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Worthy of Mention

  • Spoon -

    Spoon: Girls Can Tell
    This is a great, understated album that merits repeated plays. Spoon have made a literate, rocking, breakthrough record that occupies a funny place--the songs are not unconventional, per se, yet they're somehow really special. Girls Can Tell displays the emotional resonance and big rock power of, say, Thin Lizzy and Mott the Hoople; the sonically referential, indie-rock smarts of a band like Versus; and amazing hooks that recall Colin Blunstone of the Zombies. Like Jennyanykind, Moviola, and the Lilys, this Austin, Texas, trio has chosen to work on perfecting their craft without paying much heed to mainstream or trends. In spite of (but mostly because of) wrenching breakup-centered lyrical material delivered in a very real, matter-of-fact way, Girls Can Tell is one of those life-affirming pop albums you know you'll return to in years to come. --Mike McGonigal (*****)

Books

  • Michael Hardt: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

    Michael Hardt: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire
    Empire (2000)—the surprise hit that made its term for U.S global hegemony stick and presciently set the agenda for post–9/11 political theory on the left—was written by this same somewhat unlikely duo: Hardt, an American political scientist at Duke University, and Negri, a former Italian parliament member and political exile, trained political scientist and sometime inmate of Rome's Rebibbia prison. This book follows up on Empire's promise of imagining a full-blown global democracy. Though the authors admit that they can't provide the final means for bringing that entity about (or the forms for maintaining it), the book is rich in ideas and agitational ends. The "multitude" is Hardt and Negri's term for the earth's six billion increasingly networked citizens, an enormous potential force for "the destruction of sovereignty in favor of democracy." The middle section on the nature of that multitude is bookended by two others. The first describes the situation in which the multitude finds itself: "permanent war." The last grounds demands for and historical precursors of global democracy. Written for activists to provide a solid goal (with digressions into history and theory) toward which protest actions might move, this timely book brings together myriad loose strands of far left thinking with clarity, measured reasoning and humor, major accomplishments in and of themselves. (****)

Recommended Elswhere On The Web

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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Pete And Kate, An Xmas Tale

Kate_moss5_1
"Pete plays guitar, eats special sweets and falls over a lot. Pete met a famous girl called Kate and the pair went ballistic on Class A drugs.

The cautionary tale of Pete Doherty has been turned into an illustrated children’s book that is becoming a Christmas bestseller.

A Boy Called Pete details the rise to fame of the notorious rock singer who 'sings songs and wears hats'. But his predilection for 'mind-bending drugs' means that Pete and his friend Kate are 'always getting into trouble'.

The book claims to be a moral story and warns children that 'Class A drugs are not very good for you. They make you smelly and a bit untidy-looking.' Pete finds that he is no longer famous for singing songs and is made to stay in 'a very big house with high walls' because 'London has lots of rules and lots of authority'.

Like the protagonist of Hilaire Belloc’s tales, Pete comes to a sticky end. But readers should feel sorry for him 'because once upon a time he was a very clever and handsome man'."

Link: A children's Christmas tale by Pete and Kate - Britain - Times Online.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 in Books, The Bride |

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