Ravi Shankar, arguably the greatest sitarist in Indian music’s history and certainly its most famous musician, has died at age 92. Shankar’s contributions to Indian music are myriad, from his composing and performing of complex ragas to his popularizing of Indian musical forms with Western audiences. And he leaves behind two immensely talented daughters, Anoushka [...]
Author Archives | Jim Booth
Authors and reviewers: our new criminal culture
There’s no nice way to say this, so just let me say it plainly: We live in a criminal culture. This culture rewards bad behavior well; it rewards worse behavior even better. It is a culture where image creation means more than talent, where manipulation means more than hard work, and where self-obsessed self-aggrandizing at [...]
The truth about Mayberry
There’s a famous scene in a season one episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “Ellie for Council.” A battle of the sexes erupts when the local pharmacist (and Andy Taylor’s first love interest on the program, Ellie Walker, played by the wonderful Elinor Donahue), a woman, runs for town council. Just at the moment when [...]
Sail On, Sailor…
The sixties were such a halcyon time: no stupid wars to serve the economic desires of the military-industrial complex; no social and civil injustice to drive people into the streets to protest their mistreatment,; everyone just being happy and trying to, in the words of the recently deceased Rodney King, “just get along.” Ah, good [...]
Listen to what the man said…
This essay may be dismissed as pure self-indulgence. Today is Sir Paul McCartney’s 70th birthday. I’m sure there is plenty of panegyric and hagiography being churned out on this notable occasion, so let me put your mind at rest. This is probably going to be more of the same. But then again, maybe not. I have loved [...]
Mark Twain and public discourse
The prevailing argument among our brilliant crew of writers here at S&R lately over our public discourses v. those of our opponents goes something like this: some of us want to take the high road in public discussion of the issues; some of us want to go into the same attack dog mode that our [...]
War is over if you want It
On this sad anniversary of John Lennon’s passing, I’m refusing to mourn. Instead, I’m remembering why his insistence that we stop our mad rush to kill each other was a good idea. Imagine…
WordsDay: Bearded Women by Teresa Milbrodt – a Review
“The cyclops woman squints at them, those who deem themselves unlovely, and knows that no one would look at them twice in a crowd.” – “The Cyclops” by Teresa Milbrodt… We live in an age of integration. We mainstream, accommodate, and in other ways try to make up for the cruelty of much of human [...]
Simon and Garfunkel consider America
Here’s the brilliant duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel with the beautiful and poignant “America” – a song for the wanderer in every American: Happy 4th, all….
Longfellow for the 4th…
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British march By land [...]
Hog Killing – a Story About Fathers and Sons
Rockingham County, North Carolina November 1962 “Go call your daddy and Uncle Kenneth,” Papa says, taking his big thermometer from the scalding trough. “This water’s near hot enough. We need to get to killing these hogs.” He gestures toward the pen some thirty feet away. The hogs grunt and start away as if they understand [...]
Albums you should listen to: Are We Dead Yet? by Starlight Drive
Jared Featherstone is developing a long history as a musical artist, first as a member of D.C. indie darlings Washington Social Club, and more recently as leader of Starlight Drive, a project he pursues when he can spare time from his “day job” as writing center coordinator at James Madison University. The Starlight Drive project [...]
Tunesday: the whole world as one small room…
Jeffrey Dean Foster and Friends Review – Concert Performance: An Evening with Jeffrey Dean Foster and Friends featuring Special Guests Greg Humphreys, Sam Frazier and Snüzz (Britt Harper Uzzell). April 29th, 2011. Hanes Brands Theater, Winston-Salem, NC. Photo Credit: Merch Mike. As we become a distributed culture, one of the things that, instead of being [...]
"Light this Candle"
It’s been a big week for the USA. First, American troops raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and killed al Qaeda’s leader. And today is the 50th anniversary of America’s first manned space flight. On May 5th, 1961, Alan Shepard lifted off from Cape Canaveral for a 15 minute flight that got America on [...]
Do Svidaniya, Yuri and Vladimir
If you’re a Boomer, particularly a Boomer male, the “space race” resonates with you as much, maybe more than JFK, Beatlemania, or Vietnam. You spent a lot of Saturdays wishing the most recent Mercury/Gemini/Apollo mission would release its hold and that all systems would be go so the spectacle of the launch itself could flicker [...]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- Corporate values lead engineers to deny industrial climate disruption
- Tournament of Rock IV: AC/DC vs. Phil Collins
- It’s the end of the world: how will you spend it?
- Do we need winter storm names?
- Climate disruption denial: a natural by-product of libertarian values
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
- Anti-global heating claims – a reasonably thorough debunking
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Timothy Chase: "... a certain percentage margin..." That would…
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Brian Angliss: In some sense I am asking you to accept that clima…
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Tony: I am not attacking QM, and possibly the wording wa…
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Stacey Hofman: And if you need "male" approval.....*yes, Rick's f…
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