John Winston Lennon: 1940–1980
Remembering a voice that was silenced.
Join Us at HE2006 and Save
I just bought my airline tix to HE2006, so I know I'm going to be there. I hope you will, too—because it;ll be a lot more fun if somebody else is there, too.
Jon Carroll: Still a Giant Among Writers
Today's Jon Carroll column doesn't exactly answer yesterday's link to Clay Risen's critique of Claire Hoffman's Joe Francis story (man, is this blog getting self-referential or what), but it does neatly expose Risen's glaring flaw: Journalism isn't just one thing.
Jonathan Ames Defends The Dain Curse
Part of NPR's You Must Read This series, which mostly seems like a better idea than it is. Anyway, this one intrigued me because The Dain Curse always struck me as nigh unto incoherent—perhaps it's time for a reconsideration.
Joni's Back Pages
The story behind Hejira—on its 30th anniversary.
Joyce Hatto
More on Hattogate. A lot more.
Jukin'
Junior (John L. Doughty, Jr.) is a Mississippi Delta cultural anthropologist who documents juke joint culture. That means he gets to hang out in jukes and talk to people (and photograph it all). What a great job.
Jumping the Shark
On the eve of the release of The Simpsons movie, Ian Jones explains when and why the TV show began to suck (he says it was in season 9, 1997). Will the movie reflect the glory of the first eight seasons or will it disappoint? The trailers have not embiggened my enthusiasm.
Just Because It'll Drive JA Gaga!
I'm linking to Senor Coconuts' wacky cover of "Smoke on the Water." Money quote: "The Rolling Stones playing yust outside," Cha cha cha!
Just Imagine Stan Lee Writing The Watchmen
Sweet sassy molassy! What if Stan Lee had written The Watchmen instead of Alan Moore? It would have been sassier! Slangy-er! And America might well be experiencing an exclamation point shortage!