick Tosches' page. Yes, the prolific and brilliant journalist, author and gutter bon vivant is using MySpace to shill what appears to be a spoken-word album called "For The Taking." You can hear a sample of the record when you open the page. Tosches is reading his poetry - a

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154626216256026602006-08-03T10:16:00.000-07:002006-08-03T10:30:56.080-07:00

From the "As if the Rolling Stones weren't whorish enough" department: Just in case you might not have gotten your fill your former heroes turning into avaricious Gordon Gekkos, shilling counter-culture anthems to car companies and actuaries and whatnot, now comes this news flash from the British gossip web site Holy Moly. The Charlatans have been tapped to open for the The Rolling Stones on

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154571410149222732006-08-02T18:57:00.000-07:002006-08-02T20:06:02.520-07:00

The punditocracy is destroying public discourse in this country. This democratization of expertise that we see on the Internet is breeding a self-serving brand of fake analysis. Look at what's going on with the Mel Gibson situation. You rarely read the words "vile" or "disgusting" in the countless articles that have been written - no, everyone is just in the prediction business now. Will it

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154485103243375272006-08-01T19:12:00.000-07:002006-08-01T19:18:59.586-07:00

A lot of Angels fans are griping over the fact that Bill Stoneman didn't pull the trigger and make a boffo deal before the non-waiver deadline. But I think he's getting a bad rap. The Angels really don't have much wiggle room. Their pitching staff is among the best in AL, and Stoneman doesn't want to give any starter away, especially given the parlous nature of Colon's arm. Stoneman and Arte

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154452171562649932006-08-01T09:56:00.000-07:002006-08-01T11:38:02.403-07:00

Hot damn! Did you get a load of Marisha Pessl in the New York Times yesterday? Those bedroom eyes, the glossy lips parted just so, the entire come-hither dealio. No, it wasn't a Guy Trebay story - it was the book review. Seems the smoking Ms. Pessl has written a very fine "prep lit" novel called Special Topics in Calamity Physics. She's only 27 years old, she's gorgeous. I'm officially obsessed

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154369120738155992006-07-31T10:37:00.000-07:002006-07-31T11:05:20.756-07:00

What is the deal Steve Rosenberg? I just got wind of your rant against my Valley article in the New York Times, even though it's a few weeks old (the rant, I mean.) Believe it or not, despite your cliched claim that everyone in the Valley is wearing a wooden barrel and selling pencils on Vanowen for a nickel a piece, there's no disputing the fact that our beloved region has gone upscale in

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1154038686593259072006-07-27T15:06:00.000-07:002006-07-27T15:18:58.186-07:00

When is a hug not a hug? When it's harassment, apparently. One bad hug, and now the best baseball analyst on television has gotten the hook. As one of ESPN's top stick-and-ball guns, Harold Reynolds wore his knowledge lightly. He stood out on ESPN, because he wasn't one of those blustery contrarian blowhards that the network seems to breed just to annoy me - if I cared enough about football,

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1153922809662288712006-07-26T07:00:00.000-07:002006-07-26T08:11:25.196-07:00

This looks intriguing. A fellow named Keith Ambrahamsson, an A&R dude at indie label Kemado, is putting together a digital reissue label called Anthology records. Great idea; download all those records you sold for pot money years ago. The first batch looks pretty good, too: Minneapolis punk-rockers Suicide Commandos, Adrian Sherwood's African Head Charge, and some stuff I've never heard of but

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1153788117869264692006-07-24T17:24:00.000-07:002006-07-24T17:42:33.590-07:00

Ah, now here's something you absolutely must check out. We all know about Mike Love and his rotten attitude towards Brian Wilson's Van Dyke Parks period with the Beach Boys. Love is so anti-Loved by hardcore fans that many of them have secretly disparaged the recent talk about a Beach Boys reunion with Love on board. As someone who loves the Beach Boys so much that rational thought about the band

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1153786957256108282006-07-24T17:11:00.000-07:002006-08-19T09:11:40.096-07:00

