culture

Way, way back in the day, there was an Afro-Polish violinist, a biracial child prodigy of such virtuosity that even Beethoven felt compelled to dedicate a sonata to him. There were honors and accolades and patronage from a prince. But fortunes changed, as poet laureate Rita Dove describes in her novel-sized book of poems, Sonata…

PPG: Obamas Make Chocolate City ‘Chocolate People Who Run Ish’ City WSJ: Turning His Swag On: The Making of a Celebrity President NYDN: Don’t Let 44 Fool You: Racial Equality Still a Work-in-Progress SPP: Where Are the White Guys with Money and/or Guns?!? The GOP Base is Shrinking! WP: DOJ Urges Equalizing Drug Sentences Because…

WP: 100 Days Allows Media to Talk About Something Other Than Recession, Their Decline in Paper Form TIME: Can Alabama Spark Democratic Revival in South? Eh…Sure Why Not? Reuters: Obama’s Many Challenges May Overshadow Africa; Besides, It’s Africa So… GC: Why Africa’s Moment is Now HP: Toward Real Criminal Justice Reform NYT: Test Results: Persistent…

This year’s NBA playoffs provide a stern challenge to the conventional NBA wisdom that youth, sooner or later, crack under the weight of the intense media scrutiny and high fan expectations, and that the veterans will come out ahead. I’ve always doubted the conventional wisdom, and not just because it’s what I do for a…

USAT: Obama: Swine Flu ‘Not Cause for Alarm’; Vegas Takes the Under on That NYDN: Century Marks: 100 Events that Helped Shape President’s First 100 Days NYT: Putting a Pen to the Inkwell: Colson Whitehead’s ‘Sag Harbor’ CNN: Three Wounded in Hampton University Shooting AJE: Yemeni Forces Re-Take Seized Tanker WP: Bond and Jealou: NAACP, Like…

A Buzz world premiere: The Buzzku. It’s like a haiku, but topical. Waterboarding’s bad Pulitzer’s good for the Post Earth Day Makes Black Green MONDAY USAT: +10: Columbine Survivors Remember Madness a Decade Later NYT: Prisoner Waterboarded 183 Times; CIA: “If at First You Don’t Succeed…” HP: Some Give Prez a FAIL Over CIA Treatment;…

The salaries of all NBA, NFL and MLB players combine for an annual payroll of about $57 billion. Now, keep in mind that 80 percent of the players in the NBA, 70 percent of the players in the NFL and 8.4 percent in Major League Baseball are black. When you do the math, roughly $33.25…

HP: Still Very Real in the Field: 60 Dead Today in Iraq GDN: US Will Set Up Facebook Page, Tag Themselves in Prison Abuse Photos AJE: According to UN, Nearly 6,500 Killed in Sri Lankan Civil in Three Months WP: Ford Burns Less Cash, Only Posts $1.4B Loss (Take That, Recession!) AP: Myrtle Beach Wildfires…

Nat King Cole died, too soon, in February 1965, of lung cancer at the age of 45. He left behind a body of work that embraces the American songbook and exotic rhythms outside America, and it continues to endear him to millions. An archetype of sleek, musical cool, Cole’s influence remains, to borrow a word,…