Tiger Woods finished fourth in a PGA tournament this past weekend. He’s back. Or is he? Tiger’s last win came in 2013 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. His last major championship was the 2008 US Open. Shortly thereafter (Thanksgiving of 2009) Woods famously crashed his car outside his Florida mansion, was exposed as a serial cheater […]
The Ever Present Past of the Beatles (and the Saddest Record of the Year)
They say you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite Beatle. Cuddly Paul, edgy John, moody George, or funny Ringo, you choose the one you either most readily identify with, or would most like to identify with. Of course, having to name only one is a dodgy practice in the first place, […]
Another Week Ends: OWL Pushback, Antihero Armstrong, Pearls for Gleason, New McCartney, Ambitious Slackers, Space Cowboys, Food-Profiling, and Dilbert’s Failure
1. Yesterday I mentioned the name-dropping op-ed that appeared on the Washington Post, Tullian Tchividjian’s “The Missing Message in Today’s Churches.” It’s fine little piece, notable as much for where it was published as what it is saying, most of which will be familiar to readers of this site: “Too many churches perpetuate the impression […]
Another Week Ends: Jewish Anxiety, Christian Juvenilia, Male Demise, Cheap Law, Underachievement and Imperfection, Bearded Brooklyn, Ram and Beach Boys
1. “Do The Jews Own Anxiety?” asked Daniel Smith in The NY Times last week, and his answer may surprise you. A member of the tribe himself, Smith traces the public (gentile) perception of Jewish neurosis, as well as how its poster-boys (Woody Allen, Philip Roth’s Alexander Portnoy, etc) have almost gleefully perpetuated the stereotype, […]
The Death and Resurrection of Paul McCartney (in the 90s)
All this talk of the Lennon/McCartney partnership has me listening to solo McCartney again. You know, to stack it up against Lennon’s stuff… And I’m curiously drawn to Paul’s late 80s/early 90s period, when he was sporting that awful mullet and the very un-rocknroll tshirt-and-vest look. After the massively underrated McCartney II, and apart from […]
Lennon/McCartney: Creativity, Competition and Collaboration
Successful collaborations are so rare that exploring their mechanics is always worthwhile. The dazzling 3-part series Two of Us by Joshua Wolf Shenk over at Slate does so brilliantly, dissecting the Lennon/McCartney songwriting partnership and touching on a number of our favorite themes: the fruit of giving up control, the inherently selfless spirit of creativity […]
Worshiping at the Altar of the Beatles (and Their Monaural Magic)
Two lists to celebrate the release of the long-awaited Fab Four reissues. First and most relevantly, five quasi-Gospel moments in the Beatles-related videography. Counting down: 5. The first modern worship song? Or simply the strangest number one single of all-time? 4. “I’m A Loser” performed in France in 1965. “I’m not what I appear to […]
