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The Man Who Best Understood America Was A French Aristocrat: If there's a book which manages to grow better and more pertinent with every passing year, it's Tocqueville's fascinating, prescient and utterly apposite Democracy in America. Of how many other books could you safely say every American and European should read it and know beforehand they will enjoy it and learn from it? Of none.
comment posted at 10:47 AM on Jul-2-04

Nick Drake BBC2 Special narrated by Achilles [brad pitt].
comment posted at 10:48 PM on May-24-04
comment posted at 10:16 PM on May-26-04

Bitch Hit My Truck: Is this for real?
comment posted at 8:17 PM on May-19-04
comment posted at 8:44 PM on May-19-04
comment posted at 10:15 PM on May-26-04

The pen is mightier than...? Remember Afghanistan? Terry, former Nitpicker, is now a public affairs specialist in Kandahar. He's learned that the children of Afghanistan want nothing more than they want a pen. Maybe we can help them out by sending some?
comment posted at 10:47 PM on May-12-04

A Woman, A Ghost Town And A Bike: A very sobering, very courageous trip around Chernobyl, with inevitable intimations of mortality and the (hopefully avoidable) future.
comment posted at 5:33 AM on May-7-04

The Hirschfeld Follies: A charming and generous gallery of Al Hirschfeld's portraits from The New York Times, spanning from 1928 to 2002 (registration required), indexed by date, person and show. Are there any outstanding young contemporary caricaturists out there who are doing good work (not necessarily in the theatre) we old-timers should know about? [Be sure to accompany with plep's great post on American cartoon and caricature and PeteyStock's January 2004 obituary post. And while you're at it, if you'll excuse the immodesty, my own David Levine post, with a (superb) still-working link.]
comment posted at 5:43 PM on May-5-04
comment posted at 8:09 PM on May-5-04

Can Compassionate Fascism Be Far Behind? It's only a short book review but Terry Eagleton - who could be defined as a playful and disobedient neo-Marxist literary theorist - manages to give us, propelled by Robert Paxton's universally praised The Anatomy of Fascism, a pithy and workable definition of fascism and its opposition to conservatism, as well as some depressing, very provocative misgivings about the future of capitalism and the increasing appeal of authoritarianism. Just what is, in the 21st century, the danger and chance of revisionist fascism, in the style of a dubious, unctuous political I Can't Believe It's Not Democracy margarine? [Via .]
comment posted at 10:54 PM on May-3-04

"touch my tra-la-la" - Mefi falls in love with Günther.
comment posted at 8:28 PM on May-1-04

The European Union welcomes 10 new members! As I write this, the celebrations have started as Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia become members of the EU today. While some folks are gonna party like crazy, others are warning of doom and gloom. What do you think? Will this have significant effects on global culture, politics, and economics - or will it merely represent a paper change within the rarefied world of European diplomats, with little other than localized effects on day to day life?
comment posted at 6:35 PM on Apr-30-04
comment posted at 8:12 PM on Apr-30-04
comment posted at 8:34 PM on May-1-04

"Other channels do what PBS [does], with the added bonus of doing it better." On the 50th anniversary of San Francisco's KQED, the SF Chronicle's TV critic Tim Goodman levels a blistering attack on the station and on PBS, calling it "one of the worst-run, thoroughly backward media entities in the country."
comment posted at 11:56 AM on Apr-29-04

Visit sunny Molvanîa! The guidebook is here. Just don't mix them up with Moldavia. They hate that.
comment posted at 12:09 AM on Apr-29-04

Grin And Bear It, Woman! Think Of England! Caesarean births in the U.K. should be severely curtailed, say the medical mandarins. Germaine Greer says, in a cracking column, that the new guidelines are misogyny pure and simple. Is it just my impression (think of American Pie-type teenage movies; advertising; "guy lit") or are hatred of women and beery, bozo celebrations of indifference to the feminine sex on the up and up?
comment posted at 11:21 PM on Apr-28-04
comment posted at 12:01 AM on Apr-29-04
comment posted at 10:46 AM on Apr-29-04
comment posted at 11:22 PM on Apr-29-04

A Bigger Splash: What Sunny California Did To Miserable Manchester Man Morrissey. His new album, "You Are The Quarry", is released on May 17th in the U.K. and the next day in the U.S. But the problem is: does anyone still care? I do! [More inside.]
comment posted at 8:13 PM on Apr-26-04

Not Just Whistling Dixie: Is The South, Like The Past, A Different Country? An article by Jacob Levenson in the Columbia Journalism Review retraces the obligatory, almost stereotypical steps of the innocent, enlightened Yank lost and confused in the South. Is it the usual shtick or is there something genuinely befuddled and even "foreign" to it?
comment posted at 7:09 PM on Apr-26-04
comment posted at 8:26 PM on Apr-26-04

Aimez-vous Godard? That Is, If You've Actually Seen One Of His Films. Gilberto Perez's view of Godard is strictly personal, as all opinions of his work must be. It does highlight, however, how neglected the restless author's films have lately been. For people of my generation, he was absolutely essential. The supreme cineaste, both with an accent on the "e" (as a film-maker) and without (as a film enthusiast). Whatever became of the Nouvelle Vague? It seems to me that the contemporary cinema could well do with another blast.
comment posted at 5:04 PM on Apr-22-04
comment posted at 6:53 PM on Apr-22-04

What do you mean Matt Haughey isn't on this list?
Time Magazine does a sequel to the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century with a list of the current Hot 100... Have fun raging at the inevitable bad choices and obvious omissions. For a more entertaining list, here's Parade Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters.
Preemptive strike: Yeah, all "Top 100" Lists are lame, but critiquing them can be an entertaining way to finish off a boring weekend
comment posted at 5:58 PM on Apr-18-04

