Wednesday, December 17, 2008

A Sentence I Never Thought I'd Write

"The mistaken yoking of messianism to Enlightenment ideas of progress was an early source of grief to Scholem."

Monday, December 8, 2008

Odetta

The first I heard or saw of Odetta was this:



It always intrigued me but I never followed up on it. Then I went to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this year and saw a short part of her set there. The festival was overwhelming for a number of reasons, so I don't think I appreciated her set as much as I should have. But I do remember her singing this song and am thankful I got to see it live, especially after I heard the sad news.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Also, "Internet" might be catching on

The front page of The New York Times website today features this subhead inviting you to read an op-ed piece from Suzanne Vega: "Suzanne Vega on how the music we choose to listen to can mark us as members of a group." Other op-ed pieces today presumably include essays arguing that the color of your skin may affect how other people treat you and that the sky may be blue-ish.

NYT, you can do better.