LATEST ADDITIONS

Bagheera prefers lurking in the shadows, but every once in a while, she imitates a puddle of black on a light background.

"A linkworthy piece of musical-cultural criticism," writes John Marks. I agree. Now if John Derbyshire had merely said <I>Saturday Night Fever</I> was the greatest movie ever, I'd have agreed to disagree. His passionate and specific arguments, however, have convinced me to see it again with an open mind.

Joshua Ferris ponders the absence of work in literature. We spend most of our lives doing it, but it's MIA on the pages&mdash;unless you're a soldier, whaler, or private eye.

I really like this animated short. I don't know who produced it, but he or she tells a nice story in just over two minutes.

In an article titled, "This Boot Was Made for Jazzin'," found in our April 2007 issue, Thomas Conrad tells us that today's most important European jazz musicians are coming from Italy. It was in that article that I was introduced to the young wonders, saxophonist Francesco Cafiso (18), and pianists, Giovanni Guidi (22) and Alessandro Lanzoni (15). These young men live within a musical landscape nurtured by guys like Gianni Basso (75) and Renato Sellani (81), who, according to Conrad, are "sounding better than ever." I'm not quite sure why, but it thrills me to know that such language, art, and life are being shared between people separated by so many years. Perhaps I see it as some evidence that time is only time. And what does that mean to me? Again, I don't know.

Joshua Kosman suggests the NYP give up its search for a music director and run the Philharmonic on the "wiki model."

Turns out that it's because it's too noisy during the daytime for mating calls to be heard. Modern life has us all staying up later. Except for those of a certain <A HREF="http://www.history-magazine.com/dinner2.html">class</A&gt;, of course.