Apparently, Hollywood is very proud of itself for finally getting hep to those wacky Internet kids. In today's LA Times, the producers of Snakes on a Plane discuss the fact that they have trawled various blogs and message boards and have decided, per the chatter, to give the peeps what they want - more excreta, Cobra entrails, Wonderbras, whatever. Ramp up the coagulated plasma, it's showtime. I

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1153411802235757662006-07-20T08:45:00.000-07:002006-07-20T09:18:12.216-07:00

Toby Young's naked ambition is refreshing. I appreciate the fact that he isn't ashamed to say that he wants to be a big Hollywood bitch, engorged with money and fame, bedding every starlet he can get his sweaty claws on. So many aspiring assholes in L.A. seethe quietly about the fact that they don't have the juice, that this personal trainer and that son of a mutual funds manager have somehow

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1153001788985136852006-07-15T15:03:00.000-07:002006-07-15T15:16:29.006-07:00

Oh man, see, this is just wrong. There was a guy, his name was Paul Nelson. He was a very good music critic, one of the earliest serious writers to turn his attention to popular music. He was the founder, during the 60's folk revival, of an important folk music journal called The Little Sandy Review. He hung out in the Village, and he knew everyone in that scene. Bob Dylan was a friend from

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1152816396280710142006-07-13T11:27:00.000-07:002006-07-13T11:46:36.330-07:00

Many of you who read Greil Marcus back in the day have perhaps not kept up with his career. Mystery Train, his first book, is the best critical study of popular music ever published. His 1989 tome Lipstick Traces is really a bravura performance, a great big edifice of original thought about a specific strain of subversive art that has echoed down the decades of the 20th Century, from Tristan

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1152815031796072222006-07-13T11:12:00.000-07:002006-07-14T08:05:45.883-07:00

Ralph Ginzburg died last week. Ralph Ginzburg was a brave and courageous hustler, a man for whom the big score was worth sacrificing your livelihood for. He was a street smart striver who talked in the clipped Brooklyn patios of a Coney Island barker. Working his way though the advertising department at the old Look magazine in the 50's, he became a high-level exec in short order. But when he

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1152814302043057362006-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:002006-07-13T11:11:54.870-07:00

OK, well, you know, what the fuck. I stopped writing this blog because I was getting bored with myself; it's like listening to the sound of your voice on a tape recorder and then wondering what alien revenant has taken over your body and supplied you with THAT voice. But lot's of things are on my mind lately, and so I'm reviving this thing, at least for the time being. Even if I am truly now

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147965129830681762006-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:002006-05-18T08:12:09.843-07:00

Just how marginalized have books become in our culture? I consider myself a fairly aware dude, but here's the thing; I knew nothing about the plot of The Da Vinci Code until the media starting droning on about the film. Now, this isn't some quiet little book of short stories, it's not even a moderate fiction hit. It's the big bazoomba novel of all time, and somehow the secrets of the plot

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147876278815936142006-05-17T07:27:00.000-07:002006-05-17T07:31:18.830-07:00

Is it possible that Albert Brooks' sublime Modern Romance is only just now being released on DVD? I know I should know these things, but I was making do with a VHS copy of it from college. Now I'm reading, however, that it's a very bare bones release - a cheapie with nary a trailer to be found. This is criminal, seeing as it is irrefutably one of the great comedies of the era, and beloved big

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147716040816948362006-05-15T10:54:00.000-07:002006-05-15T11:00:40.836-07:00

I have a theory as to how Douglas Brinkley - the honorable Tulane University history professor - is such a book machine. I mean, seriously. Leprechauns. Obviously, Brinkley has hired the little green men to help him dash off three books in less than two years time - including his recent opus about Katrina, The Great Deluge, which clocks in at over 700 pages. The man is an insane page producing

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147456004096326462006-05-12T10:42:00.000-07:002006-05-12T10:55:19.806-07:00

I was honored when Tom Wolfe asked me to write an essay about him on the occasion of his receiving the Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities honorarium, which is bestowed annually by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147454609419416682006-05-12T09:56:00.000-07:002006-05-12T13:54:37.620-07:00

