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Kind of Blue at 50
Miles Davis made many great records like Nefertiti, Walkin’ and A Tribute to Jack Johnson. He also made landmark records like Sketches of Spain, Birth of the Cool and Bitches Brew. But Kind of Blue remains in a class by itself. The recording’s unique and elegantly subdued sound, probing improvisations and extraordinary musicianship make it…
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Breaking News: It's Racism
To everything, there is a season. If summer is the time for civil (or close to civil) discourse in presidential politics, fall is the time for blood sport. And if you’re a Republican trailing in the polls, it’s the season for racist fear mongering. No one should be surprised by the assault John McCain launched…
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Rising to the Moment
It’s always a bittersweet time for me when I leave my home in Martha’s Vineyard for my home in Johannesburg; home being a place where you have people and things you love, as I do in both these places. With some sadness, I say “so long” to friends I drank and dined with or with…
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To Be Nina
Fifty years after recording her first hit, a rendering of George and Ira Gershwin’s “I Loves You, Porgy,” and five years after her death from complications of breast cancer, Nina Simone continues to fascinate. She left a benchmark that was, as sung in the opening verse of Funkadelic’s 1978 anthem, “One Nation Under a Groove”:…
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No Game Changer
One candidate succeeded in the challenge he faced last night. The other candidate fell short. The pundits tell me that John McCain needed a significant momentum changer, with Obama now leading in national polls. The pundits also told me that Barack Obama needed to effectively rebut the increasingly nasty charges from the McCain–Palin team that…
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It Takes Green to Go Green
Failing schools, crime and single-parent households are just a few of the challenges facing urban communities. Now, thanks to radical environmentalists and their supporters, a bunch I like to call “Club Green,” they must face soaring energy as well. “Club Green” enthusiasts are everywhere these days; their ideology is part of the liberal orthodoxy, and…
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The Truth About Black Love
My in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Chiles, cut a fine portrait last month, walking down the aisle of a candle-lit room at The W Hotel in Atlanta—she in a stunning champagne gown, with an armful of calla lilies; he in a sharp tux, his fingers interlocked with hers. Brian McKnight’s ballad “Never Felt This Way”…
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You Know Who Won, My Friends? That One
John McCain’s frustrations are not hard to understand. Last night, he had an ugly hand to play, and he played it well, especially compared to the last debate. But after a tough stretch in the campaign during which he has been wrong-footed on the economy and side-swiped by the facile quality of his vice presidential…
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I Felt Something
That reception was in a few hours, and I was in a rush. I had just showered, sprayed perfume and was ready to slip into my sheer pantyhose. The phone rang as I opened the package. An advertisement on an insert inside caught my eye, but I was about to disregard it and throw it…
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The MILFy Way
Homespun. Folksy. Straight-talking. These may be just a few of the endearing terms pundits have used to describe Sarah Palin. But there’s another, more salient, tag floating around the Alaska governor, a secret weapon that was on winkin’ and twinklin’ display during the debate. Few Beltway commentators would dare call this stealth device by name,…