Harvard's Institute of Politics has created a short test to measure where your political beliefs fit with college students across the country. You better sit down for this one: I am a Traditonal Liberal !   From Secular Centrist Matthew Yglesias. Take the test and see where you fall on the brightly colored chart.
comment posted at 8:12 PM on Apr-16-04

Forget Fiction And Non-Fiction, Bud: Is The Book Liberal Or Conservative? The National Review's bestseller list (scroll down and click) is starkly divided into "Conservative Bestsellers" and "Liberal Bestsellers". Is this a quirky innovation and deliberate provocation or just plain stupid and sad? Does such a dichotomy in fact exist? How would the literature of the world fit into such a classification? (This isn't the end of the world as we know it, is it?)
comment posted at 5:50 PM on Apr-14-04

Definitely Not Your Mom's Cooking, But Comfort Food Of A Sort: that is, if you're an avant-garde seen-it-all, eaten-it-all gastronome whose jaded taste-buds crave a jolt of novelty, humour and sheer flamboyance. By far the most exciting, celebrated and downright controversial chef on God's good earth is called Ferran Adria. His restaurant, El Bulli has just re-opened, after the yearly six-month period experimentation of challenging new dishes in his taller/laboratory. [More inside.]
comment posted at 6:24 PM on Apr-10-04
comment posted at 7:42 PM on Apr-10-04
comment posted at 7:54 PM on Apr-10-04
comment posted at 8:09 PM on Apr-10-04

Insecula. As the Wiki says:

Insecula: L'encyclopédie des arts et de l'architecture is a French language art website containing images and descriptions of thousands of works of art from major museums and collections in France and elsewhere, including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Palace of Versailles, the Centre Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MOMA.

But it's not just museums and art. It's got Mayan ruins, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and of course lots of Paris streets. I can't believe plep hasn't posted this already...
comment posted at 5:15 PM on Apr-10-04

Eurabia? WTF? An interesting article by the ultra-prolific Niall Ferguson obliquely raises the question: wouldn't Europe (and the world) be happier if Islam still had a hold on the West? Al-Qaeda's longings for Andalusia and the Algarve apart, the truth is that Southern Spain (until 1498) and Portugal (until 1297) were very happy under Muslim rule. Isn't it sad that the three great monotheistic religions, plus the great atheist belief, can't live together anymore? [ NYT registration required. Via Arts and Letters Daily.]
comment posted at 4:37 AM on Apr-8-04
comment posted at 11:36 AM on Apr-8-04

Who Would Have Thought? Sun and Microsoft just announced an historic 10 year collaboration agreement (an announcement that ended with Scott McNealy and Steve Ballmer actually shaking hands). What do you think? Ultimately beneficial ... or not?
comment posted at 8:57 AM on Apr-2-04

"What did you think of Seabiscuit?" the young man added helpfully. Even the deadpan Jarmusch laughed. Jim Jarmusch's new movie (the first feature-lenght after 1999's Ghost Dog), "Coffee And Cigarettes", is "a droll, ironic look at two of our favorite addictions". The black and white movie (trailer here) has a strange (or Stranger than Paradise?) cast: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, ... Jarmusch's philosophy: "When you're watching movies, the guy's girlfriend calls him, she's having something bad happening, and he says, 'I'll take a cab. I'll be right over.' Cut to him getting out of the cab. And my brain always says, what about the cab ride? The incidental thing, the thing that's not the destination?". (more inside)
comment posted at 5:33 PM on Mar-28-04

Some Of Our Best Poets Are Fascists: An interesting article by Guy Davenport. My own theory is that an inordinate percentage of great (and minor) Modernist writers were, politically speaking, bonkers. Ezra Pound, Fernando Pessoa and T.S.Eliot were all distastefully authoritarian, anti-semitic and, in general, rancorous old farts. Why is this, if anyone still cares? [Via Arts and Letters Daily.]
comment posted at 7:00 AM on Mar-26-04
comment posted at 7:14 AM on Mar-26-04

the future of metafilter?
comment posted at 10:15 PM on Mar-23-04

Are You Ready To Be Heart-Broken? Sounding like the sprightly spawn of Radiohead, Coldplay and (yes) Queen, Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" is, imho, an enchantingly romantic song, lovely and over-ambitious in the tradition of, say, very early Aztec Camera, Ash or Travis. Thing is: their first album, "Fears and Hopes" (so appropriately named for those inured to pre-first-album-jitters) will be released in May and already I dread the disappointment I just know awaits me. Early promises in Pop music have so often been cruelly broken by follow-ups, "sloppy seconds", maturity, whatever, that I put to you that musical competence, technique and general "production savvy" are inimicable to good, dirty teenage songs such as Keane's. [Be sure to listen to the other three songs on the web site, although only the gist of the wonderful "Somewhere Only We Know" is offered. They're quite good!]
comment posted at 11:15 PM on Mar-22-04
comment posted at 11:35 PM on Mar-22-04
comment posted at 6:56 PM on Mar-23-04

Go Ask Alice When She's Ten Feet Tall: Alice Waters's extraordinary influence on the way we shop, cook and eat makes her one of the great American heroes (and European too, check out the Larousse Gastronomique), mostly to those of us who have never been (and will never be) lucky enought to eat at Chez Panisse. [More inside.]
comment posted at 6:33 PM on Mar-21-04
comment posted at 8:41 PM on Mar-21-04
comment posted at 10:16 AM on Mar-22-04

Philip Larkin: Great Poet, Shame About The Man? When is an excess of biography, i.e. high-minded, clumsily-disguised gossip, an impediment to literary appreciation? Nowadays, it seems always. [More inside.]
comment posted at 9:55 PM on Mar-19-04
comment posted at 1:06 AM on Mar-20-04
comment posted at 1:42 AM on Mar-20-04