Next week, the New York Times will publish its list of the best novels of the past quarter-century. Culling its results from a distinguished panel of writers and critics, the list is headed by Toni Morrison's Beloved, followed by Don DeLillo's Underworld, Updike's Rabbit quartet, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Philip Roth's American Pastoral. There are a number of runner-ups, including

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1147275058374094902006-05-10T08:21:00.000-07:002006-05-10T08:32:39.046-07:00

With the opening of the film Poseidon, there's been a lot of talk about the original 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure - how it's become a "camp classic," how it's so dated with all of those wide lapels and collars and so forth. That all may be so, but I speak for millions who came of age in the 70's when I say that it scared the shit out of me. One must separate The Poseidon Adventure from all

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146968324049601562006-05-06T19:14:00.000-07:002006-05-06T19:20:43.496-07:00

Today I was the keynote speaker for a ceremony to kick of The city of Malibu's One City, One Book program, in which the city is "assigned" a single book to read and ponder. This year it's Joan Didion's The White Album. Here's the speech if you're inclined (excuse the typos and such - because this was meant to be read aloud, I've not cleaned it up for reading:)I remember when I first read The

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com237tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146929779819683872006-05-06T08:29:00.000-07:002006-05-06T08:36:19.833-07:00

The Angels are kicking ass...oops, I mean sucking ass. All of those moves that Arte Moreno made in the off-season - losing Bengie Molina (a massive boner), dumping Washburn, putting too much faith in untested young'uns - is hurting the team big time. They have all kinds of offensive (I mean that in both senses of the word) black holes in the line-up - unless Juan Rivera starts clouting home runs

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146879571488421622006-05-05T18:23:00.000-07:002006-05-05T18:39:31.506-07:00

Thanks to all those who cried out from the wilderness to tell me they enjoyed the blog; hey, a boy needs a reason to carry on every once in a while. I'll stop bugging you now. I'm pooped from a long day of racing to and fro all over the city in search of God know's what, but I do have one strong recommendation to make: Please do go out and buy the new expanded edition of Al Green's The Belle

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146769373147983552006-05-04T11:49:00.000-07:002006-05-04T12:02:53.160-07:00

Jesus, this is beginning to feel like a fool's errand. Is anyone reading this damn blog, other than looky-loo's who see the address in my emails and give it a quick peek? Well, whatever, I'm just gonna keep trudging along here - if anyone is indeed reading, please let me know so I can figure out whether to close this thing down or not.Anyway, here's the trippiest, creepiest record of year (yes,

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146511664032841342006-05-01T12:24:00.000-07:002006-05-01T12:27:44.050-07:00

Natalie Nichols' Subbacultcha column is the best reason to read LA Citybeat, full stop. This week, she writes about the sad saga of L.A. band Betty Blowtorch....

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146498263314247552006-05-01T08:31:00.000-07:002006-05-01T08:44:23.326-07:00

I met Joan Didion yesterday. Or rather, I shook her frail hand, which felt like rice paper, and exchanged a few words that weren't reciprocated. I asked her if she was aware of my book and she responded yes, though she hadn't read it. She scrawled her address on the back of a flyer and asked me to send it to her. And that was about it; she needed to meet her fans and sign books. She is so frail

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146151300548137702006-04-27T08:03:00.000-07:002006-04-27T08:29:48.243-07:00

I can never fathom the strange symmetry behind celebrity deaths, but here's another one: Bonnie Owens, who was married to Buck Owens, died on Tuesday after a long struggle with Alzheimers. A month or so earlier, Owens himself passed on.Casual fans might not be aware of Owens, but hard-core heads know Owens and the crucial role she played as both singer and muse to two of the genre's greatest

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1146065953560072142006-04-26T08:25:00.000-07:002006-04-26T08:39:13.583-07:00

I woke with a start last night, and at first I wasn't sure why. Then it hit me: It was delayed remorse for my lost record collection. Which I sold over a year ago. After lugging around 30 boxes from L.A. to the midwest then back again, and after much soul-searching, I decided that it was time to give up the vinyl. This was not an easy decision, of course, as those records had helped me find a

