Listen to the Lion

Mad Mahmoud

Read about Ahmedinejad at Columbia.

Follow the music

A column on MTV, Bob Lefsetz and the search for good music like King Wilkie.

Fred Thompson announces

Fred seems too good to be true in several ways, but I think he can definitely win the GOP nomination. That's as long as his health stays good and there are no skeletons.

More in my Examiner column here.

For what it's worth, a sweep through some gambling sites shows the odds against FT winning the presidency are about 4-1, with Hillary and Rudy at 2-1 and Obama at 3 or 3.5 to 1.

"It Makes No Difference" by The Band

This one's been on my mind lately:

It makes no difference where I turn
I can't get over you and the flame still burns
It makes no difference, night or day
The shadow never seems to fade away

And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

Now there's no love
As true as the love
That dies untold

But the clouds never hung so low before

It makes no difference how far I go
Like a scar the hurt will always show
It makes no difference who I meet
They're just a face in the crowd
On a dead-end street
And the sun don't shine anymore
And the rains fall down on my door

It's nice just to be nominated

I got quite a surprise a couple of weeks ago when a friend and fellow music writer e-mailed me to say I had been chosen as one of three nominees for the International Bluegrass Music Association's Print Media Person of the Year.

Go here and scroll almost all they way down for proof.

For a writer to get any feedback at all, let alone something to this degree, is pretty rare and eminently satisfactory.

One of the publications mentioned with my nomination is the Lonesome Road Review, a music review blog I started not long ago.

It's still got a long way to go before it's where I want it, but take a look anyway. Feedback and offers to help (especially on the design and site maintenance side) are welcome here.

And while we're celebrating, check out King Wilkie with a track from their great new album Low Country Suite.

Sex, lies and hypocrisy

Larry Craig has problems, but there are more important issues (Examiner column here). And frankly, I'm more disturbed by the fact that he thinks it's appropriate for a grown man to sing in a barbershop quartet.