-
Grandiose Gestures
Two dark autumns ago, the Arcade Fire made me believe, all over again, in the all-encompassing power of rock and roll. Those were depressingly political times, and the un-political nature of the record offered me an escape. “Funeral” was a triumphant album about loss and renewal, about picking up the pieces in a cold, wintry…
-
Down (and Out) in Albion
We demand the most from musicians who are also drug addicts. We expect them to give all of themselves to us, to emote fully, to express their vulnerability through their music in the starkest of terms. All this is true, of course, until their final freak-out, their final overdose, when we promptly forget about them:…
-
The Factor Goes Fictive
Bill O’Reilly is obsessed with how long it takes a murder victim to die. In his novel – that’s right, his novel – we find out, for example, that “the soft tissue gave way quickly and the steel penetrated the correspondent’s brain stem. Ron Costello was clinically dead in four seconds.” Or, “Lance Worthington couldn’t…
-
Read Slowly and See
In 1968 John Sinclair of the band DC5 wrote that “rock and roll music is a weapon of cultural revolution.” But this overtly political attitude – emblematic of 1960’s music, or at least of the retelling of the story of sixties music – was becoming increasingly antithetical to a certain subset of the youth counterculture.…
-
Commercial Christianity
Toward the end of June, as the dog-days of summer fell upon New York City suddenly and definitely, I made a religious pilgrimage to Corona Park, Queens, to see Billy Graham’s supposedly Last Crusade. Riding a crowded 7 train out to Queens I felt a palpable sense of excitement….It was like going to a Mets…
-
Donde Esta Journalism?
Dear Readers, Last month, to the consternation of our “reporter” friends upstairs, we inaugurated the Princewatch column. This new feature severely weakened the Daily Princetonian’s morale; we received several outraged emails to that effect. To right their sinking ship, in an October 14 editorial, the Prince demanded that the University create a journalism certificate program,…
-
The Way Things Might Have Been
In autumn (or fall, as we sometimes called it) we wore woolen sweaters, checkered corduroy, held hands tightly, snuggled for warmth against brisk north winds; We went apple-picking, fell down laughing on yellowed orange leaves, talked of favorite authors, of Franny and Zooey and our own lost childhoods, of deepest dreams tucked beneath dark library…
-
Extremely Literary and Incredibly Alumni
About ten days ago, the Nassau Weekly’s editor in chief Jacob Savage interviewed (via telephone) Princeton’s most recent wunderkind, Jonathan Safran Foer ’99, author of the critically acclaimed best-seller Everything is Illuminated, and the recently published Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
-
Winter in America
Thirty years ago, Gil Scott-Heron, a black poet and songwriter, wrote the song “Winter in America.”
-
Bob Ross Turns 80
Bob Ross, perhaps the most important mainstream American artist of the 1980s, is undergoing a resurgence of late.
-
On Unpacking My Record Collection
One of the most important things my father taught me was how to handle a record.
-
Watching Movies with… David Brundige
Senior David Brundige has written and directed two hit shows at Princeton, “Bums and Monkeys” (2003), and “PigTails” (2004). He has won awards for his writing, been jetted out to Hollywood to meet with studio executives, and has had many beautiful women beg him for roles in his future films.