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145899793050230012006-04-24T10:23:00.000-07:002006-04-24T10:29:53.063-07:00

Casey Kotchman was singled out by ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk yesterday as one of the big-league flops of the early season, and he ain't wrong. I'm wondering whether Mike Scioscia will stick to his guns and let Kotchman play, especially since Robb Quinlan has certainly made the most of his few AB's - and he looks far more comfortable at the plate, for sure. I think the Angels have to give

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145729371649040742006-04-22T11:06:00.001-07:002006-04-22T16:06:53.796-07:00

1) Write about genocide2) Take at least ten years to finish your book3) Unknown4) Don't sell any books5) Tenure6) Long subhed7) Gulag, gulag, gulag

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145632180323684602006-04-21T07:58:00.000-07:002006-04-21T08:37:36.440-07:00

These two articles about the fortunes of two fine writers -Charles D'Ambrosio and Charles Frazier - should be required reading for all MFA writing students; their professors should Xerox them and pass them out immediately. That way, all of those Alice Munro wannabes who actually think they will somehow scratch out a living as a short story writer will jolt themselves out of their Tin House

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145570570482009712006-04-20T14:52:00.000-07:002006-04-20T22:43:35.553-07:00

Now that The Flaming Lips, after lo these many years, are all the rage, it's time to go out and buy my friend Jim DeRogatis' terrific biography of the band, STARING AT SOUND. Jim has been down with the Okie band from jump street- there is no writer in America that knows as much about the band, and he's developed the kind of trust and rapport with Wayne Coyne and Co. that has made possible this

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145463131438565242006-04-19T09:00:00.000-07:002006-04-19T09:13:52.330-07:00

It's been 14 years since Gay Talese last published a book. In this accelerated culture, 14 years is an entire epoch, and I'm not sure many readers have given Talese a second thought since then. He might as well have been dead. But now he is finally emerging with a new book called A Writer's Life. Don't let that straightforward title fool you. This is not some sentimental look back at a quiet

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145462107578730042006-04-19T08:51:00.000-07:002006-04-19T08:55:07.593-07:00

And what about the Lakers? Are we going to delude ourselves into thinking they could actually take Phoenix in the first round, simply by virtue of a nice late-season run in which Kobe's supporting players finally found that shot of plasma they've been searching for all season, and came to semi-life with some solid production? I'm not buying it, friends.

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145461890247848072006-04-19T08:47:00.001-07:002006-04-19T09:16:03.060-07:00

Now this is more like it. Escobar was nothing short of brilliant last night, with full command of his five pitches. That was a 10K run against a very pesky Minnesota line-up. The offense lit it up, as well. And where would the Angels be without Chone Figgins? He is by far the most valuable player on that team - as he goes, so the offense goes. Kotchman was productive, even if he didn't do

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145372280983971792006-04-18T07:48:00.000-07:002006-04-18T08:03:00.886-07:00

Yes, gas prices are through the roof. But have you checked out a library book lately? Or more to the point, have you held onto an overdue book for any period of time? It's damn expensive now, far more than when I was a kid. The Los Angeles public library system allows patrons to borrow books for an average of 3 weeks; when that period is over, tardy borrowers must cough up a quarter a day.As

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145296670139467202006-04-17T10:46:00.000-07:002006-04-23T13:41:50.206-07:00

God bless Mark Bowden. In last month's Atlantic, the great investigative reporter wrote what no critic in America had the guts to say about Tom Wolfe's latest novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" - i.e., that it's good. I suspect that Wolfe is maligned by the literary establishment for a number of reasons: 1) He's a great writer who also happens to sell millions of books; 2) He's on the Right, and

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1145040092299277732006-04-14T11:22:00.000-07:002006-04-14T11:44:30.616-07:00

In addition to all the desultory summer tour 'fanny-pack packages' and geezer double-chin displays that will roll to your town this year, there is a very exciting development. Os Mutantes, the amazing pshychedelic band that emerged from Brazil's Tropicalia movement in the 60's, is coming to the states for a few dates. They are playing the Pitchfork festival in July apparently, and are hitting

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144941986383975882006-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:002006-04-13T08:38:18.263-07:00

Oh, wow, the PC police must die. So Tiger says he putted like a spaz at the Masters, and newspapers around the world excise the offending word from their stories? That's just retarded!

