Say It: This Is a Quagmire — Four decades later, Tom Hayden is still making noise. Here, he takes a closer look at the "Q word," divorcing it temporarily from its typical context: "Quagmire is not a metaphor for Vietnam," he writes, "but has a specific meaning. It is a strategic defeat. The occupier can't declare victory and can't withdraw." Good stuff.
Where did all the good films go? — John Patterson on the difficulties of getting your hands on brilliant films by Altman, Murnau, Renoir, Boorman, Sirk, and Bresson. (I'd add to the list Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Ray, to name just a few.)
Islamists tighten grip in Kuwait — For a preview of what will likely happen if stability, if local rule, and if free elections are ever established in Iraq.
Advanced Schedule — How I will be spending a good chunk of the next three months.
Requiem — Douglas McLennan raises, then undercuts, the standard explanations for the growing obsolescence of classical music. (Link via Oboe.) He draws an interesting conclusion, one whose ramifications extend well beyond the concert hall and into all areas of art and art criticism:
But the main reason classical music is no longer on the menu of cultural literacy is that somehow it lost the critical mass of a critical community that listens/talks/writes about music as though it matters and where there are frequent debates, multiple judgments and competing ideas to keep things energized. How can you build artistic consensus that keeps renewing itself if you lack critical voices? Without that consensus, it’s difficult to argue that classical music deserves a place at the table.
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