May 2005

If you pick up the new issue of Bookforum (Pynchon on the cover!) there’s a review by me of a Roxy Music biography that just came out in the US. There are at least two other Roxy books coming out in the next year that look like they’ll be better than the one I had [...]

Usually when you take a cab in New York City, it’s a pretty silent experience. Occasionally, though, you get into some very odd conversations. Today I was talking to the cab driver dude en route to my destination. Small talk, the usual stuff. “What did you do before you drove a cab?” I asked. “Me? [...]

I love Gang of Four and all, and I’m glad they’ve reunited, but why on earth is a band that gave so much lip service to social and political issues playing at Clear Channel-owned Irving Plaza? And the $55 post-show afterparty ($55!) gives me the willies. Feel free to berate me with your replies, but [...]

There’s an old-school (18th/19th century) art exhibit up at the New York Public Library that I thought wouldn’t be my bag; I’m more of a 20th century girl. Dada, Russian constructivism, minimalism, dorky ’80s video art, Le Corbusier-designed buildings, Italian Futurist cooking, the Air & Space Museum–that’s more my speed. Oil paintings, engravings, daguerrotypes and [...]