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144941677619899222006-04-13T08:11:00.000-07:002006-04-13T09:17:16.936-07:00

Oh, Grand Funk, how misunderstood, how maligned! Critics, even those that lived in your Detroit town, called you ham-fisted fools proffering mindless boogie music for shirtless rock festival fools who couldn't tell Dylan from Ochs. But yes, that was the point, and what's so wrong, anyway? Some bands need to speak to the inner dunderhead in all of us, the voice inside that demands to dance to

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144940926397032652006-04-13T07:59:00.000-07:002006-04-13T08:10:56.753-07:00

My Angels are looking pretty good so far, in this very early, practically meaningless part of the season. They stuck it to the Yankees two out of three, which is always a wonderful thing, but there are some warning signs that the pitching, which will carry them through to the post-season if it follows form, needs to air itself out a little. Their last two losses were blow-outs, in which the

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144810466644095662006-04-11T19:39:00.000-07:002006-04-11T23:03:43.393-07:00

I am really sorry to hear that Arthur Lee has cancer and is doing poorly. The great singer, songwriter and guitarist for the fabulous 60's LA band Love is no saint, but his body of work stands up to any of his Sunset Strip contemporaries - yes, I'm talking Jim Morrison, Gene Clark, Neil Young. "Forever Changes," Love's brilliant third studio album, is up there on my all-time list, a highly

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144708745691483452006-04-10T15:07:00.000-07:002006-04-10T15:44:22.530-07:00

Last night, during the Lakers-Clips game, I stumbled upon something wondrous. I think it's been around for a while now - maybe this season, maybe last - I haven't watched enough Lakers to know. Anyway, it's called Courtside Live, and it's an alternate broadcast shown on the other Fox Sports Net channel. It's the game beamed to you from a handheld video camera positioned at court level. That's it

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144636247970600382006-04-09T19:26:00.000-07:002006-04-09T19:31:42.073-07:00

Remember when writers were ugly? Jowly, bald, fat, slovenly -- that was the writerly look for ages. Writers were the anti-photogenic strivers that lurked on the margins. Now, it seems like everyone's a looker. Just thumb through the NY Times Sunday Book Review on any given Sunday - damn, when did novelists become major babes and hunkolicious studs? I do hope this isn't a new prerequisite for

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com129tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144635893198329402006-04-09T19:12:00.000-07:002006-04-11T22:44:41.130-07:00

Phil Mickelson might be a crackhead. He might enjoy looking at videos of young boys having sex. How do we know, really, what the man is all about? His own wife might not even be aware of his predilictions.But I'm willing to wager my sand wedge that Mickelson, who won his second Masters today, is a pretty decent sort. He seems well-mannered - the kind of man who says "Thank you" when the waiter

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144440146396284572006-04-07T12:52:00.000-07:002006-04-07T13:02:26.406-07:00

Celebrity deaths tend not to get me too worked up, but I am distraught over Gene Pitney's passing. I guess I just felt the man never did get the proper respect he deserved. Yes, he is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for what that's worth. But that only happened after years of lobbying on Pitney's part. It broke my heart when Pitney, during his HOF acceptance speech, thanked everyone who had

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25475740.post-1144426956985302892006-04-07T09:09:00.000-07:002006-04-07T09:23:58.366-07:00

The hiring of Katie Couric to take over the anchor spot for CBS News represents the death knell of that network's long and distinguished history of dignified broadcast journalism. This is the network of Murrow, Severeid, (younger) Mike Wallace, etc. I am disturbed by the fact that the network has taken the path of least resistance instead of either keeping Bob Schieffer on, or developing someone

Marc Weingartenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394909999822879300noreply@blogger.com1